bananenrepublik - 31.5.2005 - 15.10.2005

Church Tax and Non-Religious Spouses

The churches in the dioceses of Hildesheim, Osnabrück and Münster are changing the calculation of church tax - and specifically, in marriages where one of the partners is not in the church, the joint income will now be used to calculate the church tax of the other partner. Robber baron thinking, which hopefully moves as many people as possible to turn their backs on this absurd association ...

Especially in view of such rather arbitrary changes, I see the state's collection of church tax even more critically. Because the state is making itself here the accomplice of the arbitrariness of the churches over their members.

what the media is committed to

When it comes to securing advertising partners, even public broadcasters are diligent and quick:

The NDR had initiated legal steps against the order on the same day and immediately achieved a temporary suspension of enforcement. Thus, the NDR was able to continue showing the Microsoft logo in its broadcasts on election night. This is now possible again for the time being after the temporary suspension has been lifted.

Oh yes, how wonderful, the NDR really put in a lot of effort so that it can continue to slap the Microsoft logo on inappropriate broadcasts - such as election coverage. Because that's important, you have to fight for that, that must be preserved. Product placement? Oh come on, it's all just talk. Probably politics is already sponsored by Microsoft and our federal chancellor will then wear a Microsoft logo on her coat.

A model for the complete failures too ...

... in Berlin, I mean: as easy as Berlusconi changing the electoral law - because maybe then it will actually be enough for the CDU to have its own majority, without hiding behind factional squabbles and other hypocrisies. Oh well, Adenauer's heirs have mainly inherited his stupidity and corruption, with election successes it's rather bleak. It's enough to just lie to yourself about the world with your pathetic 29 percent.

Seehofer strengthens the position of the SPD ...

... say Merkel and other CDU bigwigs. Why are they then making Stoiber the Minister of Economic Affairs? Or is that now a different title for the court jester? They can, in my opinion, gladly dispose of the threatened horror cabinet to Madame Tissot right away.

License to Print Money

E.ON and RWE want to increase electricity prices - with flimsy justifications and, given the record profits of these companies, extremely absurd. But privatization and free-market economy are so great, everything becomes cheaper for the consumer - it's just strange that we don't notice it ...

But this will surely be dismissed again by great statisticians as mere perceived inflation.

embarrassing mirror

It's really ridiculous how Der Spiegel can't hide its political tendencies time and again. Especially ridiculous because Der Spiegel was once considered a magazine with leftist tendencies. That's what quality journalism is like - completely unbiased, well-researched - and shamelessly brazen.

Microsoft's Covert Advertising on NDR

About the covert advertising (well, you can't really talk about sneaking anymore) for Microsoft in election coverage, there has already been written about. But it's quite shocking is the NDR's justification for why Microsoft had to be mentioned:

According to a statement by the Linux Association, the NDR argued in court that Infratest Dimap uses copyrighted databases and graphics from Microsoft for the projections.

Well, then they should just switch to free software, because I really can't imagine what copyrighted databases or graphics should be involved in election coverage - after all, only banal pie charts and bar charts are shown. And I certainly hope that the election itself is not sponsored by Microsoft - and that they therefore have some naming rights there. The whole thing is once again absolutely bananas, what the public broadcaster allows itself.

They're doing the same shit as in the USA

Here the state also provides backing to a voting machine manufacturer and keeps the inspection reports under lock and key due to alleged protection of know-how:

That the BMI keeps the inspection reports under lock and key weighs heavily, especially in light of a waiver of an additional vote recording independent of the electronics, criticizes Wiesner: "Neither the voter nor the election committee in the polling station can determine which software is actually used in the polling station and how secure the devices used are against manipulation." Consequently, the form for the election record does not even provide for the alleged program version to be recorded.

For me, this is just as dubious as the same nonsense in the USA. Voting computers must - if they are to be trustworthy - withstand public discussion. The alleged know-how protection of the manufacturer must not be valued higher than the citizen's right to information on how the vote counting is conducted. It is simply absurd what the BMI is doing here - but what else can one expect from the authority of Otto Orwell?

Brain Fart

Bayern's Brainfart Producer No. 1 (yes, he even beats Scatman Eddy) demands internet filters for bomb-making instructions:

Bayern's Interior Minister Günther Beckstein (CSU) has urged the business community to find solutions for what he considers a very serious security problem: bomb-making instructions on the internet.

The much bigger security problem: crazy and incompetent interior ministers. Unfortunately, you can't just filter them out of existence. Ok, you can't do that with bomb-making instructions either - they're in books after all, which you'd then have to burn as well. A solution that might also be suitable for politician ejection ...

Maneuvering in Court

Just to summarize Pfahl's story once more. This was the accusation:

The former CSU politician and state secretary in the Kohl government is said to have received 3.8 million marks, or approximately two million euros in bribes from Schreiber for a tank deal with Saudi Arabia in 1991 and not declared it for tax purposes.

And this is the deal:

Pfahls and his defense reached an agreement with the court: For an admission of guilt at the beginning of the trial, in which the 62-year-old Pfahls admitted the payments from the arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, the defendant was promised a maximum sentence of two years and three months and the possibility of early release after serving half of the sentence.

Who else besides me has the impression that the higher the amounts involved, the more trivial the punishment? All are equal before the law? Forget it.

Although I seriously wonder why I expected anything different after Kohl got away with breaking his oath of office without major problems - and people accuse me of being a cynic - reality regularly surpasses me by far ...

Public Sector Non-Performance

Imagine an agency of the state government tasked with surveying the entire country. A sensible idea, after all, one must know where there is space and where there isn't, where rivers, houses, roads, railways, and plots of land are, and all the other things that are around.

Imagine further that this agency is naturally funded by tax money - sensible, since it is a service to society. The survey technicians working there are paid from the public purse and do what they do best - survey the area.

Imagine further that these data are also used for maps for private individuals. Commendable - even if the maps are significantly more expensive at almost 8 euros than other maps, they are based on much more precise data and are beautifully detailed at 1:25,000 - ideal as hiking maps.

Imagine further that this agency also operates an online service where you can zoom in on all maps - down to the scale of 1:1,000. Very nice, to take a closer look at the area in detail. Unfortunately, the window is very small and thus the overview is not really very good. In return, you can mix in aerial images.

Imagine further that this agency also provides the map data in digital form - with software only for Windows. That's bad. That's rarely stupid - Java has been around for 15 years, should also be known in such offices and agencies. Moreover, the DVD with its almost 50 euros is not exactly cheap (or rather, the 1:50,000 is not - the 1:25,000 are two DVDs, no idea about the price - probably double). And did I mention that they were so stupid to make it only for Windows?

Now imagine that the data on the Windows DVD are indeed based on a standard format (GeoTIFF - basically map material as TIFF with additional geo-data for the precise determination of the position of the graphic tiles). But on the Windows DVD, these data are encrypted - to prevent any user of a non-publicly-officially-approved operating system from accessing them. That's shit.

Now imagine that upon inquiry, this office informs you that of course you can also get the data in the standard format - for a measly 3 euros per square kilometer of map coverage. That is an audacity. If you imagine all that together, then you have the Landesvermessungsamt Nordrhein-Westfalen.

What do I pay my taxes for again? So that I can be screwed twice?

Karlsruhe clears the way for new elections

Am I the only one, or does anyone else feel like Karlsruhe wanted to avoid the discussion about the legitimacy of the new elections? The justifications read as if a blank check has now been issued for the Chancellor and the President - if the two agree, the Bundestag is gone in a flash. An allegedly bad prognosis and the consent to it are enough ...

Why do we even have rules for the dissolution of the Bundestag in the Basic Law if the Constitutional Court apparently doesn't care much anymore?

on the way to media monoculture

Springer is taking over ProSiebenSat.1 - and will likely soon launch their neoliberal opinion campaign multimedially and then send their trash on all channels. A democracy needs an independent, strong press - but one that does not pursue its own political agenda. Therefore, we can probably say goodnight to another piece of democracy when a corporation like Springer will soon bridge the media gap.

Where Cease and Desist Notices and Anticipatory Obedience Can Lead

Just what the FFII noticed: Nutzwerk shut down FFII.org (a bit more info as usual at Heise).

Although the corresponding IP address was consistently reachable, the DNS provider registered as the technical contact for the domain FFII.org complied with Nutzwerk's request and shut down the domain FFII.org on the previous Friday afternoon. The name resolution of FFII.org and corresponding subdomains did not work temporarily. After an intervention by the FFII, the DNS provider reactivated the domain that same evening and wants to ask Nutzwerk for a clarification of the demand, according to FFII board member Hartmut Pilch to Golem.de.

A real dilemma: service providers want to protect themselves and unfortunately the Telemedia Act makes life difficult for these service providers: if they are notified of content that constitutes a legal violation, they must remove this content immediately. But how can one assess whether content constitutes a legal violation? Especially when it comes to things like at Nutzwerk - where critical reporting by the company is defined as a legal violation?

In the end, this gives companies a means of censorship without giving service providers (and of course the website operators themselves!) reasonable means of defense. How, for example, is a smaller provider supposed to protect itself from cease-and-desist letters with absurd claim amounts - as the music industry particularly likes to use? Legal protection insurance doesn't help here.

No wonder that some providers see preemptive obedience as the right strategy in such cases - they lose at most the customer they shut down, perhaps a bit of negative press, but taking on a fight against a company with exaggerated ideas, they can't win much.

If you then sit on the board of a privately operated provider like me, you start to wonder what the actual goal of these legislative changes in the context of the Telemedia Act really was ...

Merkelnix is also cramping

Just so no one thinks only the SPD has brainless slogans to shout into the world: "Make work possible in Germany again" is the reason why they want to increase the value-added tax:

Union Chancellor candidate Angela Merkel defended the planned increase in value-added tax by the CDU and CSU. The Union wants to achieve the goal of reducing labor costs with this, she said in an interview with "Bericht aus Berlin". It is about "making work possible in Germany again and thus enabling social security," the CDU chairwoman continued.

Sorry, but how incredibly stupid is that? Social security through an increase in value-added tax, which hits the hardest those who cannot further reduce their consumption because it already only consists of staple foods and other expenses necessary for survival?

Election Campaign, Election Agony ...

Münte on the Roll: Linkspartei "politically and legally absurd". I have the impression, however, that he would help the SPD more by giving them a program that appeals to ordinary citizens again, instead of simply stirring up fear of the left and spreading defamation (sorry, but the combination of PDS and WASG in the open list may be strange, but legally flawless - claiming otherwise is simply defamation).

If the SPD cannot achieve more in the election campaign than just to blow the horn of the Union parties against the alleged danger from the left, the SPD will simply put itself out of the political game - with such nonsense, you don't win an election. If the SPD is nothing more than a union with a red tie, it can stay away from me ...

Training as a low-wage sector

What lies behind the DIHK's demand for halving the basic apprentice salary and flexibilizing working hours becomes clear when you look at quotes from the DIHK chairman:

"My proposal is to introduce a nationwide basic remuneration of 270 euros," he told the newspaper "Die Welt". He justified his initiative by saying that this would allow more apprenticeships to be financed. "An apprenticeship remuneration of up to 800 euros is simply too high for many businesses."

"Working hours must be better adapted to the needs of the industries." It makes no sense that a 17-year-old restaurant specialist has to leave at 10 p.m. "if all the tables are still occupied."

This is simply about having cheap labor, but not about ensuring proper training. But these demands are not new.

And what the German economy thinks of training can be seen in the fact that the number of training positions has again decreased by 10% compared to the previous year - and thus young people have again been left without training positions, despite all the promises of the economy. Without a non-training fee for larger companies, this will not change either. But complaining that there are no trained skilled workers, the economy can do quite famously ...

Beckstein on the Roll

No idea what the herb is called that he takes, but it leaves severe brain damage: Beckstein wants German Guantanamo. Apart from the fact that he also wants to shoot suspects in the head and pack foreigners into camps because potential terrorists must not be allowed to run around freely (politicians like him, who are completely crazy, are not only allowed to run around freely but also to express their opinions freely), he is also constitutionally hostile:

Beckstein also criticized the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, which in a ruling on Lower Saxony legislation had demanded clear limitations on preventive telephone surveillance. The balance between security and freedom of interests must be re-evaluated, said Beckstein: "That the intimate sphere of terrorists should be protected is for me hardly bearable."

I'm sorry, Mr. Beckstein, but you have failed the test. Because the Constitutional Court does not explicitly protect the intimate sphere of terrorists - but the intimate sphere of citizens. And this is listed in the Basic Law as a protected asset.

Why is someone like this not observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution? His hostility to the constitution is really documented multiple times ...

Liability for Links after the Heise Judgment

After this interview with WDR, the following applies: "Anyone who sets such a link is in trouble":

You really have to be very careful. Due to these new rulings, you have to think: Who am I linking to? In the past, as a private individual, you would say: 'Come on, I'll put a hundred links one after the other' and be quite proud. Today, you really have to consider whether the person you are linking to is really trustworthy. You also have to check these links at regular intervals and see what is happening on the linked page.

Which - if it were actually the case - would factually mean the end of privately operated information offerings in the short or long term, as no one can check all their links. I have almost 5000 articles in my blog, which I certainly won't be able to check to see if there is something somewhere that offends someone.

And thus, this ruling has driven another nail into the coffin of the Internet, simply because judges repeatedly rate the alleged rights of rights extortionists higher than free speech and free reporting.

Mandatory insurance sponsorship by the state?

Foreign Minister Fischer advocates for a mandatory Riester pension - naturally, the reader wonders what the Foreign Minister has to do with it, but never mind:

Federal Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has spoken out in favor of introducing a mandatory private pension insurance. "The pension system must be affordable. I wish that the Riester pension would finally be introduced in a binding manner and that we encourage people to private provision."

Well, well. Encouraging private provision. To this end, a mandatory participation in the biggest insurance scam of all time - the Riester pension, whose returns are modest and whose payment guarantees are more than questionable.

One could, of course, simply choose a model of a citizen's insurance, in which everyone pays into the state social insurance schemes, without leaving a loophole for higher earners to escape - especially within the framework of great ideas such as the Ich-AG and increased self-employment, the social insurance system is further hollowed out. But that would be an intelligent solution. The state social insurances have the advantage that they are subject to certain rules by the constitution - and the state must ensure that the corresponding services are provided.

Instead, the private insurance industry is further sponsored and, according to Fischer's ideas, even with a mandatory requirement for citizens. Yes, that brings growth, that makes sense. That citizens are simply being taken advantage of and many models are pure extortion, and no payout security is given in any way, we simply ignore for now.

One thing is certain: with the idiocy of our politicians, there will soon be a lot to earn in the insurance industry. Which will presumably have nothing better to do than to gamble our then private forced pensions on the stock market and sell them to hedge funds.

How Bertelsmann's business administrators are entering education policy

Found on Telepolis: TP: Enforcement of Controlling and Ranking at All Levels:

If a critical economist had been invited to the congress, he would have probably formulated the Bertelsmann strategy as follows: Democratic decision-making and open discussion are replaced by control procedures from modern business administration. Everything is sweetened with dynamic Anglicisms from marketing babble, but often ideas from the business administration specialty of controlling are hidden behind them. Earlier, one spoke more prosaically of accounting/internal auditing, but meant the same thing: the internal control and monitoring of production processes. This is done by means of cost-benefit analysis, profit and loss accounting, budgeting, profit centers, key figures for everything and anything, etc.

My personal aversion to business administration as, in my opinion, a far too short-sighted vision of the market should be known by now. However, the connection with a rather sanctimonious acting major publishing house makes the whole thing really explosive - because such corporations primarily have their own economic interests and should therefore be kept out of educational policy discussions, especially they are definitely the wrong ones to be involved as advisors in educational policy decision-making. But in the course of the politicians' privatization frenzy, such blunders are repeatedly made - combined with the marketing lies that automatically arise from such companies to consolidate their own route (such as the survey on tuition fees cited in the text, in which the path of free study was simply excluded - and then it was claimed that students were predominantly in favor of tuition fees).

The biggest problem with this close connection to the economy - whether it's Bertelsmann in educational policy or other companies in other areas - is the lack of democratic control. Politicians are still controlled in a rudimentary way, public institutions are forced by the new information law to disclose many areas, but decision-making in private sector institutions is not subject to these controls. If politicians, for example, refer to studies from the economy, one may get to the point - that the decision is based on a study by Institute So-and-So - but one may find out nothing about the structure and actual content of the study. And thus, control by the population is bluntly circumvented.

In my opinion, given the importance of educational policy, every influence of the economy and industry must be excluded. Completely irrelevant what they demand - they have nothing to do with the political design of educational policy. But unfortunately, our politicians repeatedly sell political control to private sector institutes instead of doing the work themselves. And they are selling our future and our sovereignty as a society to the economy.

EU Arrest Warrant Unconstitutional

The Federal Constitutional Court makes a decision on the European Arrest Warrant - and it turns out negatively. The European Arrest Warrant violates the Basic Law. And our government? It calls this a blow to the fight against terrorism and mocks the bureaucratization. Please what? Adhering to the Basic Law is not principle riding and bureaucratization, but a necessity. But this interests Mrs. Zypries just as little as the decision of the Bundestag against the software patent directive - and she immediately announces a legislative initiative that would make the European Arrest Warrant possible again.

I find it disgusting. Incidentally, the suspect has not been convicted in Germany - the deportation/extraction is based solely on a European Arrest Warrant from Spain. And it is not as if it had not been tried to convict him here - it just was not enough what was presented.

So the presumption of innocence is simply circumvented and the Basic Law is dismissed as silly bureaucracy - all in the name of the fight against terrorism.

Who actually protects us from the lunatics in Berlin?

Social welfare fraud intensified

To make it clear what it would mean if Black/Yellow instead of Red/Green ruled: CDU Minister wants relatives to pay for ALG II:

The Hessian Minister of Social Affairs spoke out in favor of reintroducing the so-called maintenance recourse for unemployment benefit II (ALG II) according to the "Berliner Zeitung" on Wednesday. As already with the social benefit, non-cohabiting parents or adult children would then also be held liable for the maintenance of an unemployed person before he receives state support.

This would then not only destroy the life of the unemployed person through unemployment, but also introduce collective punishment. Where all this is heading is also clear. And the minister does not hide this:

The election program of the Union will make it clear, "that we want to revive the low-wage sector," Lautenschläger continued.

The Union presumably envisions something like India in Germany. Are there real prospects for the citizens of the Federal Republic ...

Further Dismantling of the Right to Education

The time about the withdrawal of the federal states from free teaching materials - because the tuition fees are not sufficient to protect the citizens' sons and daughters from the dirty worker children. It could be that one of them is so good that they receive one of the few scholarships - so we make sure in advance that they don't even get the chance to come that far.

Education is our highest good - and it is increasingly restricted. The prices for specialist literature have risen sharply and will be problematic for many parents. I know from my own family environment (and also from my own experience of my school days) how restricted pupils become when their parents cannot always bring in the money as the school expects - this is further exacerbated by the purchase of school books. Some parents will certainly consider whether to send their children to grammar school or rather let them skip the three additional years of schooling - with an even greater workload of necessary textbooks than in the previous stages.

The direction taken here is fundamentally wrong. This cannot simply be explained by a false understanding of savings; in some cases, intent must be assumed, as the parts that were once introduced to ensure equal opportunities for workers and their families are now being dismantled so massively.

Another Piece from the Madhouse

The Lufthansa profits from the deportation of foreigners (since the state pays full fees for an airport slot), but may not be subject to protest as part of an online action. Because that is reprehensible, even if it only concerned the transmission of the annual general meeting and not the actual booking business. Despite registration of the action and prior legal advice, the activist is now convicted. And what is the great damage involved? 43,000 euros for Lufthansa for alleged countermeasures ...

Sorry, but somewhere I have a problem with that. Of course, denial-of-service attacks are a problem and are a pretty massive demonstration - on the other hand, highway blockades, rail blockades or large protest marches on main roads are nothing else. That is, after all, an essential part of a demonstration that a form is chosen that is noticed due to the side effects. Standing somewhere with a candle in your hand, smiling politely, is not a demonstration, but a church convention.

The action against Lufthansa, however, had been prepared and carried out exactly like a demo - but the court ignores the right to demonstrate. It's the internet, who cares. Funny, just a few days ago, interior ministers still wanted to prevent the internet from becoming a lawless space. But they probably meant something else by that ...

For today's charades game

Rabenhorst doesn't like the confidence vote fake either. And he links to Werner Schulz's speech as a Word file. I was so bold and made a PDF file out of it.

It's really a tragedy what's going on there and how these Prolethikers are patting themselves on the back as if they've achieved something. The cowards have been given a four-year mandate to overthrow the government - and the only thing they're throwing are the pieces - and that's it.

Sorry, but that was really no masterpiece. One would almost wish that Köhler showed backbone and common sense just once and threw the whole nonsense in the trash. Or that the complaints against the mummers before the Constitutional Court are successful.

Especially absurd is the alleged reason: they want to let the voters decide and expect chances in new elections - sorry, what? What kind of reality loss is that? The state parliaments are not composed differently just because the SPD shirks its responsibility. If the SPD were re-elected, it would have the same state parliaments and thus the same Federal Council in front of it as now.

The Special Democrats can blabber around as they want, what they are doing here is nothing more than shirking their responsibility. They don't want to be re-elected. And the mandate given to them by the voters in the last federal election doesn't interest them either.

Locusts at the Tap

Already a bit older, but an interesting report on the dismantling of a thriving company through turbo-capitalism and greed for money.

Interesting about this is not only how the company itself was massively damaged through pure financial exploitation, so that in the end there is actually no good situation left - the effects on the environment, such as the lower business tax revenues of the city, are also interesting. A movement that we can observe in many places at the moment - companies are sold for short-term profit and then go down the drain because the new owners have no interest in the company or the employees, but only in the return on their investment. At the same time, the respective region goes down the drain as well - because the investors also have no interest in the established structures. Locusts simply have no real home.

At the same time, a good example of the fact that this stupid talk about promoting investment in the economy is exactly that - stupid talk. Our problems will not become smaller because of this, the social system will not be saved. The opposite will be the case - because the investors who are getting involved are increasingly hedge funds or private equity funds or other financial investors who just want to make a quick euro - and they are rubbing their hands at the plans of the government and the opposition (if they are to form the next government).

Locusts simply have no interest in vocational training, employee training, minimum wages and domestic production. They also have no interest in our society or our social system.

Schily considers data protection to be scaremongering

Privacy advocates' concerns are fear-mongering - at least according to Otto Orwell:

Concerns about biometric passports, RFID technology, and tele-surveillance, expressed for example by privacy advocates, are fear-mongering that one should not fall for, said Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily at the symposium "Computers in everyday life - opportunities for Germany" in Berlin. The mentioned technologies are not used to monitor or suppress citizens, but to increase their security.

Funny. I rather believe that Otto Orwell's talk is simply fear-mongering - what security is increased by massive and widespread spying on citizens? Certainly not the citizens' security - but they are being fed pseudo-risks and alleged solutions for them, just like the Bush administration, to reduce their civil rights in Germany. Without regard for facts, without regard for proportionality.

The ignorance he attributes to the critics is probably on his side. Because he may still be considered competent as a lawyer (I can't judge his competence there), he has no clue about cryptography and its risks - as they come into play, for example, in the context of passports valid for 10 years.

Who wants to make statements about the security of cryptographic methods today if they have to make this statement for a point in time 10 years from now? Yes, I know, Otto Orwell does - as I said, he simply has no idea what he is talking about. SHA1 was once described as a secure alternative to MD5 signatures - and has essentially failed. MD5 signatures are now completely unusable - as scientists have proven when they produced two real texts with meaningful content and identical MD5 signatures. I've had enough of pathetic politicians with brains too small, who want to impose their alleged doctrines on citizens with absurd claims. And I've long had enough of their idiotic argumentation loops with which they want to sell total surveillance as a security feature to citizens.

Pfahl confesses

Pfahls-Prozess: The "Phantom" in Court - and indeed as the tenor. And a weak glimmer of hope on the horizon shows - that perhaps one of the most vile political smear stories will be unraveled.

Strucki apparently has damage from the stroke after all

After all, this would explain his latest idea - which I found on the Schockwellenreiter - to want to use unemployed people as training material for the Bundeswehr.

On the other hand: with this, he could then practice armed house combat and storming of civilian fortifications again. Really nicely with hand flamethrower cartridges, battering rams, fragmentation grenades ...

Hey, according to the argumentation of various politicians (if I hear this dehumanizing "fördern und fordern" already), the unemployed are anyway the last dirt, so it doesn't matter if the Bundeswehr freaks - whose gentle manners are proverbial - then nicely heat up the opponent.

Well, it is probably true: you can't be stupid enough to become a federal minister.

Entrepreneurs against software patents

Software patents: Entrepreneurs accuse Union of "electoral fraud":

Entrepreneurial initiatives from several federal states warn in an open letter (PDF) the CDU and CSU members of the European Parliament against "committing systematic electoral fraud" and "causing entrepreneurial misjudgments (...)." The Union should finally admit that it is closer to Microsoft than to the German middle class.

One trigger was SAP:

The Walldorf-based SAP AG recently placed full-page ads in EU magazines urging the proposed directive. SAP demands "patent protection (...) for innovations in IT, as created by SAP (...)." However, these innovations lie exclusively in the software sector. SAP software is used for accounting, order processing, and financial reporting. The SAP ad mentions the term "business processes" (between companies and within) three times.

Of course, the Justice Ministry sees this massive incompetence quite differently and still claims that pure software patents are not possible - even though reality has long since said otherwise. And so we (open-source programmers as well as medium-sized software companies) are being sacrificed on the altar of the software industry - which then politely thanks with greater job cuts and relocation of software production to countries outside the EU.

What a mess

Off he goes, data protection

Because the interior ministers want to store connection data for one year. And the demands are very far-reaching:

The interior ministers' conference, meeting under the motto "Mit Sicherheit was los" (With certainty something is going on), expressed its support at its meeting on Friday in Stuttgart for a minimum twelve-month retention of telephone and internet data by telecommunications providers. The security experts, who consider this measure, which deeply encroaches on fundamental rights, particularly necessary in cyberspace.

The fact that this data desert violates data protection regulations and has so far always been rejected by the Bundestag is completely irrelevant to the interior ministers. And Schily already has concrete plans on how to circumvent this hurdle:

The SPD politician referred in Stuttgart to the plans for the blanket surveillance of users, which the national government representatives in Brussels are currently pushing forward via the EU Council, disregarding the EU Parliament. This involves obliging providers to retain all connection and location data for months and years, which arise during the provision of services such as telephoning, emailing, SMS sending, surfing, chatting or file sharing.

A very simple solution - let's use the undemocratic EU decisions, where a government can decide without the Bundestag. The federal government has already set an example with software patents. And then one can subsequently refer to the fact that one is merely implementing EU law. It may have nothing to do with democracy, but who cares. Democracy doesn't interest Otto Orwell and his colleagues anymore anyway.

Also nice to see how the interior ministers deal with the - justified - criticism:

Concerns from civil rights activists that the retention of data would mean that all electronic communication of people is monitored and that users are placed under a disproportionate general suspicion were dismissed by Rech. In his opinion, the term "glass citizen" is "overused".

If necessary, the data protection officers will simply be gagged, as Otto Orwell has already tried to do. The fact that the economy is massively against it because it will cause disproportionately high costs is also irrelevant to them. Absurd decisions in the name of alleged security and alleged malice of the internet have even stood up in court - as can be seen from the absurd blocking orders of the Düsseldorf government presidency. Fortunately, one is still allowed to report on it, as a court has recently ruled. For now. Otto will surely come up with something ...

The network must "not degenerate into a lawless space," explained Rech, referring to the often expressed fear of security politicians about allegedly unregulated online areas.

Sorry, but if the interior ministers' efforts succeed, the internet is a lawless space. Free from the right to informational self-determination. Free from data protection. Free from proportionality of means.

For me, one thing follows quite clearly: the focus on the user-friendliness of projects like gnupg, tor and mixmaster must be significantly increased on the client side, so that we have a chance at all to protect ourselves from this data collection mania of the interior ministers. Unless one wants to find one's own movement profile on the internet publicly available for download at some point or explain to the nice gentleman from the domestic intelligence service why one was on the left-wing radical website ...

The State Sees Everything

A note on the culture blog about a FAZ article on the tax identification number and the central register of the entire federal population based on it. Yes, everyone gets the tax identification number - even newborns. Comment from the culture blog:

The Federal Republic of Germany as a state is well on its way to generally suspecting and criminalizing every citizen, and those who carry out these measures are making themselves complicit in this development. 1984, Brave New World, and Globalia are calling.

Found via Zenzizenzizenzic

The Basic Rights Report 2005

shows how we are maneuvered around the Basic Law via back channels to gradually undermine our fundamental rights. Technical feasibility and data greed lead to an ever-increasing undermining of the framework set by the Basic Law. The Federal Constitutional Court thereby becomes a purely theoretical finger-pointer - because as we now know, even a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court is not reason enough for the state apparatus to curb its desires.

Staats-GmbH for tax software is dissolved - just plain embarrassing the whole thing. And the money that was burned there ...

Crafts want to offset sick days with vacation

According to at least association president Otto Kentzler. And the shocking part: apparently, something this idiotic already exists:

According to the report, such a regulation already exists: in the Bavarian collective wage agreement for confectioners, it is already stipulated that for every five sick days, one vacation day will be deducted. However, the maximum "vacation loss" is limited to three days per year.

But what the illness (for which one is declared unfit for work by the doctor) has to do with recovery time (as vacation is defined) and how such a thing can go together is of course not explained.

Oh, and the fact that the rate of sickness is already at a record low does not interest this puppet from the trade association at all - why let oneself be impressed by facts and reality when one can instead unload one's populist nonsense ...

Cash Registers: Dispute Over the Use of the Special Contribution

During the health care reform, the employee is being robbed again:

The revenues from the additional contribution rate flow to the health insurance funds. There is no link to individual services.

This is an absolute audacity. First, they lie that the contribution rates are being lowered through the health care reform. Then, employees are asked to pay separately to secure benefits that are no longer secured. And the Minister of Health still claims that her idiotic reform is the best thing since sliced bread.

Above all, the reason why the link to the benefits for the special payments was removed from the law text in the first place is an audacity:

In the law text from autumn 2004, the two benefits were not mentioned for constitutional reasons. Background: Retirees, for example, could have sued for a special contribution for sick pay before the Constitutional Court because they cannot receive sick pay at all.

Ultimately, this turns a rather dubious maneuver to avoid lawsuits into a direct reach into the pockets of employees - because the benefits will probably be cut in the long run anyway, or they will reach in again. Of course, the whole thing could have been implemented in a legally compliant and correct manner. Or one could have come up with the idea that the equal burden on employees and employers makes sense. But the competence in the Ministry of Health probably does not suffice for that ...

In this way, employees whose salaries are high enough are literally driven out of the statutory health insurance - because nobody likes to be taken for a ride like that. And if all the high earners opt out, the health system will be even more strained and there will be even less money available.

The proletarians in Berlin couldn't care less. They are all privately insured ...

Schily is still struggling with democracy

Schily accuses data protection officer of abuse of office - sure, we've already had that, nothing new. But somehow it becomes even creepier through constant repetition. I mean, from any halfway intelligent person I would expect to learn from stupid mistakes and think next time before leaning out of the window. But Otto Orwell is pain- and oblivious ...

So-called experts ...

... then bring such absurd suggestions in the value-added tax discussion:

Such a step was recommended by the head of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI), Thomas Straubhaar. According to his ideas, the value-added tax should be raised to 20 percent. The reduced tax rate of seven percent - which currently applies to food, among other things - should be completely abolished.

Clear, super idea. 20% value-added tax and abolishing the reduced rates (which would immediately be an increase in the value-added tax on staple foods and books by 13 points!) - these are the ideal suggestions to stimulate the ailing domestic consumption.

It is completely absurd - everyone seems to only have the goal of taking even more from those who have little. Or has anyone ever heard in the context of such proposals that in the course of a value-added tax increase - especially one as drastic as 13 points - unemployment benefits, minimum wages (where they exist in some industries), the amount of salaries still tax-free for employees, social assistance rates, and pensions must be increased by at least the same rate so that they can still afford a normal life?

Reducing payroll taxes is nice - but this only affects companies and employees (only if the payroll taxes for employers are not to be reduced again). Those who do not have payroll taxes (because they are not employees, or fall below the minimum rate) do not benefit from the reduction in payroll taxes. Quite apart from the fact that even with small salaries, the total payroll taxes are lower than an increase in the value-added tax on food by 13 points.

According to the opinion of such great economic experts, pensioners, the unemployed, social assistance recipients, and low-wage earners are probably just supposed to die socially acceptable ...

Your inhuman attitude disgusts me, you pseudo-experts.

Expanding Surveillance is the Goal

Federal Data Protection Commissioner criticizes eavesdropping compromise

"This contradicts the spirit of the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 3, 2004, which, emphasizing an absolutely protected core area of private life, declared significant parts of the previous provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the major eavesdropping to be unconstitutional," emphasized Schaar.

Well, the government, which is not even interested in the cross-party vote of the Bundestag against software patents, will probably not be interested in a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court either - if it runs counter to their interests. And the Union - should the change take place - is not even satisfied with the measures and wants even more surveillance, even fewer rights for citizens, and even more data collection. While no criminals will be caught, political activism certainly advances one's career in politics - no matter how nonsensical the activism is.

The fatal aspect: our rights are not just being eroded - things that were hard and painstakingly achieved are being dismantled. These are damages that will probably not be repaired quickly - because once the data is available and the access possibilities are there, the state and the investigative apparatus will not want to back down. All this in the name of a pretended and alleged security for which there is no evidence.

The Fight Against Free Speech

In the process against Alvar Freude the regional court is about to announce its verdict. Let's hope the judges see through the nonsense the prosecution is building up and give them a clear rejection. Because if this nonsense gets through, we will soon really have reason to cry censorship - and the reason won't be petty deleted comments on blogs, but the actual ban on reporting about blocking orders (and thus active censorship measures) by the state.

The Audacity is Hard to Surpass

What the Minister of Justice is saying: only minor corrections needed to the software patent directive. Yes, great, shopping carts for web shops are already patented - and it is exactly these trivial patents that are criticized in this nonsense. But Zypries continues to lie.

Criticism of Köhler

To put it plainly: Köhler is a hack. And politically not neutral. Anyone who argues about that makes themselves look ridiculous. Very few German federal presidents were truly politically neutral - and hacks were certainly more than just Köhler and Carstens. However, it is undeniable that Köhler's election and term of office are hard to surpass in terms of embarrassment - but this is by no means due to Köhler alone.

I also still remember well the praise that came for him even from the SPD camp when he was proposed and then elected. I thought it was pitiful of the Union to ram through such an emergency candidate (after they had almost torn themselves apart in strained attempts to come up with a presentable candidate) just because they once again wanted to play out their majority - purely on principle, even though it made no sense. But pitifulness is what characterizes federal politics at the moment - both in the coalition and in the opposition.

In that sense, a hack as federal president is also fitting ...

Cleared for takedown

In the Zeit: Open Season, a dossier about the victims of attention-seeking ala Raab and Bild ...

The major problem I see here is not just the Bild newspaper and Raab and similar media garbage - the real problem is the acceptance with which this crap is consumed. After months, you no longer know where you read or heard something - and in doing so, you contribute as a vector to the spread of this nonsense.

When I then imagine the Springer publishing group wanting to get its hands on the Pro7/Sat.1 group and with that, presumably next, Bild newspaper and Raab pulling together on the same rope, I feel sick ...

A democratic society lives, among other things, on the diversity of opinion that must also be reflected in media diversity. But when the media landscape becomes dominated across media by a corporation with a clear political agenda (anyone who doubts that can just look at the coverage of Bild newspaper around the time of the last Hamburg citizenship election - best have a sickness bag ready or it'll hit the keyboard), an important factor for democracy is lost.

And so an ugly alliance forms between business associations and a media culture in which one no longer wants to use the word culture - and it degenerates into incitement against the sick, the unemployed, foreigners and left-wing politicians, which already uncomfortably resembles times one actually thought were over ...

Off to the police state

German cabinet approves bill to expand DNA analysis:

... DNA analyses of individuals may in future also be stored if they have committed only minor offenses such as property damage or trespassing, or if it is expected that they will commit such offenses in the future. Furthermore, investigators will be granted the right to order DNA analyses in an expedited procedure without a judge having to approve them.

You participate in a demo that someone doesn't like? No problem, your data will be recorded and filed. Trespassing at a demo can happen quickly, property damage can be quickly attributed to you, and if you don't need to ask a judge, you can also move much faster. And so, a small and fine DNA database of all those unpleasant subjects will quickly be collected that a state really doesn't need - namely people who engage publicly and speak up.

What, civil rights are left behind in the process? Forget it, it doesn't interest Otto Orwell nor the combined incompetence in the Ministry of Justice.

Oh, and who believes that I am only paranoid, here is the case example cited by the Ministry of Justice:

A has been convicted because he repeatedly scratched the paint of motor vehicles with a screwdriver. The prognosis is that corresponding criminal offenses are also to be expected from him in the future.

Yes, you are a wheelchair user and you are upset about the idiotically parked drivers and have scratched the paint of one? Hey, you are still in a wheelchair and we simply assume that you will continue to get upset about the idiotic drivers - so off to the DNA file with the murderers, terrorists, and sex offenders. After all, you are at least as threatening to society as they are.

What kind of shit is this red/green puppet theater in Berlin getting us into. It is absolutely unbelievable.

And if you think it would be better with the Union:

... on the other hand, the proposed amendment to the DNA analysis by the CDU is by no means sufficient. "The bill is a step in the right direction. It is too short," said the deputy chairman of the Union faction, Wolfgang Bosbach. The Union will further tighten the existing legal situation in the event of an election victory, explained the interior and legal politician. There is no right for offenders to remain anonymous.

Who spontaneously thinks of recording every striking worker there is probably on the right track according to their idea ...

And all this from people who, under the guise of neo-liberalism, have written a reduction of the state to its core functions on their banner - and see surveillance, exploitation, and harassment of citizens as core functions.

We are moving straight towards something that can no longer be associated with a democratic society and a rule of law.

What to Make of the Promises of the Economy

Training Pact: 175,000 Apprenticeships Missing - and will consequences be drawn? No. No training levy. No pressure on companies - instead more soft talk and nonsense. And the economy's whining that they can't get qualified workers - where should they come from if no training is provided? But thanks to the social democratic government, nothing will change about this either.

Clement will ALG-II recipients to be more strictly controlled

Clement will ALG-II-Empfänger schärfer kontrollieren and make social workers into agents. They are supposed to monitor benefit recipients more closely and snoop around after them. Because, of course, our biggest problem is not the 4.8 million missing jobs and not the thousands of further job cuts every month, but the few people who claim their household as a community of need.

And so the myth is further fueled that the problem is solely the unwilling and fraudulent unemployed. In Clement's eyes, it's all just scum, while he naturally vehemently defends himself against attacks on the economy he so loves.

And we can be sure that Clement will not have to receive unemployment benefits even after the defeat of Red/Green, because he has his share in the dry ...

How Our Government Is Lying to Us Again

"Germany" as a hype man for software patents in the EU Council - about how the concentrated incompetence - also known as Federal Minister of Justice - hitches itself up to the cart of interest groups and screws us all. Not only does the German government act against a resolution of the Bundestag, it also contradicts its own statements. We really live in a banana republic.

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution wants to continue observing the PDS

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution wants to continue monitoring the PDS - it's already absurd what a fuss is being made about a few remaining leftists. The hatred of and fear of communism and Marxism in Germany is still as unbroken as it was in the USA during the McCarthy era.

The fact that today the constitution and the fundamental rights guaranteed to people within it are much more endangered by neoliberalism and the influence of the economy on politics and society doesn't bother anyone.

And you can make such wonderful politics when you publicly declare that the PDS will continue to be monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Especially important before potential federal elections.

Experts Advocate for VAT Increase

Experts advocate for VAT increase - if you look at these alleged experts, you find IW director Hüther and the chief economist of Deutsche Bank. Completely neutral experts, of course. Why do these allegedly professional journalists write such nonsense? Every idiot from some employers' association or employer-affiliated institute or major bank is called an expert - but if something comes from the employees' camp, they are critics from the unions. This is how the neoliberal crap is beautifully upheld and the citizen is told where to look for his experts - regardless of whether these experts are anything but experts (I still think with horror of the mathematically completely untalented and otherwise quite incompetent financial expert Mertz) or pursue their own political agenda. That in this specific case something must be rotten with the experts should also be noticeable to the dumbest journalist: although the VAT should be increased, but of course only with accompanying measures. Look at these measures. One screams for a reduction in wage-related costs as an accompanying measure and the abolition of the solidarity surcharge - but only the latter is relevant for the consumer. And now look at what someone on social assistance or unemployment benefit II pays in solidarity surcharge - nothing. But this person still fully bears the VAT increase.

The other talks about the fact that the risk of reduced consumption must be accepted, as the advantages of reducing labor costs outweigh - because he also wants to reduce various payments. At least for both sides - at least he did not explicitly talk only from the employers' side, but presumably he simply forgot that there is also an employees' side. And here too: social assistance recipients and unemployment benefit II recipients are not relieved and get the full VAT increase.

None of the so-called experts has spoken about the fact that a VAT increase must be accompanied by an increase in social assistance and unemployment benefit II. Both accept that people who are already impoverished will be even worse off and that more people will fall below the poverty line. They act as if they were experts - but in the end they are only the henchmen of the exploiters and swindlers and want only the same thing that the employers' side has been demanding all along: to squeeze the employees even more.

VAT is the most unsocial tax we have. On the one hand, it is only relevant for consumers, and indeed for domestic consumers. On the other hand, it is based on consumption - and this can of course not fall below a certain level, because everyone has to live and has to pay for it - and thus this tax hits the hardest those who have the least. Because their consumption can hardly be reduced any further.