Daily Archives: 1 May 2012

Austrian Pirate Party Wins First Seat, Makes Front Page News!

open quoteIn the local election of Innsbruck, the Austrian Pirate Party has sent shockwaves by taking its first Austrian seat, finishing at 3.8% in the election.

This caused frontpage news in Austria – the tweeter @Exiledsurfer was kind enough to tweet the pictured frontpage. Taking one seat in the city parliament of Innsbruck in a local election may not seem like much – but it’s large enough to make the front page story, heralding a strong trend all over Europe – you can almost read the strong headline (“Pirates Get Their First Seat”) as though it read “It Begins!”. It is also noteworthy that their election budget was a mere three thousand euros.

This is a common recurring theme across Europe right now. South America is coming along well too, but appears to have trickier party registration rules – in any case, the PPs of Brazil and Argentina have been frequently seen in the community. The United States is boosting its presence state by state as well, although they have a different political system and will have to work with a slightly different modus operandi.

As I just wrote on TorrentFreak, it’s important to understand that when you take 5% of the votes in Europe, you get 5% of the seats.close quote (Read more)

Frederiksberg Council to wake up school children

open quoteFrederiksberg Council is set to introduce a new ‘wake up’ programme in order to combat truancy, Berlingske newspaper has reported. The move comes after the success of Nyborg Council’s wake-up system, which was implemented last year and has resulted in a significant decrease in absenteeism.

Similar to Nyborg, Frederiksberg will hire an employee whose job will be to ensure that school children attend school regularly and on time.close quote (Read more)

Swiss banks to hand over staff names in U.S. tax row: report

open quotewitzerland will allow banks to hand over the names of any employees and other third parties who helped wealthy Americans evade taxes to U.S. prosecutors, a Swiss newspaper reported on Saturday.

Eleven Swiss banks including Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and Julius Baer (BAER.VX) are under investigation in the United Stated for aiding U.S. citizens suspected of dodging taxes.

In the latest attempt to end the long-running dispute, Switzerland’s Federal Council has now authorized banks to hand over email traffic in connection with such clients to U.S. prosecutors, the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reported.close quote (Read more)

CIA Claims Release of its History of the Bay of Pigs Debacle Would “Confuse the Public.”

open quote7 April 2012 UPDATE: Fifty-one years after the failed attempt to invade Cuba, the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Justice continue to claim that releasing the final volume of a CIA history of the debacle would “confuse the public” and should therefore remain withheld. The National Security Archive originally requested the document in 2005. Last year, the Archive filed a FOIA lawsuit to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bay of Pigs debacle. That prompted the release of three volumes of the five volume history (one volume was already available at the Johnson Presidential Library); the CIA and DOJ have continued to fight the release of the fifth volume. Judge Kessler, of the US District Court in Washington DC, is expected to soon rule on the case.

In late 2011, the Central Intelligence Agency explained to Judge Kessler of the US District Court in Washington DC that releasing the final volume of its three-decade-old history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle would “confuse the public,” and should be withheld because it is a “predecisional” document. Wow. And I thought that I had heard them all.close quote (Read more)