Category Archives:

Politics

Quote of the Day (7)

2007-11-09

The taz quotes our dear minister of the interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, in front of journalists and judges in Karlsruhe (which is the location of the German Constitutional Court):

“Wir hatten den ‚größten Feldherrn aller Zeiten‘, den GröFaZ, und jetzt kommt die größte Verfassungsbeschwerde aller Zeiten.”

(My translation: “We had the ‘greatest commander of all times’, the GröFaZ, and now we get the greatest constitutional complaint of all times.”)

Assuming the quote is correct, we see again how much the constitution and its institutions mean to him…

For other (always) inappropriate Hitler comparisons and quotes, others have been made to leave talkshows and their offices. Wouldn’t be bad here, too, in my opinion.

(via StoiBär (German))

Fateful day…

2007-11-09

Even though the following is just copied from Wikipedia I wanted to mention it, just like other bloggers (and probably many news sites)… isn’t of no importance, y’see:

Schicksalstag (literally day of fate) is a label often used for 9 November due to the special importance of this day in German history. The term was occasionally used by historians and journalists since shortly after World War II, but its current widespread use started with the events of 1989 when virtually all German media picked up the term.

There are 5 major events in German history that are connected to Schicksalstag:

The establishment of the SS in 1925 is sometimes mentioned as having taken place on the Schicksalstag as well.

And in the German Wikipedia, someone already added an item about this year: Telecommunications data retention. (At least temporarily.)

PS.: Want to join the class-action suit against data retention?

Stop data retention - www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de

Basic Rights and Freedom of the Press

2007-11-03

Title of today’s Donaukurier (Ingolstadt) and its local editions:

black title of PK

Translation: We object to the restrictions of basic rights and freedom of the press!

:applaus:

And here’s the main article (German): “Massiver Eingriff in die Grundrechte der Bürger” (massive inteference in the citizens’ basic rights). Quote (in my translation):

“Today the democracy, thanks to govenrmental reglementation fury, sits at the edge of dissolution. Society, media and journalists, too, are watching magnetized and often also inertially what the gravediggers of basic rights and freedom in Munich, Berlin and also Brussels are devising.”

Free… the World

2007-10-05

After yesterday’s “Free Burma” (non-)action day, let’s not forget that there are also a few other countries where the human rights situation is not optimal. Human Rights Watch considers in their Welt Report 2007 (as PDF) 74(!) countries worth mentioning (and the European Union is combined in that number) – the amount of problems, of course, varies greatly (who would seriously put, say, the EU on the same level in this regard as Burma?):

Africa:
Angola, Burundi, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe

Americas:
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, USA

Asia:
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam

Europe and Central Asia:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, European Union, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Middle East and North Africa:
Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco/Western Sahara, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

peace pigeon