Does America need a Pirate Party ?

[Voyager-1]

το βρήκα ενδιαφέρον και το βάζω εδώ
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/inn ... ate-party/

[adrian]

America 'has' a Pirate Party
http://uspirates.org/

[Kotsos]

Η απάντηση των Αμερικανών Πειρατών στο άρθρο.

Εντυπωσιακή, και αξίζει μελέτης, ίσως μας βοηθήσει να συνειδητοποιήσουμε κάποια πράγματα και για τον εαυτό μας.

The article has some flaws, alas.

The US has had a Pirate Party since June 6, 2006. It was formed in response to US government pressure on the Swedish Government to conduct a raid on a bittorrent site - one that hosts NO data and is just a search engine (those of us who understand how the technology works, gets this. those that don't, have the ear of the USTR and White House). The German, Austrian, Spanish, Dutch, and other parties started the same time.

Secondly, the 'plan to unite' happened. It happened in 2008, when I stepped down as head of the US Pirate Party, to form Pirate Party International (PPI), and lead it on through the 2009 EU elections (where the German pirates got over a million votes, and Swedish Pirates ended up with 7.2% of the vote and 2 of 19 seats in the European Parliament)

In America, we exist. The problem is that, as you rightly point out, the system does not work. It is actually easier for me, sitting in the state of Georgia, to start a party and get it registered in a former soviet country, than it is to form a party in the state of Georgia. For all the boasts of 'democracy' in the US, the barriers to participate are some of the highest in the world.

When I stepped down as PPI head in July 2009, I started a project to see just how restrictive US ballot access is compared to other countries. Like our healthcare, and our gun laws, we're well behind just about every other first-world country. Three fundamental things - health, safety, and our political system - and we're at rock bottom on all three. And yet people are PROUD of it.

And that's the problem we face. Ignorance, and personal dishonesty. Until we can stop with the "oohRAH we're 1" and actually take a critical look at ourselves, there's really no point to having the Pirate Party. Because voting pirate, means facing reality. And that's something most Americans seem to be very afraid to do right now.
Read more about the Pirate Party ethos at http://www.nosafeharbor.com