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Anti-terrorism ad in the UK.

There were 498 acts of terrorism across the European Union in 2006. More than half, 283, were executed by separatist groups targeting France (Corsica) and 136 were carried out by ETA in Spain. The remaining 16 percent were carried out by left-wing/anarchist groups in Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece. Only one was related to Islam.

95 percent of these terrorist acts were motivated by political reasons, not religious. Looking at these statistics, terror attacks are committed by people who are deeply frustrated about the current political situation, people who have no voice in the established arena. People who don’t get access to mainstream media take their work underground and nurish their hate unseen and unheard. That’s when things become dangerous.

The FRA law, which “gives the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA, Försvarets radioanstalt) the right to intercept all internet exchange points that exchange traffic that crosses Swedish borders”, is the beginning of silent oppression where politicians don’t want to deal with the wrath of the people being oppressed. They simply refuse to tackle the real problems.
In the end, it’s their loss. There will be blood (which also is the title of a great movie…).

(This post inspired by a letter to the newspaper Stockholms Fria, written by Karolina Hagegård)

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Apparently the much debated FRA law is not enough. The next step towards totalitarianism and dictatorship seems to be “quality requirement” (!) on blog content, according to a recent motion for a European Parliament resolution. And of course it’s the State who decides what’s qualitatively good and what’s not… It’s a suggestion so far, but still dangerous as fuck! And no, it’s not a joke.
This is what happens when the people in power can’t control the masses.

The blog community equals democracy; people have realized that they can actually make a difference (which is exactly what happened here: people debate the FRA law on their blogs and media is left behind), and so it’s time for the State to raise its ugly head and put an end to democracy, silence the opposition and encourage capitalism. And this is how they do it.

“whereas weblogs represent an important new contribution to media pluralism and are an increasingly common medium for self-expression by media professionals as well as by private persons; their proliferation implies a need to establish legal safeguards providing for the assignment of liability in the event of lawsuits, and establishing the right to reply;

Suggests that for private-user-generated content in commercial publications and channels, ethical codes of conduct and terms of usage should be encouraged and royalties, commensurate with its commercial value, should be introduced;

Calls on the Commission to take into consideration the issues arising from the unethical usage and commercial misuse of user-generated content;“

Check these blogs (in Swedish) for more information:
Henrik-Alexandersson.se: EU och bloggarna: Det blir reglering!
Rick Falkvinge – Kvalitetskrav på bloggar?!
HAX – Det är väldigt mycket nu…

Previous posts about mainstream media and control:
Fucked by the mainstream Part 1
Fucked by the mainstream Part 2
Fucked by the mainstream Part 3
Fucked by the mainstream Part 4

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As for The US presidential election 2008, scheduled for November 4, people ask “McCain” or Obama? Who’s the best?”. I’d rather rephrase that and ask: Who’s the least bad of these two guys?
Because let’s face it, the outcome won’t make such a big difference, at least not when it comes to foreign politics. US politics are not run by its presidents.

Choosing between two evils, I’d go for Obama. Simply because he’s an intellectual human being, but that’s pretty much it. McCain, a 73 year old soon to be dead Bush clone who has no problem forming an alliance with the Christian extreme right (and look at Sarah Palin, a member of the NRA, who is against abortion and who advocates that creationism could be taught alongside evolution in biology class!), should be no option at all, in my opinion.
Obama at least wants to improve foreign relations, but he’s still in the hands of the lobby and will be forced to be yet another marionette, or else he’ll be crushed. The lobby is that powerful.

As I see it, the most important thing is to get rid of the neocons and to make the Israel lobby less influental. Israel still remains the top recipient of US foreign aid, which is absolutely insane knowing the current state of the world. In February, Bush requested an aid budget of $20 billion dedicated to Israel, a 12 percent increase over 2007 (Egypt is the second largest recipient, at about $1.5 billion). Israel has plowed US money into developing technology companies and buying US weapons, which pretty much says it all. That kind of support won’t stop just because Obama becomes the next president. He cannot afford that.

With McCain as president the imperium of the United States will probably fall faster than expected… He will finish the failure and collapse that Bush started, and it will not be nice. Remember, they are both war presidents.

On another note: USA have its fair share of extreme nutcases (like every other country). Will they really accept a black president?