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I'm for more parties. I'm also against the electoral college. I'm not sure how the two are connected, so I'd be interested if you could spell this out for me.

Small parties can't get equal representation -- Green candidate gets about 3% of popular presidential vote, but but ZERO of 535 seats in congress...

The parliamentary system allows small third parties to hit the jackpot by having the power to tilt the balance of power. This is too much power, IMO.

Too true -- major legislation gets passed and then repealed -- lots of wasted energy...

I think that perfectionism is more to blame with voter disaffection. Kids are brainwashed into thinking we live in a perfect system and when they get old enough to see for themselves how messy it really is they're disgusted because that's not the way its supposed to be.

I think people are unhappy with Washington because they have a minority viewpoint that isn't represented -- in New Zealand they have a Rastifarian in Parliment !

http://www.ps.parliament.govt.nz/mp133.htm

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Sorry this post is slightly biased towards NZ'rs, but then so is the story.

First, go here and find out who your local Member of Parliament is. Yes, even if you didn't vote, they still represent you. If you're not sure what electorate you're in, look at one of the maps. (North Island or South Island or Maori Electorates)

Next, go here and find the email address and postal address of your local MP. Write them a polite email or letter stressing why you think that this legislation is bad. Try to summarise the main, interesing points in the first paragraph or two and then break into more detail. Use a spellchecker and if possible get someone to proof-read it. Wait for a couple of hours, re-read it, and if it still looks okay then send it.

Writing a letter is better, but since many IT people haven't written a normal letter in several years, email is better than nothing. Remember, you don't need a stamp when you're sending a leter to someone on Parliament. Just address it to "[Name], c/- Parliament Buildings, Wellington" where [Name] is the name of the MP you're writing to.

If you don't get a response from your local MP within a couple of days, resend it and apologise - suggesting that it might have gotten lost in the mail. If you still don't get a response, phone (04)471-9999 and tell them that their email relaying might not be working. Whatever you do, don't let it rest if nobody answers and don't be impolite.

Sorry this post is slightly biased towards NZ'rs, but then so is the story.

First, go here and find out who your local Member of Parliament is. Yes, even if you didn't vote, they still represent you. If you're not sure what electorate you're in, look at one of the maps. (North Island or South Island or Maori Electorates)

Next, go here and find the email address and postal address of your local MP. Write them a polite email or letter stressing why you think that this legislation is bad. Try to summarise the main, interesing points in the first paragraph or two and then break into more detail. Use a spellchecker and if possible get someone to proof-read it. Wait for a couple of hours, re-read it, and if it still looks okay then send it.

Writing a letter is better, but since many IT people haven't written a normal letter in several years, email is better than nothing. Remember, you don't need a stamp when you're sending a leter to someone on Parliament. Just address it to "[Name], c/- Parliament Buildings, Wellington" where [Name] is the name of the MP you're writing to.

If you don't get a response from your local MP within a couple of days, resend it and apologise - suggesting that it might have gotten lost in the mail. If you still don't get a response, phone (04)471-9999 and tell them that their email relaying might not be working. Whatever you do, don't let it rest if nobody answers and don't be impolite.

Sorry this post is slightly biased towards NZ'rs, but then so is the story.

First, go here and find out who your local Member of Parliament is. Yes, even if you didn't vote, they still represent you. If you're not sure what electorate you're in, look at one of the maps. (North Island or South Island or Maori Electorates)

Next, go here and find the email address and postal address of your local MP. Write them a polite email or letter stressing why you think that this legislation is bad. Try to summarise the main, interesing points in the first paragraph or two and then break into more detail. Use a spellchecker and if possible get someone to proof-read it. Wait for a couple of hours, re-read it, and if it still looks okay then send it.

Writing a letter is better, but since many IT people haven't written a normal letter in several years, email is better than nothing. Remember, you don't need a stamp when you're sending a leter to someone on Parliament. Just address it to "[Name], c/- Parliament Buildings, Wellington" where [Name] is the name of the MP you're writing to.

If you don't get a response from your local MP within a couple of days, resend it and apologise - suggesting that it might have gotten lost in the mail. If you still don't get a response, phone (04)471-9999 and tell them that their email relaying might not be working. Whatever you do, don't let it rest if nobody answers and don't be impolite.

Sorry this post is slightly biased towards NZ'rs, but then so is the story.

First, go here and find out who your local Member of Parliament is. Yes, even if you didn't vote, they still represent you. If you're not sure what electorate you're in, look at one of the maps. (North Island or South Island or Maori Electorates)

Next, go here and find the email address and postal address of your local MP. Write them a polite email or letter stressing why you think that this legislation is bad. Try to summarise the main, interesing points in the first paragraph or two and then break into more detail. Use a spellchecker and if possible get someone to proof-read it. Wait for a couple of hours, re-read it, and if it still looks okay then send it.

Writing a letter is better, but since many IT people haven't written a normal letter in several years, email is better than nothing. Remember, you don't need a stamp when you're sending a leter to someone on Parliament. Just address it to "[Name], c/- Parliament Buildings, Wellington" where [Name] is the name of the MP you're writing to.

If you don't get a response from your local MP within a couple of days, resend it and apologise - suggesting that it might have gotten lost in the mail. If you still don't get a response, phone (04)471-9999 and tell them that their email relaying might not be working. Whatever you do, don't let it rest if nobody answers and don't be impolite.

Sorry this post is slightly biased towards NZ'rs, but then so is the story.

First, go here and find out who your local Member of Parliament is. Yes, even if you didn't vote, they still represent you. If you're not sure what electorate you're in, look at one of the maps. (North Island or South Island or Maori Electorates)

Next, go here and find the email address and postal address of your local MP. Write them a polite email or letter stressing why you think that this legislation is bad. Try to summarise the main, interesing points in the first paragraph or two and then break into more detail. Use a spellchecker and if possible get someone to proof-read it. Wait for a couple of hours, re-read it, and if it still looks okay then send it.

Writing a letter is better, but since many IT people haven't written a normal letter in several years, email is better than nothing. Remember, you don't need a stamp when you're sending a leter to someone on Parliament. Just address it to "[Name], c/- Parliament Buildings, Wellington" where [Name] is the name of the MP you're writing to.

If you don't get a response from your local MP within a couple of days, resend it and apologise - suggesting that it might have gotten lost in the mail. If you still don't get a response, phone (04)471-9999 and tell them that their email relaying might not be working. Whatever you do, don't let it rest if nobody answers and don't be impolite.

In New Zealand we have a little piece of paper known as the Privacy Act. This little bill makes it illegal for anyone to obtain, use, distribute or whatever, anything about me unless they have MY direct permission to do so. In all the discussion I have read on Slashdot, no one seems to have taken this into consideration.

Effectively what this means is that the police cannot read my emails unless I give them permission to do so, or they obtain them from the intended recipient with their permission. It is just the same as the police being unable to give out my name, address, phone number and criminal record details unless they have a court order or my permission.

So how does this play into effect as far as I'm concerned?

Simple. Primarily, for the government and the police to pull this off, they'd have to amend the already existing and established Privacy Act before they could even pass this new bill before the house. Secondly, we live in a democratic country. If we can get enough people to back it and sign a petition, a referendum can be forced which would request that all those eligable to vote do so on this particular topic. The downside is that this requires that there be those willing to stand up, make a stand and prepare a petition. There also needs to be awareness of this petition for people to sign it.

The first thing us NZ'ers need to do is write to our local MP (Member of Parliament) and express our concern and state exactly what our views on this issue are. Tell them exactly why we think this is a bad idea and why we consider it a breach of our privacy. In New Zealand, if you contact any MP or Minister, they are legally required to reply in some form or another.

As a service to all out there, here is the website to go to to find the email address of not only the Prime Minister herself, but also of the MPs and Ministers.

So what about this argument of using encryption? I don't encrypt mail when I send it snail mail. I don't encrypt my cheques when I pay bills. I don't encrypt my postcards home when I'm overseas. I don't have to decrypt my newspaper when I read it in the morning. Would someone tell me why I should have to encrypt email? It is my right to send email in the manner I so choose. I know there are elements on the internet that are "shady", but I calculate that risk into the content of the email every time I press the send button. I don't see why a government should force me to use encryption simply because a few bad eggs on the net have gotten smart enough to use a computer instead of the phone.

The most amusing part to all this is that the last time there was any terrorist activity in New Zealand was when a few Frenchmen bombed the Greenpeace boat "Rainbow Warrior" in Auckland harbour. (What is it about the French and blowing things up? Rainbow Warrior, Muaroa Atol and the nuclear testing, and more recently a Concorde full of Germans.) With the lack of terrorist activity in NZ, and crimes being mostly theft and road issues, why does the police even need to snoop emails? Bank robbers in NZ just go into a bank with a gun and a stocking and demand money over the counter.

If anyone in NZ wants to get a petition going (I've already started one in my area of Auckland) look at my user info page, remove the "nospam" from my email address and get in touch with me.