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EU Data Protection Proposal Taken Word For Word From US Lobbyists
Qedward writes "Glyn Moody looks at the proposed EU directive on Data Protection — and how some of the proposed amendments seem to be cut and pasted directly from the American Chamber of Commerce — that well-known European organisation... You might ask, Glyn writes, who are these MEPs representing — some 500 million EU citizens that pay their salary or a bunch of extremely rich U.S. companies intent on taking away our privacy?"
Lobbyplag lets you look at which lobbyist wrote each part of the bill. Fears of the U.S. exerting undue influence seem to be justified.
Not like we didn't know already, but it's still nice to see some proof once in a while. I hope this taints the whole proposal enough so they won't be able to push it through. I guess from time to time politicians need a Zero rupee note to remind them.
Imagine the outrage in the US if Chinese or European groups drafted a law for congress.
I have no idea of how you guys elect your MEPs, but at least in Finland we have many people from all parties running for the EU parliament. I can vote for any of them. It's true that parties do use the EU parliament as a dumping ground for old politicians, but the lists always contain new names also and I choose who I vote for.
So, maybe you need to vote for some other party or reform the voting in your own country instead?
Are you really shocked by this? The media companies already own the EU.
Bought and paid for. Just like the rest of the world other than a few 'evil' countries who will eventually bend over just the same. They have no other choice left that doesn't lead to the same end.
At the very least the mega raid should have tipped you all off by now. You WILL dance to the tune of the USA. And the USA dances to the tune of Hollywood.
The only thing you should really be shocked by is it took them this long to roll it out. You'd better get used to the idea. The one world is here. And it's not under the thumb of some evil dictator or secret organization. It's the multinational corporations and the media industry is right there at the top of the list.
And they've already won. We've been handing them money, power, and control for decades now. We are the good little consumers who WILL do as we are told or else. It's all over but the shouting and acceptance if we wan't our nice modern lives to continue.
He was close... But only thought it was one country.
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else."
"But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
"You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."
-george carlin
[Disclaimer: I worked in the field.]
Ever heard of social engineering? Political social engineering?
Bribery is for schmucks. Losers who are too stupid to do actual lobbying.
The whole point of lobbyism is that it isn't bribery (but social engineering).
It's called "designed reality". A politician will have nothing but meetings with interest groups and about certain topics. Those meetings will be filled with practically only social engineers, who tell the politicians whatever they want him to believe, so he acts like they want him to. To the politician, this becomes his perceived reality. (That's why it doesn't matter even if it's the green or pirate party... they will all get sucked up into the designed reality.)
The common notion that there would be an absolute reality, and such a thing as "facts", strengthens their belief in the distorted view. They will defend it as "fact" and "reality" to their death. (I bet even you want to defend this right now, don't you?)
"donations"... pfft. lol.
You don't have any clue what a primary actually does. Right?
If everyone can found his own party and even get elected to the European Parliament (look at the swedish Pirate Party!), there is no point to go through the primaries of two big parties. Just cut out the middleman and get your own election platform! You try to turn a sad necessity of the congealed U.S. two party system into something of an advantage.
Bribery is only needed by bad lobbyists. The ones that are good at their jobs, like the MPAA and RIAA, appear to be representatives of an industry and therefore experts on a particular subject. Politicians are not expected to be experts on everything, they are expected to be willing to take advice from experts. When they need to draft a new law, the solicit the opinions of experts. The competent lobbyists have already insinuated themselves into the system and so are invited, as experts, to provide opinions to the politicians. Some of them really are experts, others are paid shills. The politicians, not being experts, are usually not able to distinguish the two.
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Mr Tulip looked down at the departing coach
'From what I hear he mostly doesn't do a --ing thing!' he complained
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"I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold