From the mouth of a true populist

The election campaign is drawing to an end, and with the socialist coalition getting increasingly desperate, we're seeing more and more lies, or in this case half-truths, appear. According to Thomas Bodström of Socialdemokraterna a socialist government will tear up the much debated FRA law. That's all good, but he "forgets" to mention that a socialist government will then replace it with another, similar law. He also conveniently "forgot" to mention that he actually came up with this law back in 2005, then it was basically handed over to the current government who implemented it.

An epiphany

Social democratic politician Thomas Bodström suddenly realizes there is such a thing as personal integrity.

Socialdemokraterna grasping at straws

I swear I thought this was just a joke, until it appeared on the front page of every major newspaper in Sweden. The socialist democratic party, Socialdemokraterna are really grasping at straws when they make it an election promise to introduce butlers/concierge services and at the subway stations in Stockholm, apparently to give people the option of doing something useful while they're down there in that miserable pit on their way to and from work. Like picking up their laundry, returning a book to the library, get your pre-ordered food-basket delivered, and so on. They've even created their own website with this nonsense.

I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not spending my time in that urine-stinking, overcrowded dungeon. And if I have to, I try making my visit as brief as humanly possible. Life is too short to be miserable, so how about Socialdemokraterna made it a bit faster and more enjoyable to get to and from work instead? Yes, I'm talking about proper roads, where you can get to work in the privacy of your own, climate controlled, quiet and comfortable car, whenever you want to. Now that's an election promise I could stand behind.

Lies, lies, nothing but damn lies.

IDG.se, the IT business equivalent to Se & Hör, has an article today on how some of the political parties stand on various IT related issues. The problem is they've just sent out a bunch of questions and asked the parties to answer. Well, you get what you ask for, I guess.

Let's go through some of the Q&A's, ok?

2. IPRED. Vill ni upphäva Ipred-lagen (som gör det lättare att hindra olaglig fildelning)?

JA: Vänsterpartiet, Miljöpartiet, Centerpartiet.
NJA: Socialdemokraterna.
NEJ:Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna, Moderaterna.

Centerpartiet voted for the IPRED law only a year and a half ago. Why would anyone believe that they've suddenly changed their mind? And why a "nja" for Socialdemokraterna? They too voted for the IPRED law, even on an EU level. These two political parties have absolutely no integrity in this matter and are obviously just on a desperate hunt for votes.

3. FRA. Vill ni upphäva FRA-lagen (som gör det lättare att övervaka internet och telefon)?

JA: Vänsterpartiet, Socialdemokraterna, Miljöpartiet.
NEJ: Centerpartiet, Folkpartiet, Krisdemokraterna, Moderaterna.

So, Socialdemokraterna who actually came up with the entire FRA-law back in 2005, and handed it over to the subsequent government are suddenly opposing it? Yeah, right. What they fail to mention is that they simply want to create a slightly different FRA law. Same shit, new wrapping. Socialdemokraterna don't have a shred of credibility in this matter.

4. LOGGNINGSLAGEN. Tänker ni rösta ja till att införa datalagringsdirektivet (som tvingar internet- och teleoperatörerna att spara uppgifter om hur deras kunder kommunicerar).


JA: Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna, Moderaterna
NJA: Socialdemokraterna, Miljöpartiet.
NEJ: Vänsterpartiet, Centerpartiet.

Wait, what? Centerpartiet have already decided for the data retention directive, back in 2009. Again, why would anyone believe they've suddenly changed their mind? And a "nja" from Socialdemokraterna again? What the hell? They are the only party in the red/green coalition who are still strongly in favor of the data retention directive. Nja my ass.

It would be refreshing if IDG, instead of just printing these answers would follow them up with these parties, asking them why they're answering "yes" when in real life politics they are clearly "no", and vice versa. That would be much more interesting.

You want some plague to go with that cholera?

The upcoming general election in Sweden is already turning into quite a bizarre spectacle, with 5 months left of campaigning.

The socialist coalition are working incredibly hard on ruining people's economy, making what kan only be defined as threats to increase taxed across the board should they be elected:

• Increased income tax (as if 56,7 percent isn't enough...)
• Increase fuel taxes (because clearly, in an effort to make it less profitable to work only raising the income tax isn't enough, the actual travel to work should also be punished!)
• Increase the payroll tax (you didn't think only the employee should be punished for working, did you?)
• Increase alcohol and tobacco taxes (God forbid you should be allowed to enjoy a drink after a hard day's labour)
• Restore the hopelessly outdated wealth tax (making sure companies as well as people move their wealth abroad - we don't want those rich bastards living in socialist Sweden!)
• Restore the arbitary and unfair housing tax (also known as the "Stockholm tax", because obviously it should be considered a crime to live in or near such an expensive city and spend all your money on that several million kronor mortgage)
• Introduce a new "energy" tax on the horribly polluting hydropower (well, actually the reasoning seems to be that the energy companies have a healthy profit, and the socialist coalition feels its only natural to introduce special taxes to get a bigger share of that profit - I guess a phone company tax, a lawyer tax or a property broker tax is next, and we all know who will get the bill in the end - the consumers)

Meanwhile the non-socialist coalition, "Alliansen", are hell-bent on finding new ways to strip the public of the last shreds of personal integrity and freedom:

• Random drug tests in school (clearly giving the police mandate to perform drug tests on kids without parent's permission wasn't enough)
• Publishing pictures of suspected criminals (because apparently the stigmata of sending purple letters to the families of suspected sex buyers wasn't enough...)

Not to mention all the disgusting laws that have been passed already during the last 4 years.

Of course, the socialists aren't friends of freedom and integrity either, supporting the new and oppressive laws that have been passed during the non-socialist government, the FRA-law, the data retention directive and the Ipred-law. They've even suggested every kid in school should get a "personal police officer" watching over them, making sure they don't do any mistakes (you know, being out partying on a Saturday night), and accepting any incriminating information they might have on other kids, in effect creating a society based on fear and squealing.

So the question is really, would you like some plague to go with that cholera, or is cholera enough? I'd like neither, thank you so much.

I noticed blogger Ravenna shares my views on some of this insanity. A post well worth reading.

No spam, please!

What part of my "Ej reklam, tack" sign doesn't my stupid mailman understand? I don't want any unsolicited junk in my mailbox, and that includes spam from various political parties who have already started the election campaign for this year's elections. Only yesterday two unsolicited and utterly pointless brochures, from Kristdemokraterna and Socialdemokraterna, ended up in my mail. If you insist on ruining the rain forest printing this shit that's your business, but keep me out of it, please!

Social democrats say no to children getting in debt

So the socialist democratic party, Socialdemokraterna, have hatched yet another brilliant idea: Providers of loans via text messages ("SMS loans") will be prohibited to provide loans to anyone under 18 years of age. Wow, that must have taken them a long time to agree on.

And here I was thinking that the law already protected people under the age of 18 against taking loans or any kind of credit really, whether it's approved via SMS, e-mail or in a store or bank. What's the bloody point of making these regulations depend on specific technology that exists today but might very well be gone tomorrow? When will Socialdemokraterna insist that we ban Facebook-loans for people under 18? Or MySpace-loans? Or iPhone app loans?

My god these people are dumber than breadsticks.

Why road tolls are the work of the devil

I've already written about how the Swedish politicians are increasingly adopting the terrible Norwegian way of financing basal infrastructure, where billions of kronor are wasted every single year in administration of toll roads and interest on loans.

It seems Socialdemokraterna are prepared to take this even a step further, because obviously increased income and housing taxes and a new net wealth tax that they've already promised isn't enough:

Kongressen fattade på torsdagen beslut om att i högre grad än i dag låta
bilisterna själva betala nya infrastruktursatsningar med så kallade brukar- och
trängselavgifter.

We need more road tolls, and we need to finance the roads in the worst possible way, both from a social point of view and from an economical point of view. If you're still wondering why this is such a bad idea, let me explain:

Socially
Road tolls are anti-social in nature, as they are a flat-rate tax on transportation that will hit low-income citizens unreasonably hard in comparison to the wealthier citizens. Would any social democratic politician dare to suggest a flat income tax of 100.000 SEK a year, no matter how much you actually make? Probably not.

Furthermore the tax hits you not based on income or wealth but solely based on where you live in relation to your job, the kindergarten, shops and public services.

I have to say I'm particularly shocked that a party claiming to be socialist is proposing something like this.

Economically
Now this, on the other hand, isn't really the socialist democratic party's strongest skills, but still... Collecting road tolls costs a lot of money. In 2008 the road tolls in Stockholm cost 380 million SEK, approximately 50% of the total income. In Norway, a country where they have made the collection of road tolls into an artform, 15,5 billion NOK out of 46 billion NOK that has been collected in road tolls during 1990-2007 was spent on administration and interest on loans. That's more or less 30% of tax payers money wasted on nothing. In one particular example the motorists are forced to pay 3,79 billion NOK in road tolls on a road that only costs 3,5 billion NOK to build...

There is absolutely no good reason to remove the building of new roads from the national budget and increase the costs of these dramatically by turning them into toll roads.

Rip and replace

Socialdemokraterna, the social democratic party, are experiencing a fight of generations within the organization. The old farts, with Thomas Bodström as prime example of how much damage one person can do, destined to tear down every shred of personal integrity and civil liberties for it's citizens, and the young generation who are at least portraying an image of the opposite.

The problem is, even the young generation of social democrats are not really interested in freedom, integrity and civil rights:

– Partiet är helt fel ute. Ipred borde rivas upp och börjas om från början.

Right, so you don't really want to tear up this revolting new legislation, you just want to pretend to tear it up, to gather votes for the 2010 elections, and then replace it with something similar right after the elections, should you - God forbid - get the people's trust. You've already promised to tear up the FRA law (and replace it with a similar law...). How dumb do you really think your voters are? Presumably they're pretty damn dumb, but still.

Mona Sahlin is not a fan of justice and integrity

Social democratic opposition leader Mona Sahlin wants to tear up the much debated FRA law, apparently out of concern for people's integrity. How convenient. Of course she wants to replace it with another, similar law... Quite frankly I fail to see how Sahlin's option is any more edible.

Also, Sahlin doesn't seem to understand that the legal abomination called the Ipred law is equally damaging (we're already seen the first examples of how the entertainment mafia abuses the law, and this is only the beginning), she simply sees it as a way for the entertainment mafia to protect their rights. You know, the classic "the goal justifies the means" argumentation:

Ipred handlar om hur man garanterar att artister, låtskrivare och författare också får möjligheter till att få inkomster. Det tror jag att alla tycker är självklart.

Oh well, as long as those greedy bastards are able to fill their pockets at an increasing pace, to hell with integrity and justice.

This nonsense leads me to the conclusion that Mona Sahlin is either dumb as a rock, or completely ignorant when it comes to questions of integrity and the Internet.

Sweden on top of the world

Congratulations fellow Swedes, by the beginning of 2010 we'll be the country in the world with the heaviest tax burden, with a marginal tax rate of a whopping 56,7 percent! Now that's really something. In fact only 5 other countries in the world are part of this exclusive "50%+" club.

Of course confiscating over half of people's income isn't enough for social democratic opposition leader Mona Sahlin, who has already promised she will continue increasing the income-, wealth- and housing taxes, all in the name of decreasing the differences between rich and poor. Sure, I get that. After all, why should a hard-working, tax-paying citizen have more money to spend than a person living on welfare? Why should it pay to work at all?

In fact, I can't see any reason to stop at 56,7 percent. It would probably be best just to confiscate 100 percent of people's income and then redistribute it equally so that no one is left behind.

Socialdemokraterna - a success story

The Social democratic party, Socialdemokraterna, are not gaining any popularity in Stockholm, quite the contrary. Why, you might wonder? I think Socialdemokraterna's election manifesto speaks for itself:

We're gonna tax you Stockholmers to death.

Way to go. This strategy has left them with what is still a surprisingly high support in Stockholm, with roughly 20% of the voters claiming they would give their vote to these buffoons in the upcoming elections. Half of these are obviously the unemployed, who plan to stay unemployed for an extended period of time and would like their unemployment benefit to increase. The other half are just idiots.

Stockholm needs infrastructure, not segregation

Lars Dahlberg, Social democratic politician, has a reader's letter published in Svenska Dagbladet today, where he argues that förbifart Stockholm, the planned motorway that will create a north-south passage outside the city of Stockholm, is necessary. All in all a fair letter, pointing out the importance of the infrastructure keeping up with the increasing population.

All except the following statement:

Utöver Förbifart Stockholm måste därför trängselskatten utvecklas så att ökningen av bilismen dämpas.

In other words: We need to build this motorway, but we also need new and increasingly expensive road-tolls, to further develop the segregation on the roads, where the wealthy, like Lars Dahlberg himself, will be driving around on half-empty roads with a big grin on their faces, while the rest of us can't afford it anymore, and are crowded together on uncomfortable and inconvenient public transportation, no matter what our transportation need actually is.

Thanks a lot, Dahlberg, but no thanks.

Speaking of Mona Sahlin

Now that I'm at it, I couldn't help but notice Mona Sahlin's response to the following question during a net meeting at Aftonbladet.se:

Rasmus Nordin säger: Hej Mona, Jag undrar lite om hur nu ställer er till FRA-lagen? För jag tror att ni får VÄLDIGT många fler röster om ni går ut med att den ska bort?
Mona Sahlin säger: Hej Rasmus! Det har vi rödgröna redan sagt. Vinner vi valet river vi upp FRA-lagen.

Sounds like a straight answer, for once. Unfortunately it's a deceiving one. Sahlin seems to already have "forgotten" (wow, I'm beginning to see a pattern here...) that she is all for mass surveillance of the Swedish people, and that the current FRA law will simply be replaced by another one should she get in position:

Att de lovar att tillsätta en "bred parlamentarisk utredning". Men både Sahlin och Wetterstrand påpekar att Sverige behöver signalspaning och en fungerande underrättelsetjänst, något deras partiföreträdare i den heta FRA-debatten knappast skyltat med.
Så i praktiken handlar det om en FRA-lag "light".

In other words, never trust a politician.

Let (s)he who is without sin...

Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen has revealed a political "scandal": One of Piratpartiet's members, Henrik Alexandersson, worked as a cameraman shooting porn for a couple of months back in the 1990's. Oh my God, he was a cameraman - whatever should we do?

Of course, members from the more established parties take the opportunity to score some cheap points by crying out their outrage. Seeing Mona Sahlin standing first in line and saying that she "feels disgust" makes me think of the biblical "let he (or in this case she) who is without sin cast the first stone" incident. Not often has it been more appropriate.

So, in the 1990's, Henrik Alexandersson - far from being a full-time politician - worked briefly in a line of business frowned upon by most. He blew the whistle on this business after discovering unsettling conditions. He did an ethical choice. Mona Sahlin, on the other hand, was at this time a full-time politician, and busy stealing taxpayer's money (as if her salary wasn't enough!) - 53 174 SEK, to be exact, after which she took off on a family vacation to Mauritius, sponsored by - you guessed it - the taxpayers. She was also busy hiring black labour to take care of her children (1990), "forgetting" to pay her public service fee (1993), and "forgetting" to pay her parking tickets -98 in total (1998). Oh yeah, and it continues all the way into this millennium: In 2000 she "forgot" to pay 30.000 SEK in tax arrears, and in 2001 she "forgot" to pay her bills, including the annual car tax. To mention a few.

Sometimes it's just best to keep your mouth shut and stop pointing your finger at others.

The red-green coalition kick off their election campaign

The three parties forming the red-green coalition, Socialdemokraterna, Vänsterpartiet and Miljöpartiet, kicked off their election campaign today by announcing that if they win the election next year, they promose to - in good socialist manner - re-introduce the ridiculously unfair housing tax, and thus seeing to it that only the filthy rich will be allowed to inhabit a house with a taxable value of over 4,5 million SEK (which means quite a lot of the properties in the Stockholm region...). Good on them. I mean, who cares about the old grandmother who's lived in that big old house in Lidingö her whole life? About bloody time she sold it and moved to a nursing home, isn't it?

Funnily enough the tax on apartments is suggested to be lowered. So the big picture here is that those who don't make a fortune shouldn't live in houses, they should sell it and settle for an apartment. Preferably a small, grey, boring one in a depressing suburb. Nice, socialist way of thinking.

Brilliant work, guys. You're sure to gain votes on this one!

More ugly mugs

Yes, I am a union member. God knows why, so far it has only involved a monthly expense, the frustration of seeing my money being used in election campaigns for the Socialist Democratic party, and a poor excuse of a magazine called "Kollega", usually full of frustrated socialists crying out for higher salary, more vacation, shorter workdays and so on.

And speaking of "Kollega", I just got the latest edition in my mail today, and imagine my surprise when I saw the ugly mug of ultra-corporatist, Henrik "I sold my soul to the Devil" Pontén, with the heading "A hated man". Great, I though. Perhaps "Kollega" will finally include a piece of critical journalism, nailing this unethical, human piece of garbage to the wall and demanding a few answers. In short, give the average reader the answer to why he's such a hated man. But no, not one single critical question.

What a complete waste of perfectly good forest.

While at the subject, have a look at Mr. Pontén playing cop - which is of course completly illegal, as is most of Antipiratbyråns "work" (I sincerely hope this is a fabricated clip, but something tells me it isn't...this guy actually believes he's a cop):

Garbage

I'm sick and tired of various political parties polluting my community with posters showing the ugly mugs of their candidates to the EU parliament, surprisingly enough posing with other party members who are not at all running for the EU parliament, as the example picture of two Socialist Democrats show (Mona Sahlin, for instance, is not a candidate to the EU parliament, and God only knows what she's doing in the picture).

Their ugly mugs are accompanied by stupid slogans that mean absolutely nothing: "Injustice is not the way" (obviously not, but I don't see your party trying to do anything about that), "We prioritize work" (well, yeah, there are very few political parties out there who prioritize unemployment benefits...) and so on. They obviously think the voters are complete morons.

I've got the following question: Why do the political parties feel the need to invade our community with garbage like this? Will they come and remove this garbage after the election? And doesn't Mona Sahlin look remarkably like Beavis?

Dumb, dumber

It looks like Socialist democratic politicians Tomas Östros and Carin Jämtin are still trying to make people believe that a 1% annual tax on the estimated value of a property is better than a 0,5% annual interest rate on the actual profit from a property sale.

So, you sell your house with a profit of 1.000.000 SEK. You can either pay the 22% tax on this profit right away, and have 780.000 SEK left, or you can postpone this tax and pay an annual interest rate of 0,5%, around 5000 SEK, until you actually pay that 22% tax, at which time you stop paying the annual interest rate.

Or you can go with Östros' and Jämtin's system, which gives you a tax rate of 1% of a property's estimated value. Live in a home some bureaucrat has estimated to be worth 3.000.000 SEK, and pay 30.000 SEK annually in property tax. Of course, you will still have to pay a 22% tax on the profit when you sell, although you will be able to postpone it without paying interest rates.

Now, which of these would you rather pay (none, obviously, but given the choice between plague and cholera...)?