Democracy in Germany is as good as dead

• 2009-04-17 Censorship infrastructure coming. 5 ISP will start censoring the internet - the details of the contract between the government and the ISPs are secret, the list of censored DNS names is secret as well. And because separation of powers is such a PITA when installing a dictatorship, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt Bundeskriminalamt will administer the list and no judge will have to approve. And if any judge should dare to ask for the list, the BKA has experience in presenting forged evidence at court. Oh yes, if you are wondering: the supposed reason for the censorship is the fight against child abuse. But even people who were abused as children are against it.
• 2008-04-09 Screw public access and transparency in government. Since the EU still tries to masquerade as democratic, some clever blokes in Brussels came up with the wonderful idea to advise officials to just make 2 versions of each report - a neutral one that can be released to the public and a more "personal/subjective" one with assessments and recommendations for follow up that need not be disclosed.
• 2008-10-01 No more freedom of assembly in the german state of bavaria. 2 persons wearing t-shirts with the same political message (think: "Fuck $president") meeting at the same place may be legally imprisoned for up to 1 year. Almost full text of the law in question, plus some commentary (german). The official version can be found here (german, pdf). Should the latter link fail, try a search for "Drucksache 15/10181".
• 2008-08-15 I received my Reichspersonalnummer now, which is politically correct disguised as tax identification number (Steuerliche Identifikationsnummer). No news on the Deutscher Gruss topic yet, but it can't be long. Most of the private security firms sprouting at every corner have nice dark uniforms already and their employees look like a crossbreed between SA members and street thugs more often than not. They will need a common salute.
• 2008-01-27 Election supervisor: You don't have any rights here!
• 2008-01-26 German Police considers anonymous communication unethical
• 2008-01-23 "Experts for protection of the constitution" demand disclosure for internet access as well as secrete searching of private property
• 2008-01-22 Chancellor Merkel: We will not tolerate [...] that the state is not allowed to use everything technically possible [when it comes to surveillance of all citizens]
• 2008-01-20 Minister of Interior Schaeuble: All basic rights have limits. [No more right to life and physical integrity for german suspects (aka citizens)?]
• 2007-09-17 Minister of Defense Franz Josef Jung: Lawless state of emergency authorizes shooting of airliners