Pirate party makes a raid on German politics (http://phys.org/news/2012-04-pirate-party-raid-german-politics.html)
Quote(AP) -- Pirates are capturing Germany's political system. The party with the outlaw name started as a marginal club of computer nerds and hackers demanding online freedom, but its appeal as an antiestablishment movement has lured many young voters to the ballot boxes, catapulting it into two state parliaments in less than a year.
The all-volunteer Pirates offer little ideology and focus on promoting their flagship policies of near-total transparency and an unrestricted Internet. But polls show them as the country's third-strongest political force, leapfrogging over more established parties.
The tremendous success has doubled the Pirates' membership to 25,000, but it also has handed them a crucial challenge set to dominate its convention starting Saturday: A party founded as a rebellious upstart must reckon with its new political power and its promise of a voice for all its members.
About 1,500 members gathered in the northern Germany city of Neumuenster to discuss the group's growth. New polls predicted it would win seats in two more state legislatures in May, with forecasters expecting it to secure about 9 percent of the vote in both states.
"Many vote for the Pirates as a sign of protest. It is not directed against democracy, but it's based on the unhappiness with the functioning of the established parties," said Alexander Hensel, a political scientist who studies the Pirates at the Goettingen Institute for Democracy Research.
It was the title that caught my eye but the party message is close to many in the global village that is the Internet.
I hope they bring back bowler hats.
Find, raid and plunder? ;D
Er...no, apparently.
They are antiestablishment so they are okay in my book. As long as they don't mess with my shipment of tobacco and spices ARRR!