Massachusetts voters can now register as ‘Pirates’

[Politically_Incorrect12]

www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/07/massachusetts-voters-can-now-register-as-pirates/

The Massachusetts Election Division has approved the Massachusetts Pirate Party as a political designation, allowing voters in the state to register as a "Pirate."

The party strives to increase government transparency, promote personal privacy, reinforce the spread of knowledge through copyright reform, and abolish patents.

"We live in a country founded on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the Massachusetts Pirate Party said in a statement. "For many people, those ideals are not real. The Supreme Court and Congress have expanded the power of corporations and made them more powerful than people. Increasingly government officials ignore open meeting laws, make deals favorable to corporations behind closed doors and sell off our public information to private interests."

James O'Keefe, the party's organizer, told Raw Story that the party is now in the process of training activists and building local chapters. (Not to be confused with conservative activist James O'Keefe, otherwise known as the "ACORN pimp.")

"Massachusetts has been a fairly good state for third parties with the Greens, Libertarians and Working Families parties being active here in the last ten years," O'Keefe said in an email. "We are looking forward to our future in Massachusetts."

Of concern to the party is legislation such as the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (COICA), a bill introduced to Congress by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in September 2010. It would grant the federal government the power to take down any web domain found to host copyrighted material without permission.

There is more to the story, but I thought it was good for a laugh.