Clipmarks | dmegivern's 'corruption' clips

World's most corrupt and least corrupt nations

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:11:49 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Corruption watchdog Transparency International has released a list of the world’s most and least corrupt nations

The report comes ahead of a conference in Bali this week where more than 100 countries are expected to gather for a United Nations anti-corruption conference

The lower the CPI of a country, the higher corruption is, with 0 being the most corrupt and 10 being very clean

Most corrupt country and CPI score
Somalia: 1.4
Myanmar: 1.4
Iraq: 1.5
Haiti: 1.6
Uzbekistan: 1.7
Tonga: 1.7
Sudan: 1.8
Chad: 1.8
Afghanistan: 1.8
Laos: 1.9
Norway: 8.7

Least corrupt country and CPI score
Denmark: 9.4
Finland: 9.4
New Zealand: 9.4
Singapore: 9.3
Sweden: 9.3
Iceland: 9.2
Netherlands: 9.0
Switzerland: 9.0
Canada: 8.7

Tags: corrupt, nations, world, countries, international

It's Just a Goddamned Piece Of Paper!

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:15:49 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: I really have to try to remember these ol' pearls of wisdom. Silly me keeps thinking the Constitution really meant something.

Clip Source: www.prisonplanet.com

December 9 2005

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Tags: bush, corruption, neoconservatism, oldie but goodie, we're doomed, dictatorship, justice

The Assasination of Benazir Bhutto

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:45:48 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: When in power, corruption hemmed in around her, and her visions were stalemated by the reality of bureaucratic government. She was at her best when she was disenfranchised, chiding those in control.

In power she was a bureaucrat, but in opposition she was an icon.

Now she has died as icons die, as opposition leaders die, in an explosive annihilation of waves of humanity.

...at the back gate of a park after a speech, on the eve of her comeback.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani opposition leader, killed in suicide attack

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died Thursday from her injuries sustained in a suicide attack, a party aide said.

Her supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf.

Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene could see

scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded people.

It was the second suicide attack apparently targeting the former prime minister in two months.

Her homecoming parade in southern city of Karachi from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18 was also targeted, killing more than 140 people.

Tags: terrorism, pakistan, bhutto

The 14 characteristics of a fascist society

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 23:14:47 GMT

clipped by: sohil
clipper's remarks:

Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, wrote an article about fascism which appeared in Free Inquiry magazine, a journal of humanist thought. Dr. Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). He found the regimes all had 14 things in common, and he calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The article is titled "Fascism Anyone?," and appears in Free Inquiry’s Spring 2003 issue on page 20.

Clip Source: www.chetzar.com

1.. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

2.. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

3.. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

4.. Supremacy of the Military

5.. Rampant Sexism

6.. Controlled Mass Media

7.. Obsession with National Security

8.. Religion and Government are Intertwined

9.. Corporate Power is Protected

10.. Labor Power is Suppressed

11.. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

12.. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

13.. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

14.. Fraudulent Elections

Tags: fascism, human rights, nationalism, military, media, research, corruption, crime, elections, politics

14 characteristics of fascism

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:38:39 GMT

clipped by: melizer

Clip Source: www.secularhumanism.org

Fascism Anyone?

The cliché that people and nations learn from history is not only overused, but also overestimated; often we fail to learn from history, or draw the wrong conclusions.

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.

5. Rampant sexism.

6. A controlled mass media.

7. Obsession with national security.

8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.

9. Power of corporations protected.

10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.

11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.

12. Obsession with crime and punishment.

13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.

14. Fraudulent elections.

Does any of this ring alarm bells? Of course not. After all, this is America, officially a democracy with the rule of law, a constitution, a free press, honest elections, and a well-informed public constantly being put on guard against evils.

Tags: fascism, republican, conservative, nazi

India's 'pink' vigilante women

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:48:55 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

They wear pink saris, the traditional Indian dress for women, go after corrupt officials and boorish men, and brandish sticks and axes when the push comes to shove

The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang) striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials.

Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the pink women have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of food grains for the poor.

They have also stormed a police station and thrashed a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case.

women bear the brunt of poverty and discrimination in Banda's highly caste-ridden, feudalistic and male dominated society. Dowry demands, domestic and sexual violence are common

Tags: news, women, india, law, justice, vigilantes

32,000 people smarter than Al Gore

Tue, 20 May 2008 20:08:43 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: POP for science!

Clip Source: network.nationalpost.com

32,000 deniers

That’s the number of scientists who are outraged by the Kyoto Protocol’s corruption of science

How many scientists does it take to establish that a consensus does not exist on global warming? The quest to establish that the science is not settled on climate change began before most people had even heard of global warming.

How Westerners and Muslims view each other...

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:38:26 GMT

clipped by: sohil
clipper's remarks: This was on old clip, clipped by both myself and Djiezes. Just thought this deserved a resurrection!

Clip Source: pewglobal.org

Europe's Muslims More Moderate

A rare point of agreement between Westerners and Muslims is that both believe that Muslim nations should be more economically prosperous than they are today. But they gauge the problem quite differently. Muslim publics have an aggrieved view of the West - they are much more likely than Americans or Western Europeans to blame Western policies for their own lack of prosperity. For their part, Western publics instead point to government corruption, lack of education and Islamic fundamentalism as the biggest obstacles to Muslim prosperity.

- Concerns over Islamic extremism are widely shared in Western publics and Muslim publics alike. But an exception is China, where 59% express little or no concern over Islamic extremism.

- Nearly four-in-ten Germans (37%), and 29% of Americans, say there is a natural conflict between being a devout Christian and living in a modern society.

America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked

Tags: islam, muslim, research, europe, report, united states, survey, united kingdom

Accelerating Deception and Memetic Evolution

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:59:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: One might call this “accelerating deception”, which seems like a logical counterpart to the exponential information growth.

Clip Source: memebox.com

Jamais Cascio at Open the Future is on to something big with a new concept he calls the Participatory Decepticon, the yang to the yin that is the Participatory Panopticon. The general idea is that we’re beginning to see instances of modified/corrupted video content that can greatly benefit the deceiver via a spike of monetizable attention.

“Such a deception wouldn’t stand for very long, but would almost certainly last long enough set off a wave of furious blog posts and mainstream media attention,” argues Cascio, citing political videos as an example.

Having been burned by fake news like the iphone face-to-face talk photos and having seen many a critical thinker hoodwinked by April Fool’s blog posts I certainly agree that this Decepticon is in its nascency. The corruption, camoflaging, variation seems to indicate a new type of evolutionary internet-based memetic/temetic/content mechanism at work

Tags: memetics, evolution, decepticon, fake news

Despite Many Challenges World Faces Brighter Future

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:47:16 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: sg.news.yahoo.com

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - - Despite daunting challenges posed by global warming, water, energy, unemployment and terrorism, the world faces a brighter future with fewer wars, higher life expectancy and improved literacy, according to a report released Monday.

"Although great human tragedies like Iraq and Darfur dominate the news, the vast majority of the world is living in peace, conflicts actually decreased over the past decade," says the 2007 State of the Future report.

"At this rate world poverty will be cut by more than half between 2000 and 2015, meeting the UN Millenium Development Goal for poverty reduction except in sub-Saharan Africa", it added.

On the negative side, it pointed to hikes in CO2 emissions, terrorism, corruption, global warming and unemployment and a decrease in percentage of voting populations.

The income of the richest 225 people in the world equals that of the poorest 2.7 billion or 40 percent of the global population, the report said.

Tags: lets, keep, working, on, improvements

Pat Tillman Murdered?

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:56:38 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Pat Tillman was an atheist. He was killed under suspicious circumstances. Could it be that they burned his diary to hide that his "men" got rid of him for his atheism?

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

New documents shed light on Tillman’s death

GI’s last words, lawyers’ congratulatory e-mails made public in testimony

SAN FRANCISCO - Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman’s forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman’s comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman’s death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.

No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene — no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.

Tags: military, cover-up, corruption, atheism

George Carlin's theology

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:14:26 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I never heard this routine until Carlin died. It's pretty brilliant. If you're religious and easily offended, don't read it.

Clip Source: atheism.about.com

George Carlin

I want you to know, when it comes to believing in god- I really tried. I really really tried. I tried to believe that there is a god who created each one of us in his own image and likeness, loves us very much and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize...something is FUCKED-UP. Something is WRONG here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is NOT good work. If this is the best god can do, I am NOT impressed. Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently run universe, this guy would have been out on his all-powerful-ass a long time ago. [George Carlin, from "You Are All Diseased".]

Tags: religion, atheism, funny, comedy

Lesbian Irish/American MURDERED on Duty?

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:59:43 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Straight female = Command Rape !
Gay female = Command Dead ?
Checkout the Video.

Clip Source: alternet.org

Killed US Soldier Warned Family: Investigate If I Die [VIDEO]
Pos

"If anything happens to me, you guys make sure it gets investigated."

Ciara Durkin warned her family before returning to Afghanistan

What seemed a joke at the time could have been eerily prescient as Durkin, a National Guard specialist, was found dead, shot once in the head, within the fortified walls of Bagram Airfield

Now Durkin's family is demanding an independent investigation and has enlisted the help of Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy

Although Durkin was gay, her family does not believe her death had anything to do with that

Durkin, who worked in a finance office, told her family that she had uncovered some information that would upset other military officials

'I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.'

a single gun-shot wound, but the Army has not said whether a weapon was found near her

hours before her death, Durkin left her brother a cheerful voicemail and sang happy birthday to hi

Tags: usa, military, coverup, afghanistan, corruption, irish, video

Drug War Bloating Police And Prison "Industries."

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:33:26 GMT

clipped by: Kauaiguy
clipper's remarks: What ever happened to the days of Andy of Mayberry? Today's law enforcement officers are dressing up like paramilitary thugs in some futuristic sci-fi where "if you ain't cop, you're little people."

Clip Source: www.enterstageright.com

Drug war very effective -- at bloating police, prison 'industries'

Seeing a new source of funds for local police equipment, staff and operations, "Every congressman has raised their hand and said, 'I need relief from this problem, too,' " explains UCLA public policy professor Mark A.R. Kleiman.

Tags: police, drugs, law, justice, politics, corruption

I'm American... "Shhhh. Don't Tell!"

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 19:49:40 GMT

clipped by: Thorne

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

I represent the 7% of Americans that travel abroad each year.

he biggest cause of stress in my travels. I have learned that being an American is something you can no longer be proud of- well, at least if you have any knowledge of global affairs.

I understand the value of pride in opportunity, equality and justice- but NOT in nationalism for the sake of nationalism! And that is what is at stake here: American insular ideology. Traveling abroad has allowed me a new perspective on this skewed American self-image. I am grateful for my opportunities, my freedom, and my standard of living- but I am ashamed of my government’s corruption, my people’s ignorance and my nation’s neo-colonial egotism.

But you needn’t be a hardcore lefty to agree with me. All you need is to go abroad to be reminded of the global hatred toward our nation.

Not only is it not safe to be an American abroad, it is not tolerated!

“I am, uh… Canadian.”

Tags: american, world, patriotism, shame, travel