Clipmarks | Graft Clips

Have Conservative principals permeated North?

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:54:12 GMT

clipped by: notareargunner
clipper's remarks: With this level of impropriety suggested at Conservative HQ, how can the electorate of this region be reassured that the local party is free of such graft?
Do local treasurers have the power to rein in over enthusiastic local politicians? Everyone can see that London Labour is so corrupt that their leading treasury personnel have no control over Labour finances. Labour Ministers flaunt their disregard for ethics whilst their spouses deny every single misdeeds of their partners. There is one ancient English metaphor...shit stinks!!!
It is perfuming over both the major parties with equal stench.

Clip Source: www.order-order.com

Over the weekend the News of the World revealed that Conservative Party Chairman Caroline Spelman's Chief-of-Staff, Simon Cawte, was paid out of her parliamentary expenses for two years (2006 & 2007). Parliamentary Staff Allowances are prohibited from being used for partisan purposes. Andy Coulson told his former colleagues at the News of the World that their story was rubbish.

Tags: conservative, labour, corruption

Follow This Dime

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:38:42 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns
clipper's remarks: How are we to dissect a deluge like this one? We might begin by categorizing the earmarks handed out by Congress, sorting the foolish earmarks from the costly earmarks from the earmarks made strictly on a cash basis. We could try a similar approach to government contracting: the no-bid contracts, the no-oversight contracts, the no-experience contracts, the contracts handed out to friends of the vice president. We might consider the shoplifting career of one of the president's former domestic policy advisers or the habitual plagiarism of the president's liaison to the Christian right. And we would certainly have to find some way to parse the extraordinary incompetence of the executive branch, incompetence so fulsome and steady and reliable that at some point Americans stopped being surprised and began simply to count on it, to think of incompetence as the way government works.

Clip Source: www.tomdispatch.com

Follow This Dime

Why Misgovernment Was No Accident in George W. Bush's Washington

By Thomas Frank

Washington is the city where the scandals happen. Every American knows this, but we also believe, if only vaguely, that the really monumental scandals are a thing of the past, that the golden age of misgovernment-for-profit ended with the cavalry charge and the robber barons, at about the same time presidents stopped wearing beards.

I moved to Washington in 2003, just in time for the comeback, for the hundred-year flood. At first it was only a trickle in the basement, a little stream released accidentally by the president's friends at Enron. Before long, though, the levees were failing all over town, and the city was inundated with a muddy torrent of graft.

Ex-Thai PM faces arrest

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:37:35 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: "If I have a chance, I will come back to die on Thai ground," he added.
Probably expects a state funeral.

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

Thailand's supreme court has issued arrest warrants for Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister, and Pojaman, his wife, after they skipped bail and fled to Britain.

Earlier on Monday, Shinawatra said he would not return to Thailand to face graft charges but will instead remain in exile.

Thaksin, a billionaire telecoms tycoon turned politician, and Pojaman both face a raft of corruption charges that were instigated by a military junta which overthrew him in September 2006.

After 18 months in self-imposed exile, Thaksin vowed to fight the charges against him in a high-profile homecoming in February.

But on Monday he said he could not do that from within Thailand, blaming political interference in the justice system.

"My wife and I will stay in England where democracy is more important," he said in a hand-written statement released to the media.

He did not indicate when he intended to return to Thailand, urging his supporters "to be patient for a short while".

Tags: greed+corruption=politics

How Washington's Right-Wing Wrecking Crew Robbed Us Blind

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:57:40 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Read at the link for the whole story

Clip Source: magyarok-saman.livejournal.com

By Thomas Frank, Tomdispatch.com. Posted August 6, 2008.

Conservatives have turned a vast government built for our protection into a device for exploiting us.

government contracting: the no-bid contracts, the no-oversight contracts, the no-experience contracts, the contracts handed out to friends of the vice president.

Thomas Frank, Washington's Lords of Creation

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:31:32 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.tomdispatch.com

Fantastic misgovernment of the kind we have seen is not an accident, nor is it the work of a few bad individuals. It is the consequence of triumph by a particular philosophy of government, by a movement that understands the liberal state as a perversion and considers the market the ideal nexus of human society. This movement is friendly to industry not just by force of campaign contributions but by conviction; it believes in entrepreneurship not merely in commerce but in politics; and the inevitable results of its ascendance are, first, the capture of the state by business and, second, all that follows: incompetence, graft, and all the other wretched flotsam that we've come to expect from Washington.

They have made a cult of outsourcing and privatizing, they have wrecked established federal operations because they disagree with them, and they have deliberately piled up an Everest of debt in order to force the government into crisis.

Tags: politics, i-corruption, i-ideology

modified Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP)

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:24:33 GMT

clipped by: anup71
clipper's remarks: In many cases of severe corneal damage, a OOKP may the best or only choice.

Clip Source: www.squidoo.com

Patients with blindness due to severe chemical burns, trachoma, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid,multiple corneal graft failure etc require a keratoprosthesis or a replacement of their natural cornea. In many such cases a keratoplasty (replacement of cornea from a cadaver) will not work because of the high rate of rejection. The only suitable alternative is a keratoprosthesis. A modified Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) is the best choice in such cases.

For the OOKP, the patient's own canine tooth root is used to fashion the prosthesis. The modified proceedure is credited to Dr. Falcinelli, and is an improvement of the original procedure of his teacher, Dr. Strampelini.

Tags: osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (ookp)

Boarding the Tomnibus

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:21:34 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.spectator.org

As the Alaska senator flies into it with seven graft-related indictments trailing him, his old nemesis, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, emerges from this week looking better than ever.

Truth is the best policy and the best politics, Coburn's example reminds his pork-bloated colleagues.

Stevens, shrieking on the Senate floor in anger at Coburn for opposing his "Bridge to Nowhere," threatened to resign if he didn't get it. Had the Republican leadership displayed some sense, they would have let him go.

Coburn single-handedly won a victory for them by drawing Harry Reid into his ill-advised "Tomnibus" bill, which aimed to dislodge Coburn's hold on 34 Senate pork bills.

Reid's legislation failed, exposing the Dems' purported distaste for excessive spending under President Bush as a sham

John McCain, if he wanted to challenge Obama's pretensions as a reformer and "change" agent, wouldn't bother with any of the business-as-usual Republicans on his VP shortlist; he would select Coburn.

Tags: stevens, coburn, pork, corruption, reid, congress, politics

A stolen republic

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:04:53 GMT

clipped by: johaygood
clipper's remarks: History is judge.

Clip Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

A group of former Cabinet members and other past ranking officials Friday “indicted” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her failed promises, and said that for seven years she had wrought “seven curses” on the nation that left it “enfeebled” and impoverished.

The FSGO said Ms Arroyo “at the head of our government is the worst threat to the state of our nation.”

“The person pretending to tell us about the dire state of our nation is the very same person who has done the most to destroy the very foundations of our nation, sell its future to its exploiters and abusers, and consign the poor and middle class to deeper poverty and worse despair,” it said.

The FSGO listed “seven curses”: a country unable to feed its people because of mismanagement of the agricultural sector; worsening poverty and increasing inequality; deteriorating basic social services; cancer of corruption; wanton abuse of presidential power; illegitimate presidency; and a nation robbed of dignity, unity, hope and future.

Tags: philippines, graft and corruption

CNN Headlines "Climate Change Killing Children"

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:00:53 GMT

clipped by: pkronfield
clipper's remarks: The loony left is at it again. Blaming global warming on what is essentially mismanagement of resources and graft. Anytime you don't feed a kid, it will of course be malnourished. The people of Timor got along just fine until Western Civilization entered and caused them to divert from their successful hunting/gathering/farming way of life.

The real tragedy here isn't the boogy man of "global warming". It's the spectre of Global Liberalization that is killing kids.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

EMOTE WEST TIMOR (CNN) -- Maria's labored breath echoes within the walls of her family's mud hut. Her tiny, bony hands open and close in slow claw-like motions.

She's 15 months old, but weighs just 10 pounds -- one of countless children under the age of 5 facing severe malnutrition in Indonesia's West Timor. A typical infant weighs about 24 pounds at 15 months.

According to a joint survey by aid groups Church World Service, Helen Keller International and CARE, more than 50 percent of children under 5 in West Timor are suffering from malnutrition. In some areas it's as high as 70 percent -- a higher percentage than areas of Africa.

Aid organizations have unsuccessfully battled to bring this tragedy into the international spotlight. There are some donations coming in, but the funds and the resources simply aren't enough given the magnitude of the crisis.

Tags: global warming, loony left

Straightens your teeth in months, not years

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:18:21 GMT

clipped by: rajankanth

Clip Source: www.usc.edu

procedure known as PAOO, short for Periodontally Accelerated Osteogenic Orthodontics.

With this technique, a periodontist or oral surgeon uses special instruments to score the bone that holds the teeth in place and then applies bone graft material over the grooves. The procedure is done under local anesthetic in the dental office.

Accelerated orthodontics is gaining popularity as a way for patients, particularly adults with mature bones, to speed up the time it takes to straighten misaligned bites and fix crowded teeth.

The cost for accelerated orthodontics typically ranges from $10,000 to $15,000, depending on the course of treatment.

However, he added, the benefits were impressive: In eight months, Chang’s overbite and crowded teeth were a thing of the past.

“It would have taken about two years to do this with traditional orthodontics,” Chang said.

Beyond the McIntosh (the apple, not the computer)

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:22:20 GMT

clipped by: Lexica

Clip Source: www.theatlantic.com

One man’s mission to save abandoned (and glorious) apples by helping people plant for the future

His life’s mission, as he discovered it 30 years ago, is to find and rescue apple varieties from the backyard orchards that once were part of every New England farm. He is an apple whisperer, locating the lone strip of live bark on a hundred-year-old-tree, detecting the ruddy new growth that would elude others, and grafting the captured scion wood onto a healthy tree to bring what might be a wonderful old apple back to life.

Apples do not “come true” from seed, so anyone who wants to taste a wild apple again must learn to graft it. The millions of seedlings that grew from the seeds colonists brought from England—varieties meant for hard cider, not for eating—gave rise to what Bunker calls the “greatest breeding experiment” in history.

By the end of the 19th century, Bunker says, nurseries offered hundreds of the more than 10,000 named American varieties

Tags: apples, fruit, history, biodiversity

Engineer Develops Detergent To Promote Peripheral Nerve Healing

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:58:13 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Not realy like cleaning fleas from a dog, but close.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Dr. Christine Schmidt. The test tubes (at left) contain detergents and chemicals for decellularizing nerve tissue. (Credit: Photo by Erin McCarley)

ScienceDaily (Jun. 15, 2008) — A detergent solution developed at The University of Texas at Austin that treats donor nerve grafts to circumvent an immune rejection response has been used to create acellular nerve grafts now used successfully in hospitals around the country. Research also shows early promise of the detergent solution having possible applications in spinal cord repair.

The solution – combined with an enzyme treatment conceived at the University of Florida in Gainesville – is licensed by AxoGen, an Alachua, Florida-based company, and is used to create an acellular nerve graft from human cadaver tissue, called AVANCE Nerve Graft. Nationwide, nearly 100 patients suffering nerve injuries have received AVANCE grafts, all involving peripheral nerves which transmit sensory information between the brain and muscles.

Tags: science

Breakin' open the asylum

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:02:17 GMT

clipped by: The Ether Cafe

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

In 1994, a TV serial set in a psychiatric unit challenged 'toxic' media attitudes to mental health. It was a big hit. But, asks its writer, Donna Franceschild, would it get made today?

In 1994, I was a 40-year-old writer with little to show for my 20 years of graft except an inability to take the hint and stop.

Nobody, it seemed, had "mental health problems" in those days. They were just "loonies". Murderers were always "psychos", "maniacs" and "schizos" according to the tabloid press. Coronation Street ran a storyline about a scheming, vicious character with "erotomania" that had a whole country baying for her blood.

The idea for Takin' Over the Asylum came about almost by accident. Blair, who was then a house producer at BBC Scotland, suggested I take a minor character from a play I'd written and make him the centre of a drama series. The character was a hospital radio DJ called Ready Eddie, and I asked if I could set the drama in a mental hospital.

Blair thought it was a great idea.

Contractors Gone Wild

Sun, 04 May 2008 09:26:15 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Makes Catch 22 sound like a scout camp.

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Theft, hookers, melting down Iraqi gold to make cowboy spurs - all in a day's work for private military contractors in Iraq?

Allegations of widespread mismanagement and corruption among private contractors in Iraq are nothing new; if anything, tales of cronyism, over-billing, and embezzlement have become so frequent that our national tolerance for them seems only to have increased as the Iraq War has drawn on. Even so, the testimony earlier this week of three whistleblowers before the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) stands out for the sheer outrageousness of their accusations - namely that U.S. private contractors looted Iraqi palaces and ministries, stole military equipment, fenced supplies destined for U.S. troops, and even operated a prostitution ring that may have contributed to the death of fellow contractor. Yet despite its focus on such salacious matters as sex and corruption, the session earned little media attention.

Tags: graft, corruption, iraq

Give Me Your Money Honey

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:35:03 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors' pockets, records show.

A common thread runs through these cases and other KBR scandals in Iraq, from allegations the firm failed to protect employees sexually assaulted by co-workers to findings that it charged $45 per can of soda: The Pentagon has outsourced crucial troop support jobs while slashing the number of government contract watchdogs.

Tags: shame