verbatim 36.4
verbatimposted on 9 May 2010
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redstat 05.09.10
redstatsposted on 9 May 2010
verbatim 36.3
verbatimposted on 30 April 2010
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links 04.30.10
links of the weekposted on 30 April 2010
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment report for March 2010 - Unemployment rates were higher in March than a year earlier in 321 of the 372 metropolitan areas, lower in 41 areas, and unchanged in 10 areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Twenty-eight areas recorded jobless rates of at least 15.0 percent, while 3 areas registered rates below 5.0 percent. The national unemployment rate in March was 10.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted, up from 9.0 percent a year earlier.
Opening Statement of Senator Carl Levin, U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Hearing – Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks
By the Numbers—Changes in Business Bankruptcies : The Third Branch, the newsletter of the US Federal Court System – Much attention has been paid by the media and others to the recent rapid rise in consumer bankruptcies. But less attention has been paid to the even faster rise in business bankruptcies.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mass Layoff Summary, March 2010 – Employers took 1,628 mass layoff actions in March that resulted in the separation of 150,864 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer.
Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, Project on Government Oversight – The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data.
Q&A: What it will take to feed the world, Marion Guillou is the chief executive of France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research, Europe’s largest agricultural-research agency speaking with Declan Butler of Nature Magazine about how researchers are trying to meet the challenge of feeding a world population that is estimated to grow to 9 billion people by 2050.
Debt Settlement – Fraudulent, Abusive, and Deceptive Practices Pose Risk to Consumers – Government Accountability Office. Testimony before the U.S. Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Losing a Job During a Recession, Congressional Budget Office – A review of the research on the short and long-term effects of involuntary job loss for reasons other than poor performance or misconduct on people’s future employment and earnings in light of the recession that began in December 2007
SIGTARP, Quarterly report to Congress – The Special Unspector General’s mandated quarterly report to Congress regarding the Troubled Asset Relief Program
Foreclosure activity increases seven percent in the first quarter of 2010, RealtyTrac – U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for Q1 2010, which shows that foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 932,234 properties in the first quarter, a 7 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 16 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009. One in every 138 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.
EFF Backs Yahoo! to Protect User from Warrantless Email Search, Electronic Frontieer Foundation – EFF joins Google and other public interest organizations and Internet industry associations joined with Yahoo! in asking a federal court Tuesday to block a government attempt to access the contents of a Yahoo! email account without a search warrant based on probable cause.
v2 1.4
verbatimposted on 26 April 2010
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nation builders report robust growth in afghani
graft and influence peddling sectors
spread of the red
posted on 20 April 2010
Reports from Afghanistan suggest that US and NATO command is helping prop up and protect a criminal quasi-governmental structure that occupation officials themselves describe as mafia-like. Officials say that the corrupt system is undermining the support of Afghan civilians.
The UN recently reported that while Afghanistan received more than $35 billion in aid last year, a majority of Afghanis live in poverty. The report revealed that Afghanistan suffers the world’s third worst child mortality rate, the second highest maternal mortality rate and only 23 percent of citizens have access to clean water. The UN said that “widespread corruption” plagues Afghanistan and threatens the health and safety of its citizens.
A recent McClatchy report quotes Mark Sedwill, NATO’s top civilian official in Afghanistan, who said that local groups that support building a civil society in the war torn country are “oppressed” by the connected “institutions of state and criminal syndicates,” and are beginning to turn their allegiances toward the Taliban.
The most widely reported example of the type of corruption and influence peddling that characterizes the workings of the Afghani government is the relationship between the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his younger half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. The younger Karzai has been alleged to have participated in vote rigging of Afghan parliamentary elections and of being a key player in the country’s heroin trade. In 2009, the New York Times reported that Wali Karzai was also on the payroll of the CIA.
The current Governor of Nangarhar Province Gul Agha Sherzai was forced out of the governorship of Kandahar province after admitting that he had received $1 million a week collecting protection fees on imports and the heroin trade. McClatchy reports that Sherzai’s brother has been awarded a “disproportionate share” of construction contracts at the site of Kandhar province’s new military airfield.
NATO ministers intend to discuss the impact that Afghanistan’s brand of incestuous and corrupt influence peddling is having on the mission to bring stability to the country and reduce the power of the Taliban in the coming weeks. NATO’s chief spokesperson, James Appathurai, acknowledged that endemic graft and open drug running by local officials undermines the efforts of occupation forces. “The biggest problem in Afghanistan is not the Taliban”, Appathuri said recently, “but the lack of strong governance and the delivery of services.”
its all true
In Afghan war, official corruption is a bigger threat than the Taliban : McClatchy
Corruption contributes to poverty in Afghanistan – UN : BBC
Nato offensive aims to tackle bribery and corruption in Kandahar : McClatchy
v2 1.3
verbatimposted on 18 April 2010
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