I'm watching it live now... the climax just keeps on building.

Watch it live here.

Update: The Prime Minister's speech coming up at 6:30 p.m. Boy, this is getting interesting by the minute.

Update: The government has won the vote... but whether or not the trust, remains to be seen.

Update: After the marathon POTA session under the BJP in 1999, this has to be the longest single session of unparalleled drama in the Parliament.

Newspapers in India and abroad have been reporting all kinds horse trading, but the one that beats them all is the bookies offer to buy MPs vote to help them win their bets.

The Times of India reports that: "bookies — [who ] consider the UPA government as the odds-on favourite to survive the trust vote — have developed huge stakes in the continuance of the UPA government and are going all out to try and fix the outcome of the trust vote."

"The going rate for an MP has shot up to a mind-boggling Rs 50 crore with 50% being the down payment," a senior Maharashtra intelligence official told the TOI.

Many MPs are going to lose their seat in the next election due to the process of delimitation - which means that certain constituencies will be scrapped and new ones designated - therefore they have no political interest in supporting one party, rather they are hoping to make a last buck in parliament.

A Shiv Sena leader talking to the TOI admitted that "the reasoning is that since these MPs have no constituency to fight from, they'll be more vulnerable to allurements."

Which in common languages means bribes, bribes, bribes.

One thing seems to be clear is that this vote of confidence has very little to do with the nuclear deal or the well-being of the country.

The Clarence hotel is going to look equal parts shit and ridiculous.

Just like U2.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is a braindead cunt.

Like U2 fans.

Why one egomaniac's desire to let the world know that he owns a hotel should result in a blight on an otherwise fantastic Victorian city skyline is beyond me.

Chinese police arrest quake critic on secrets charges!

Huang Qi, 45, a Chinese Political activist who runs Tianwang Human Rights Center was arrested for "possession of state secrets" in quake-hit Sichuan province on June 10. Yesterday, police informed his mother of his formal arrest on secrets charges.

Although little information is known about his arrest, it is believed that his offer help to parents of children killed in the Massive May 12 earthquake may have led to his detention.

"The police didn't say why, but we think it was because of when he went to help in the quake area with food and money and met many parents who'd lost children," said his wife, Zeng Li.

Activist Huang Qi is among dozens of writers and lawyers detained during a pre-Olympics crackdown on dissent. Among off-limits topics: complaints from grieving parents that schools that collapsed in the May quake, killing thousands of children, were poorly built, above. (Undated Family Photo). Caption: Washigton Post.

Huang's concerns about shoddy building and non-existent safety checks, as well as his contacts with foreign journalists may have angered the officials, she said.

Military and police personnel guard the entrance to the Juyuan Middle School where about 280 children died in last month's earthquake, in Juyuan town near Dujiangyan city in Sichuan province June 12, 2008. Grieving and angry parents on Thursday marked one month since China's devastating earthquake toppled schools, demanding an explanation and apologising to their loved ones buried under the rubble. Parents of children who died at the Juyuan Middle School said that their planned memorial service at the site was being blocked by police who went from door to door warning them to stay away. The sign reads: "Restricted area. No entry." REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA). Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!

Huang has been denied a lawyer and visitations rights, said Zeng.

"Huang has been arrested solely for peaceful expression of opinion," said the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group.

Chinese authorities have attempted to silence protests and collective mourning by the bereaved parents who tragically lost their loved ones when shoddy school buildings collapsed like cardboard boxes in the Sichuan quake.

(L-R) Chen Hupei, Zhang Xiaojun and Qiu Yiping cry as they hold pictures of their children at a road intersection, 14 km (9 miles) away from the earthquake-hit area of Hanwang, Sichuan province, May 23, 2008. Students died when the quake struck on May 12, 2008, causing the buildings in Wufu Primary to collapse on students who were attending school. REUTERS/Nicky Loh (CHINA). Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!

Related News Links:

• China launches widespread crackdown
• China arrests quake critic on secrets charge
• China's Silencing Season

Related Links:

• Chinese Government Prevents Aggrieved Parents Lodging Lawsuit

• China earthquake: Teacher left students behind as he ran to safety
• Chinese quake investigator pinpoints school failings
• China “quake lake” fears compound survivors misery

Analysis:

• Why Didn’t China Prevent the Loss of 86,000 Lives?
• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• How Many More Survivors?
• Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• Why Was the Girl Removed from Family?

• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath
• Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

• Earthquake Predictions In China Are Also Political

Congress has relaxed rules that would have required public disclosure of contributions and parties paid for by lobbyists, narrowing the scope of new ethics rules intended to draw back the veil on Washington's influence game.

New guidance released by Congress late Wednesday exempts lobbyists from reporting their financing of an array of political and charitable contributions, events and parties at political conventions.

The capital's lobbying community has been worried about the disclosure requirements because, for the first time, willful violations could carry up to a five-year jail term. Lobbyists are required to file reports by July 30. Now, they won't have to disclose as much.

Under the new guidelines, "it's hard to envision any event at the conventions that would trigger disclosure," said Kenneth Gross, an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP who advises lobbyists on complying with ethics rules.

"This relieves lobbyists from tracking and reporting much information about attending or paying for events involving public officials, that would have been required before."

So once again the Lobbyist win---Let the perks fly!

You don't need no stinking standards!

U.S. Border Patrol agent Reynaldo Zuniga was arrested last month lugging a bag of cocaine up from the Rio Grande, one of a growing number of law enforcement officers accused of taking bribes from drug gangs...

The increasing use of bribes by Mexican drug cartels to corrupt U.S. agents comes as Washington is sending $400 million to help Mexico's army-led war on the trafficking gangs, whose brutal murders have surged to unprecedented levels...

Data on agents convicted of graft are not made public, but the U.S. government is probing hundreds of border corruption cases where a decade ago it saw a few dozen a year. The FBI-led Border Corruption Task Force says it is busier than ever...

A sudden influx of Border Patrol agents may have worsened the problem. The number of agents along the border has jumped to more than 14,700 now from less than 9,000 four years ago...

"Just given the increases, the odds are you'll get more bad agents," said Paul Charlton, a former U.S. Attorney for Arizona.

Several factors are always the same in law enforcement. You always have access to bribes. You know that going in - and it had better be an ethical question you sort beforehand.

Gangsters aren't especially in business to outsmart the law. It's always been easier, safer, to put someone on the payroll.

Officers in charge know this, as well. Aside from being potential centers for corruption, themselves. Another reason for a hierarchy of checks on any police system. You trust the guys running the game - but, you cut the cards.

Le persone sopra elencate sono state arrestate tra il 14 e 15 luglio.

1. Giancarlo Masciarelli: ex-presidente della finanziaria regionale abruzzese (già agli arresti tempo fa...).
2. Vito Domenici: assessore alla Sanità della precedente giunta di centrodestra.
3. Bernardo Mazzocca: assessore alla Sanità.
4. Angelo Bucciarelli: capo della segreteria all'assessorato alla Sanità.

Queste 5 persone sono agli arresti domiciliari.

1. Francesco Di Stanislao: direttore dell'Agenzia sanitaria nazionale.

Per lui è scattato il divieto di dimora a Pescara.

Ma oltre a questo elenco, sono come minimo una trentina le persone indagate.

Perchè?

Le indagini sulle cartolarizzazioni avrebbero portato alla luce un reticolo esteso ed intricato di mazzette e tangenti. Non è cosa nuova in Abruzzo...questa indagine va avanti più o meno dal 2004 con la giunta di centrodestra con presidente Giovanni Pace.

Tutto sarebbe iniziato con una bella cenetta dove si sarebbero per bene spartiti la torta. Del Turco avrebbe avuto bisogno di un milione di euro per convincere otto senatori a passare al Pd. Tutte queste cose sono riportate dall'impreditore Angelini, che ha raccontato tutto agli investigatori.

I giudici giustificano l'arresto:

Erano pronti provvedimenti che avrebbero buttato non in ginocchio , ma sottoterra la sanità abruzzese. Ci siamo posti il problema dell'attendibilità delle dichiarazioni di Angelini...Ma noi abbiamo riscontri documentali e intercettazioni (ma sarebbe mai uscita questa ladrata senza intercettazioni? Forse servono a qualcosa...).

Risposte ai fatti dell'Abruzzo:

• Spesso i teoremi accusatori sono infondati...Mi sembra molto strana una decapitazione completa; quasi una retata, dell'intero governo di una regione...non ha alcuna importanza che venga colpita una parte politica o l'altra...c'è la necessità di una riforma del sistema giudiziario italiano dalle fondamenta più profonde. Berlusconi

Quindi i giudici scoprono una mangiata incredibili da parte delle istituzioni e la risposta è che il sistema giudiziario deve essere riformato??? E poi certo che hanno li hanno arrestati tutti di colpo...cosa dovevano fare: avvisarli??? Mi sembra molto strana la reazione di Berlusconi, per non dire preoccupante...

• Ancora una volta il premier discredita la magistratura. Associazione Nazionale Magistrati (Anm)
• Il giusto diritto di critica, soprattutto da parte di chi ricopre cariche istituzionali [dovrebbe sempre avere come base] la conoscenza dei fatti e delle carte. Giuseppe Cascini, segretario Anm

• Con vicinanza umana al presidente Del Turco, auspiachiamo che egli sappia dimostrare la sua totale estraneità ai fatti che gli vengono contestati. Veltroni

Davvero politicamente corretto con un polito corrotto...ormai è chiaro che lui ci va cauto!

• E' tornata Tangetopoli., ma non Mani Pulite. Mani Pulite non potrà tornare fino a che questo Parlamento farà leggi non per aiutare la giustizia ma per fermarla. Di Pietro

Potrà piacere o non piacere ma Di Pietro fa opposizione, anzi fa il suo lavoro di politico. Quanti possono dire lo stesso...i suoi interventi sono chiarissimi e vanno sempre a centrare il problema.

A prescindere da come andrà tutto ciò, una lezione la dobbiamo imparare. Lo stato deve lavorare con la magistratura. Se lo stato lega le mani alla magistratura, chi ne beneficerà? Questa è la domanda chiave. Noi o chi ha interesse a continuare a commettere impunito i propri reati? Dandoci una risposta sincera,scevra da ideologie politiche, capiamo il perché di questo accanimento contro la magistratura.

Martina

Fonti: Il Secolo XIX, wikipedia

1. Ottaviano Del Turco: president of the region Abruzzo; former president of the Antimafia Commission; Finance minister in the second government of Giuliano Amato; leader of the CGIL.
2. Lamberto Quarta: secretary of Del Turco.
3. Antonio Boschetti: Assessor of the Productive Activities
4. Gianluca Zelli: entrepreneuer and sponsor of the Pescara Calcio
5. Camillo Cesarone: group leader of the Democratic Party in the region.
6. Luigi Conga: former manager of the Asl in Chieti.

The above mentioned people have been arrested between the 14 and 15 July.

1. Giancarlo Masciarelli: former president of the regional financial law in Abruzzo (has already been arrested...)
2. Vito Domenici: assessor for Health of the previous right-centered council.
3. Bernardo Mazzocca: assessor for Health
4. Angelo Bucciarello: leader of the secretariat of the councillorship for Health.

These five people are at house arrest.

1. Francesco Di Stanislao: headmaster of the health national Agency.

For him there's the residence ban in Pescara.

But besides this list, at least 30 people are inquired.

Why?

The investigation on the securitization would have brought to light a tangled and big net of bribes. It's no new in Abruzzo...this investigation is going on since around 2004 with the council of right-center with president Giovanni Pace.

All would have started with a sweet dinner where they would have divided up all the stuff. Del Turco would have needed one million euro in order to convince eight senators to pass into the Democratic Party. All these things have been reported by the entrepreneuer Angelini, who told everything to the investigators.

The judgers justify the arrest:

Proceedings which would have not only kneel down but smash underground the health system of Abruzzo were ready. We were aware of the matter of the reliability of Angelini statements...But we have document comparisons and telephone tappings
(Would we have ever known anything about this robbery without telephone tapping? Maybe they are useful to something...)

Answers to the facts happened in Abruzzo:

Often the adversary theorems are groundless...this complete decapitation seems to me really strange; quite a ruond up, of the entire government of the region...it has no importance whether is hit one or another political part...there's the need of reform of the italian judicial system starting from the very roots. Berlusconi

So judgers find out this robbery and the answer is that the entire judicial system has to be reformed???
And it's clear they have been arrested in something like a round up...maybe it would have been better if we inform them before of their arrest.... the answer of Berlusconi seems to me a bit strange, if not worrying..

Another time the prime minister run down the bench. National Magistrates Association

The correct right to critics, especially from those who hold an istitutional office [should be based on] the knowledge of facts and papers. Giuseppe Cascini, secretary of Anm

Humanely near to the president Del Turco, we hope that he will be able to prove his total non involvement to the facts contested to him. Veltroni

Really politically correct with a corrupted politician...it's clear that he is really prudent!

Tangentopoli is back, but not Clean Hands. Clean Hands can't come back till this Parliament will do laws not to help justice but to stop it. Di Pietro

One can like him or not but Di Pietro is doing opposition, he's doing his job as politician. How many others can say the same...his speeches are extremely clear and always focused to the problem.

Apart from how all this will go on, we have to learn a lesson. The state has to work along with the bench. If the state ties bench's hands, who is going to have a benefit? This is the key question. We or those who are interested in keeping on committing unpunished their crimes? By giving us an honest answer, regardless of political ideologies, we understand the reason of this tenacity against the bench.

Martina

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- It is a politician's dream: Handing out cold, hard cash to people on the street as they plead for help. Iraq's prime minister has been doing just that in recent weeks, doling out Iraqi dinars as an aide trails behind, keeping a tally.

· Goal is to rebuild basic services, jumpstart economy by doling out oil windfalls

· Maximum grants are $8,000, but most top out at $400 for widows, ill, unemployed

· Al-Maliki, a Shiite, pledges money to many Shiite areas, fanning favoritism fears

· Disorganization, lack of know-how impede government spending, past surveys say

The handouts by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and a handful of other top officials are authorized -- as long as each goes no higher than about $8,000, and the same people don't get them twice. Aides say they are meant merely to ease the pain a bit, and are motivated by a belief that better conditions will lead to more security.

The cash handouts are just one small -- if eye-catching -- part of a major investment push this summer by Iraq's government. The aim is to rebuild basic services and jumpstart Iraq's damaged economy by quickly distributing as much of the country's glut of oil revenue as possible.

U.S. officials and a fed-up American public are urging exactly that -- for Iraq to spend its own money, not America's, to rebuild the country now that violence has eased.

Yet the Iraqi effort runs a high risk of failure: The government is disorganized, fears of favoritism remain and the shadow of corruption haunts every step.

The United States has been doling out cash itself, most effectively to former Sunni militants who switched sides to fight al Qaeda. The military has also provided money and assistance to projects like fixing damaged roads in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City after battles there.

Yet most recent big spending announcements have been Iraqi: $100 million to rebuild Sadr City; another $100 million to the Shiite city of Basra after fighting there; $100 million for another southern Shiite town, Amarah; and $83 million to help internal refugees return home.

In efforts to get government money to local farmers suffering from drought. "We're starting to get a lot more attention and a lot more love," First Lt. Paul Horton, an assistant civil military operations officer in Diyala, said.

U.S. and Iraq scale back security plans

US considering recall of more troops from Iraq

Report: Bush Administration Considers Stepping Up Pace of Iraq Withdrawal

Time for US to leave Iraq? Not so fast, say analysts

The idea to move out quickly from Iraq reflects the view of many in the Pentagon who want to ease the strain on the military and to free more troops for Afghanistan and potentially other missions, it reported. More US and allied troops died in Afghanistan at the hand of Taliban and other fighters than in Iraq in the last two months, a trend that continued this month.

The US is mulling withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq beginning in September to free additional troops for deployment in Afghanistan. … with the two wars straining the army and the Marines, officials haven't been able to send any extra forces. No additional forces would be deployed in Afghanistan until next year, when fighting is expected to intensify with the arrival of spring. The Pentagon has also declared the redeployment of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its support ships from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea to provide greater air power and surveillance for the Afghanistan mission until next spring.

Bush must have shared his formula with Maliki for buying time.  Maliki has decided that cash payments will appease the stomach turning mess that resulted from King George's folly.  Maliki has to face the music by himself pretty soon.  McCain's plan to occupy Iraq for another 50 to 100 years is tenuous, at best.  Obama has other plans.  Whatever the outcome, Maliki is left holding the bag until someone hangs him beside Saddam. Bush bought himself a temporary distraction, by returning a few Tax Dollars back to his angry Taxpayers.  Taxpayers, after all, funded his oil for fun and profit folly, the token Stimulus Payment was the least he could do.  Maliki does the same while US troops start shifting from Iraq to Afghanistan.  Karzai must be pondering a similar stunt.  Karzai, also, has a stomach turning mess and a lot more challenge to behold.  The Taliban and Drug Lords can hand out a lot more cash and offer security to boot.  The US has a lot of catching up to do for the Afghans.  Meanwhile back at the Israel vs Iran ranch,  Olmert and his henchmen are itching to pull the trigger before Bush leaves office ... there is not enough cash in the universe to pay for that catastrophe ...

]]> http://yoomilee.wordpress.com/?p=591 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:14:53 +0000 yoomilee http://yoomilee.wordpress.com/?p=591 On 28 June 2008, Transparency International India (TII) and the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) released a corruption study for the year 2007 with a focus on "BPL households".

The study estimated that Rs. 8,830 million, in all, was paid as bribe by BPL households in the last one year, in availing 11 public services. It is estimated that the poorest households of our country paid Rs. 2,148 million to police as bribe.
From highlights of "TII-CMS India Corruption Study 2007"

India has a lot of categories for her people, particularly those in the bottom strata of society. These categories are set up, presumably, to provide certain benefits to the marginalized population. (The controversial reservations system in higher education and government jobs is one example.) There is a National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) that is in place "to safeguard the interest of Backward Classes". This is the most fungible of the categories, (unlike "Scheduled Castes" (SCs) and "Scheduled Tribes" (STs)) and the NCBC has published guidelines on how to be included in "Other Backward Classes" (OBCs) as well as a central list, by state, of the names of the castes, sub-castes, synonyms, and communities that currently make up OBCs.

Cutting across all these classifications is the category "Below Poverty Line" or BPL (most likely composed of OBCs, SCs and STs). The highlights of the TII-CMS study does not define BPL, but in the 1970's the government of India (GOI) determined that you were poor if your total income fell below the cost of providing 2,400 calories of food per day per rural citizen and 2,100 calories per day per urban citizen. (Dilip D'Souza, writing in India Together, explores what this means in A thin Indian line.) In December 2005, this translated into Rs. 368 (US$ 8.56) per person per month for rural households and Rs. 559 (US$ 13.00) for urban households. That is less than Rs. 13 (US$ 0.29) and Rs. 19 (US$ 0.43) per day, far less than the US$ 1.00 a day used by the World Bank to measure extreme poverty. Mohan Guruswamy and Ronald Joseph Abraham, of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, call the official poverty line (currently 26% of the population) the "starvation line" in their report Redefining Poverty: A New Poverty Line for a New India because this amount is just enough to consume calories, without taking into account nutrition, or any other basic needs, such as drinking water, shelter, sanitation, clothing, and access to education and health care.

These are the people who had to pay an estimated Rs. 8,830 million (over US$ 220 million) in bribes last year to get access to basic and "need-based" services, including the very services specifically set up to alleviate their poverty, such as the Public Distribution System and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). (Corruption in the NREGS has been highlighted by the recent murders of two social activists conducting social audits of its implementation in the state of Jharkhand.)

The services and the amount paid in bribes for access to these services, are outlined below, in the order of amount paid. This number is not higher because many people could not pay bribes or did not have "contacts" or influence to get access to services. About a third of the BPL households did not have a "BPL Card" or "ration" card.

Police - Rs. 2,148 million (US$ 53.7 million).

Housing - Rs. 1,566 million (US$ 39.15 million).

Land Records/Registration - Rs. 1.234 million (US$ 30.85 million).

Electricity - Rs. 1,040 million (US$ 26 million).

Hospital - Rs. 870 million (US$ 21.75 million).

Banking - Rs. 831.7 million (US$ 20.8 million).

Public Distribution System - Rs. 458 million (US$ 11.45 million).  The Public Distribution System is a social security measure to distribute subsidized food grains and fuel to BPL households through "ration" shops.

Water supply - Rs. 240 million (US$ 6 million).

Forest - Rs. 240 million (US$ 6 million).  Forest services are primarily used by Scheduled Tribes who live in and around designated National Forests. (When a forest is declared a protected habitat, STs who live in the forest are removed and charged a fee to enter the forest in order to maintain their forest-based livelihood or to gather fuelwood.)

Education (up to Standard XII) - Rs. 120 million (US$ 3 million).

NREGS - Rs. 70 million (US$ 1.75 million). The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme guarantees one able-bodied member of a family 100 days of work at the prevailing agricultural rate or, if fixed by the Government, a minimum rate of Rs. 60 per day.  BPL households have had to pay bribes to register, get a "job card", get selected, and get paid!

These numbers do not take into account the travel costs and lost wages of visiting an office more than three times and dealing with the absence or non-availability of staff, lengthy procedures and multiple form-filling.

The TII-CMS study recommends a four-pronged drive to reduce corruption:

1. Simplification of procedures.
2. Streamlining of information flows with the help of IT tools and e-governance initiatives.
3. Reorientation of front-end staff to the sensitivities of dealing with the BPL households.
4. Additional civil society activism.

I'm not holding my breath.  Besides a couple of headline grabbing, simplistic summaries of this report, I haven't read any reports of outrage.  It's business as usual.

Every single government office is infected with bribery virus..

You may contest the bribe then your work simply wont get done.. you may follow it up for a while or your life..

Where will it stopped.. Only when people who ask bribes are should be hit with chappals in public.. not only once but depends on their "earning" in bribes..

I challenge anybody to get his passport done without paying a single paisa bribe.

I don't know if it's that simple.  All I know is that people need to call their state representatives before this bill makes it through the Senate.  If you're a democrat, you need to make sure that your representatives know that you won't tolerate them rolling over for the Republicans.  Let them know that you want change!  We don't want politicians to keep wiping their asses with the constitution!

Sad story but true. I went abroad to work, just to find my self alone and hurting. As I have been brought up in Pakistan, Pakistani culture is in my roots. The foreign land could not do much, did not fascinate me. What really took me by surprise was that the people in the so called land of opportunity would work hard, earn honest money and live their lives. Bad sheep are every where so I did meet some thugs.

I missed the smell of my country, I missed the feel, the color, the noise and mostly the sound of azan (call for prayer) that I had been listening when I had opened my eyes, 5 times a day, every day for 43 odd years of my life, suddenly that part was missing. Though I am not a hard core religious Muslim but I really missed my daily call for prayers.

I came back with a renewed energy to work in my country, a place which is in my heart and sole. The moment I landed at the airport my gut feeling told me that I had made a mistake of coming back, but here I was back home, just to find out that my city of Karachi had become dirtier, crimes had multiplied and there was an unannounced unrest in the people of the city.

With lawlessness grown to its extreme, it seemed that this city had become a state for criminals. Police and the law was for protection of the criminals and police was there to extract money from common man let the crime pass away. Bomb blasts, shoot to kill and many other incidents that happened in couple of months after my arrival was enough to tell me how wrong I was.

Now, after some years, when things have grown worse, I usually think, What are we waiting for? for my right to come and handle the country and pull the people out of this misery. This though makes me laugh.

The 2008-2012 anti-corruption plan says the situation in China is "grim and the tasks arduous" and in a departure from the Party's usual style, called for more public hearings and professional consultation to improve transparency.

"Resolutely punishing and effectively preventing corruption relates to whether the people support you or not and to the Party's life-and-death survival," said the report, published on the government's website (www.gov.cn).

Widespread graft in China is a major cause of public resentment and social unrest that the Party is at pains to curb, and has been blamed for a variety of the country's ills, such as poor enforcement of food and product standards and workplace safety regulations.

The Party has initiated several clean-up campaigns and in his annual state-of-the-nation report Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the need to curb graft. But withno meaningful checks on power, the country has had only limited success.

The report touches on various elements of the financial sector, calling for deepening reform of budget management and standardizing the system of fiscal transfers.

It also orders state-owned companies to create "legal, clean and democratic management" and says the heads of such enterprises must curb "wasteful spending" of government money.

The system of "internal Party supervision" should be perfected, the report said.

China's auditor has previously named several ministries for faking spending items to swindle funds, including its top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, which it said transferred government funds for outside investment.

And the plan devoted several items to cleaning up the system governing land use, a sector of key importance as rural land is swallowed up for development and as lines blur between collective, state and private ownership.

The system of imposing levies on land use should be standardized and methods of giving compensation for land and resettlement perfected, the report said.

Earlier this month, China's audit office said city governments kept more than 70 percent of revenues from land sales off their books.

Those found guilty of corruption should be punished and no such behavior should be condoned, the report advised.

In an accompanying commentary, the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, lauded the government's efforts.

"In recent years, we have made visible results in the fight against corruption, but corruption is still very serious," it said. "Anti-corruption work should be held tightly in hand, and not allowed the slightest relaxation."

A friend of mine, Pedro, was driving me home after taking me for breakfast. We were on Avenida Insurgentes, one of Mexico’s City’s main traffic thoroughfares which, once you get onto, is hard to turn back on. U-turns are usually the form used by Distrito Federal’s confident drivers to get back to where they came from.

Pedro decided to pull a classic DF maneuver. In order to turn round, when the traffic light in front of us turned green, he pulled into the lane of waiting cross-traffic to our right, moving over in front of the waiting cars to wait for the light to change. But before it did, both of us spotted a traffic policeman on the other side of the road. He signaled to Pedro to move on, not to make the turn and to carry on driving down Insurgentes.
To my puzzlement, Pedro ignored him, later explaining that he was planning to ignore the warden and whiz by. But, as we pulled out into the road and swung round to the left back onto Insurgentes, we came face to face with the traffic warden’s colleague, standing in the middle of the road. He pulled us over.

I tensed up. I didn’t know what to expect. My companion started trying to explain that he’d made the move because we were in a hurry and turning round on Insurgentes was hard. Neither of those explanations were very true, and our man here knew it. He asked to see Pedro’s license.

There was a silence.

Pedro threw me a nervous glance.

He ran his hand through his hair and down his face, looking shocked.

“No traigo licencio, official,” he murmured.

“I don’t have a license.”

The policeman’s face lit up. His partner – who Pedro had blankly ignored – appeared in order to reap his revenge, jotting down the number of the license plate and the car details.

We didn’t need the policeman who had stopped us to pull out his little book of rules and read us the penalties for the traffic infraction Pedro had just committed, as well as the cost of driving without a license. But he did it anyway.

“Offer him some money,” I murmured, surprising myself.

But it looked bleak. The thousands of pesos my friend was going to have to pay in fines mounted. Later, friends told me that the jotting down of details and the threat of fines is all part of the elaborate theatre of the bribe culture.

Pedro got out of the car and stood speaking conspiratorially to the policeman who was jotting down the car details, paying him the attention he should have paid him three minutes ago when he told him not to make the turn. The policeman appeared to be focused on his work and was clearly enjoying himself.

Pedro reached into his back pocket and pulled out 500 pesos. The policeman took it discreetly, tucked it under his clipboard and walked away.

Game Over.

As frequently is the case, I was astounded and made no secret of that as we drove away. $US50 to get yourself out of driving without a license, a serious traffic infraction and disregarding an officer. What a bargain.

Politician #1 - Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd

Democratic senator from Connecticut saved about $75,000 on the life of two loans through Countrywide, which waived three-eighths of a point on one and one-fourth of a point on the other. A former Countrywide employee says the float-downs were free. Countrywide contributed $21,000 to Dodd's campaigns since 1997

Politician #2 - North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad

Democratic senator from North Dakota refinanced an eight-unit apartment building with a loan that violated Countrywide's policy of providing loans for buildings of four units or fewer. Countrywide C.E.O. Angelo Mozilo told a subordinate to "make an exception due to the fact that the borrower is a senator" and to "take off one point," or $10,000, on another loan

Politician # 3 - Former HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson

Jackson borrowed $346,331 and $308,000 from Countrywide in 2003. The loans came through on January 21, 2004, a week before President Bush named him secretary of the Housing and Urban Development agency

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note: this is non-partisan, and includes both Dems and Repubs

David Davis has made one of the shrewdest political gambles of his career.

In resigning from Parliament after such a contentious Labour win aided by the Democratic Unionist Party, and fighting as a candidate in the subsequent by-election, he now appears as a man of principle.

As Shadow Home Secretary you may have fought that he was in the right job to influence people's minds on the 42 day detention, but although he may have won the moral argument in the Commons the vote still went against him.

Labour have been arguing that the public are behind them but as David Cameron said that doesn't make it right.

Now standing on a civil liberties platform in the coming by-election he can give Labour a public vote that might just change the popular views in the UK, and destroy Labour's public argument.

I fully expect David Davis to win his seat.

His closest rivals last time were the Liberal Democrats and as they support David Davis' stance on civil liberties Nick Clegg has refused to put a candidate up against him.

Now it is up to Labour whether they will stand.

If they refuse, it will look as though they have been scared to test public opinion.

If they accept, odds are they will be humilated.

Its win - win for David Davis.

The public like politicans of principle. You may not always agree with them but at least they stand a corner and fight for their beliefs.

That's why people like Tony Benn are so respected. His socialist views may be a thing of the past for New Labour but his views give us a true distance of how far this New Labour Government has travelled to the right.

You could argue that democracy needs this shading to work well.

The talk is that Labour won't stand in the by-election and try to marginalise David Davis.

If that is the case then Kelvin Mackenzie, former editor of The Sun, has said that he will probably run, backed by Rupert Murdoch's money and press.

Now a News International campaign against David Davis will certainly make the by-election more interesting.

I suspect though that Davis will still win against Mackenzie. It would take some sleaze or corruption angle by News International to make it a close race. Something which they will no doubt be looking into just now.

Much as I'd love Kelvin Mackenzie to win the seat and become an MP - everytime he speaks his anti-Scottish diatribe, the nationalist vote in Scotland soars. He's a one-man Recruiting Sergeant for the SNP, SSP and Greens. In a political war he could be even described as a fifth-columist for Scottish independence! - the vote has got to go with Davis.

We have too few principled politicans in Westminster to afford to lose him.

Speaking of lack of principles let us turn to the Labour Party. They have bullied, dealt and perhaps bribed their way to win this vote.

There was media talk today of Gordon Brown offering would-be rebels: 'What do you want in your constituency?' and offering Labour MPs sitting on marginals safer seats come election time. One radio report said one Labour MP was offered the Governorship of Bermuda! Even bribes were suggested!

But it is the deal offered to the DUP that is the most interesting. The SNP will be watching with interest to see if Northern Ireland accrues any benefit from this deal, as this negates the Government policy of acting in the interests of the UK over a devolved administration. Labour couldn't use that argument to argue against a Scottish oil fund for instance.

The Lord Advocate of Scotland, Elish Angelini, has said that she sees no circumstances where this law to come into effect in Scotland. The previous Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, a Labour Peer no less, has agreed with her.

Given that any such extension to 42 days detention without charge in Scotland would need to be granted by the Lord Advocate then it can be seen that the law will be operationally defunct here in Scotland in any case.

If it comes into statute at all. There is enough opposition in the Lords to suggest that this bill will never make it to law. It will also be challenged on Human Rights laws if need be.

Which makes Gordon Brown's posturing on this all the more remarkable.

He seems to have lost his leadership of the party somewhere over the Bermuda Triangle.

 Read 1 Samuel 8:1–5; 12:1–25

 "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." 1 Samuel 8:5 NIV

* * *

“He picks his spots,” Stern grumbled. “This guy is dancing as fast as he can to throw as much against the wall so his sentence won’t be as hard.”

There’s a chance Donaghy’s attorney, John Lauro, had long ago chosen to release wild stories of league corruption during the Finals, but there’s a possibility, too, that the league needlessly provoked it. The NBA wanted this Donaghy circus on Tuesday night about as much they wanted the San Antonio Spurs back in the Finals.

Within the past week, the NBA filed a letter with federal probation officials calling for Donaghy to pay restitution of $1 million, a sum that the league says it invested in investigating the rogue ref. When the government asked the NBA – considered the victim of Donaghy’s crimes – for a figure on its damages, the league should’ve shown restraint and taken a pass.

Donaghy is no sympathetic figure. He’s a bad guy, but he is also a broken man who has lost his family and his career. Whatever his prison sentence, his life is in ruins. He deserves everything he gets, but make no mistake: The blood money is beneath the NBA.

Let it go. Just let it go.

So, Donaghy had one dart left for Stern before the felon’s sentencing in July, and empowered with the feds requesting the judge grant Donaghy probation over prison because of his cooperation in the prosecution of his co-conspirators, Lauro fired on the commissioner who has trashed his client’s credibility for months. What’s more, Lauro tried to provide the judge details of disclosures that the feds didn’t include in the recommendation letter.

Nevertheless, the timing seems more about exacting revenge on Stern and his league than leveraging the judge for a shorter sentence. The lawyer waited until there were suspicions of strange officiating in Game 2, until the series had moved to Los Angeles for Game 3, and let loose these sordid stories of NBA corruption, compromises and fixes.

Still, Stern is right when he says – so far, anyway – that, “Mr. Donaghy is the only one here that’s guilty of criminal activity.”

Did the league and referees conspire to get the Lakers past the Sacramento Kings and into the 2002 NBA Finals? Did Yao Ming get unfairly targeted in the 2005 playoffs at the behest of the league? Were NBA referees punished for throwing superstars out of games? Do relationships among team officials, coaches and players with refs compromise calls on the floor?

There’s a chance there’s some chards of truth on the smaller ones, but the biggies? Do you truly think league executives would expose themselves to criminal prosecution for better television ratings, better matchups?

Enough with the conspiracies, enough.

Within the NBA, there’s a belief that Donaghy was always planning to file these papers in New York on Tuesday, but the recent timing of the league’s demand of $1 million restitution makes it look like Lauro and Donaghy were furious and struck back.

For the league, the money isn’t the issue. It can find that million between the cushions of couches in its midtown Manhattan tower. For the NBA, this was a self-defeating exercise, useless. And yes, Donaghy is responsible for his felony acts, for betting on games, providing gamblers inside information and, as Stern said, “a convicted felon who really violated probably the most sacred trust in sports.” Nevertheless, Donaghy had been an employee with a pattern of disturbing behavior, whose acts should have invited a more probing league investigation into his double life.

Who has paid the price in the NBA? Who lost their job over Donaghy? Perhaps the NBA wouldn’t have had to pay $1 million for this investigation – if it did spend that much – had it gone deeper in its original probes.

From the beginning, Stern engaged in a relentless campaign to isolate the corruption to Donaghy. He cast doubts on Donaghy’s credibility with constant refrains that he’s a “convicted felon.” Stern started in the summer, calling him a “rouge, isolated official.” All along, his instincts were right: As long as the scandal was contained to this creep, the sport could survive the scandal.

As it turned out, the story never had the legs that the NBA feared. The league was still moving quietly toward Donaghy’s sentencing in mid-July, when it looks like it took a foolish risk.

Stern doesn’t need restitution out of Donaghy. He needs him out of the news, out of his life. And how many millions of dollars would the NBA have paid for that crook to be out of sight, out of mind, on a night the starry Hollywood stage at Staples should’ve belonged to Kobe Bryant?

This was originally found @ Yahoo Sports

iNPLACENEWS

Brown has obviously been reading Douglas Adams and thinks that "42" is the answer to everything.

Perhaps this will be Brown's Rubicon.....

UPDATE...

The government and G Brown Esq. scrape through with help from the DUP, by exactly 9 votes. A pyrrhic victory methinks. Sky are already smelling blood as rumours of deals abound. It would seem that the irish vote was worth about £130m each. As Clegg put it, a dirty deal, the worst of pork-barrel politics, with votes up to the highest bidder. Gordon has put us all in hock to the DUP and democracy has been sold down the river. Shame on Gordon, shame on the government and well done to the Labour MPs who valued their consciences and voted against the whip. A disgusting day for British Politics.

When you’re into business expansion, please remember to borrow as much as possible. It would be an achievement if you could borrow RM1 billion for your RM2 ringgit shell company. The fact is the more you borrow and the deeper your company is in debt the better. When you owed banks billions of dollars in loan you’re a celebrity, so much so that the banks were so scared of your security they might even provide you bodyguards foc. And if you can further convinced the banks to lend you more money to turnaround your company, you’re basically a genius.

Chances are you would be sentenced to longer jail terms for stealing underwears or shampoo than for owing billions of dollars in debts. There’s very high possibility that you could just walk away a freeman instead if you’d committed such action in Malaysia. Anyway I’ve not read of any local top businessmen did anything similar to Broadcom Corporation’s (Nasdaq: BRCM, stock) co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, a provider of semiconductors for wired and wireless communications.

Short of committing murder, the successful entrepreneur was indicted on federal narcotics charges that include allegations he slipped ecstasy into the drinks of business associates, maintained a drug warehouse and concealed his illegal conduct with bribes and death threats. Whoa! Al Capone reincarnation! The billionaire also is accused of committing conspiracy, securities fraud and other violations - Broadcom was eventually forced to write down its profits by $2.2 billion in January 2007, believed to be the largest-ever restatement related to improperly accounting for backdated options.

Dr. Nicholas used much of his fortune to fund drug parties in airplanes and luxury homes and to build a secret tunnel and room beneath his mansion in Laguna Hills. The court documents also claim Nicholas hired prostitutes and escorts for himself, his employees and customers and conspired to get illegal prescriptions for drugs such as Valium. In fact, he smoked so much marijuana during a flight on a private jet between Orange County and Las Vegas that the pilot had to put on an oxygen mask.

The drug charges against Nicholas carry a maximum combined sentence of 20 years in prison. He could face up to 340 years in prison on the stock backdating charges. What? Only 20 years for drug offence but 340 years for backdated stock options? You gotta be kidding! Maybe that’s what the PM is trying to do after all. Dig as much as possible because in Malaysia it’s not an offence for politicians to be super rich (remember “Sultan” Zakaria and his palace story) and if you wish to save your arse, you got to put yourself at the same level as Marcos or Suharto. Dr. Nicholas did it at the right time but at the wrong place. Before I sign-off, I managed to make some pocket money scalped Baidu.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU, stock) yesterday. Can’t let go of such opportunity when the Dow was so bullish, can I?

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