Socio-political
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Charges Against the N.S.A.
On June 13th, a fifty-four-year-old former government employee named Thomas Drake is scheduled to appear in a courtroom in Baltimore, where he will face some of the gravest charges that can be brought against an American citizen. A former senior executive at the National Security Agency, the government’s electronic-espionage service, he is accused, in essence, of being an enemy of the state. According to a ten-count indictment delivered against him in April, 2010, Drake violated the Espionage Act—the 1917 statute that was used to convict Aldrich Ames, the C.I.A. officer who, in the eighties and nineties, sold U.S. intelligence to the K.G.B., enabling the Kremlin to assassinate informants. In 2007, the indictment says, Drake willfully retained top-secret defense documents that he had sworn an oath to protect, sneaking them out of the intelligence agency’s headquarters, at Fort Meade, Maryland, and taking them home, for the purpose of “unauthorized disclosure.”
USAID AED suspension: Why did USAID suspend one of its biggest contractors without any explanation? - By Christopher Beam
Dr. Rajiv Shah (far left) of USAID visits Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan In the fall of 2010, the Academy for Educational Development, then headed by president and CEO Stephen Moseley, sent a check for nearly $1 million to the United States Agency for International Development. Money usually flows the other way—AED was one of USAID's largest contractors—but AED had concluded it had overcharged the federal government by that amount for a project it was overseeing in Pakistan.
Karl Rove. Zuma/Tom Reel Karl Rove's dark-money political operation has uncovered a major piece of what it's calling "breaking news": Elizabeth Warren, the White House aide in charge of assembling the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, once "made time for dinner" with me. Alert the blogosphere! Send out the tweets! Launch an investigation!
Karl Rove's Audacious Transparency Hypocrisy
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Associated Press Msgr. William Lynn leaving court last week in Philadelphia. He is suspected of covering up rape by the priests and is charged with child endangerment.
Magazine says Army ordered 'psychological operations' on lawmakers - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency
By David Jackson , USA TODAY Updated 2011-02-24 1:37 PM An Afghan youth looks on as U.S. Marines patrol Garmser, Helmand province, Afghanistan, on Thursday. There are around 140,000 international troops, two-thirds of them from the United States, in Afghanistan fighting the militant Islamist Taliban. By Adek Berry, AFP/Getty Images
What Were They Thinking? Why People Make Sex Tapes - MedPage Today Blogs - 21861
Hardly a week goes by without yet another home video of some public figure's sexual behavior coming to light.Findings — The Threatening Scent of Fertile Women
Each of the young men thought she was simply a fellow student at participating in the experiment, which ostensibly consisted of her and the man assembling a puzzle of Lego blocks. But the real experiment came later, when each man rated her attractiveness. Previous research had shown that a woman at the fertile stage of her menstrual cycle seems more attractive, and that same effect was observed here — but only when this woman was rated by a man who wasn’t already involved with someone else.
Michael Ratner: Coalition sought investigation of George W. Bush in Switzerland He says Bush's authorization of water boarding violates torture laws Ratner: Since U.S. wouldn't prosecute, another country should take the case Failure to prosecute Bush in U.S. is a sign politics trumped law, he says
Why there should be a case against George W. Bush under torture law
Charles M. Smith Last fiscal year, the United States Government awarded over $535 billion in contracts with private corporations, nonprofits and other entities. A significant percentage of these contracts are awarded not as safer fixed-price contracts or they were awarded without adequate price competition, meaning auditing is the only realistic defense American taxpayers have against contractor overbilling. There is only one agency with the authority and the ability to audit contractor proposals, assist negotiations and audit incurred costs under massive, fraud-prone and complicated cost-type contracts. That agency, despite conducting work across most of the federal government, is located within the Defense Department, underneath several layers of senior officials.
Fix the Pentagon Part I: Create an Independent Audit Agency
30 Steps To Better Government
CALLS for greater government efficiency are nothing new in Washington.General Peter Chiarelli attends 'A Salute To Our Troops' pre-show of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in 2008.
4-star general, 5-star grace
Lisa Huff says the state-funded Disability Lifeline program in Washington state has lived up to its name, helping her get counseling for depression, treatment for diabetes and support for her ultimate goal: getting a job.
States must cut health care programs
Posted at 6:00 AM ET, 02/ 9/2011 By Glenn Kessler Donald Rumsfeld, interviewed on Good Morning America.