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Democratic government 'slippage'- implosion

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Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim. Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim. Wealth Inequality in America. Conflict of interest. The presence of a conflict of interest is independent of the occurrence of impropriety.

Conflict of interest

Therefore, a conflict of interest can be discovered and voluntarily defused before any corruption occurs. A widely used definition is: "A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgement or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest. "[1] Primary interest refers to the principal goals of the profession or activity, such as the protection of clients, the health of patients, the integrity of research, and the duties of public office. Secondary interest includes not only financial gain but also such motives as the desire for professional advancement and the wish to do favours for family and friends, but conflict of interest rules usually focus on financial relationships because they are relatively more objective, fungible, and quantifiable.

Related to the practice of law[edit] Organizational[edit] Types[edit] Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep.

Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash

Howard McKeon, (R-California), speaks to reporters following a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 21, 2013. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta.

NSA Snowden - mass 'surveillance'- spying

Rose quits LiberalDemocrats in protest at secret courts. One of the country's leading human rights barristers is to resign her membership of the Liberal Democrats to express her outrage over the coalition government's backing for secret courts.

Rose quits LiberalDemocrats in protest at secret courts

Dinah Rose QC successfully represented the British-resident Guantánamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed, in his battle to establish that British intelligence services were complicit in his "cruel and inhuman" treatment by the United States. GCHQ: this is a pivotal moment: democracies are becoming national security states. So is it a Milly Dowler moment?

GCHQ: this is a pivotal moment: democracies are becoming national security states

Do We Really Have To Prepare For The Fourth Box? As I watch the legislative abominations named SOPA, PIPA, and NDAA follow the lead of the DMCA and the Patriot Act in the United States, I realize that the worst possible scenario for civil liberties appears to actually be materializing.

Do We Really Have To Prepare For The Fourth Box?

The internal talk within the Swedish Pirate Party has long been that it’s our job to prevent Europe from descending into totalitarian fascism. The United States is lost; it is beyond help and repair and will descend. Our job is to prevent Europe from happily following suit, but instead break off the leash in time. This was apparent five years ago, and is screamingly obvious today.

This article took me well over 24 hours to write, after a week of procrastination. Undercover police officer: 'I spied on the Stephen Lawrence campaign' - video. You’re viewing a beta release of the Guardian’s responsive website.

Undercover police officer: 'I spied on the Stephen Lawrence campaign' - video

We’d love to hear your feedback Opt-out and return to our current site uk news. Spiegel: Data Spying Programs Threaten German Security. "Germany's security is also being defended in the Hindu Kush, too," Peter Struck, who was Germany's defense minister at the time, said in 2002.

Spiegel: Data Spying Programs Threaten German Security

If that's true, then the government should also be expected to defend the security of its people at their own doorstep. Because the massive sniffing out and saving of data of all kinds -- that of citizens and businesses, newspapers, political parties, government agencies -- is in the end just that: a question of security. It is about the principles of the rule of law. And it is a matter of national security. We live in changing times. Since Friday, we have known that the British intelligence agency GCHQ is "worse than the United States. " India rolls out massive surveillance system accountable neither to courts or Parliament : India. Reuters | New Delhi, June 20, 2013 | UPDATED 20:37 IST India has launched a wide-ranging surveillance programme that will give its security agencies and even income tax officials the ability to tap directly into e-mails and phone calls without oversight by courts or parliament, several sources said.

India rolls out massive surveillance system accountable neither to courts or Parliament : India

The expanded surveillance in the world's most populous democracy, which the government says will help safeguard national security, has alarmed privacy advocates at a time when allegations of massive U.S. digital snooping beyond American shores has set off a global furore. "If India doesn't want to look like an authoritarian regime, it needs to be transparent about who will be authorized to collect data, what data will be collected, how it will be used, and how the right to privacy will be protected," said Cynthia Wong, an Internet researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Interior ministry spokesman K.S. BitsOfFreedom: ZORGEN OVER ONGERICHT AFTAPPEN IN NEDERLAND ALLEEN MAAR STERKER. Who Did Obama Put In Charge Of Independent Review Of NSA? When President Obama announced a series of intelligence reforms last Friday he called for the creation of an independent advisory group made up of “outside experts” who will review controversial surveillance programs.

Who Did Obama Put In Charge Of Independent Review Of NSA?

But based on a memorandum issued today by the White House, it’s not clear how independent the effort will be. The president has directed the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, to establish the “review group” that will be responsible for issuing a report about how surveillance programs “impact our security, our privacy, and our foreign policy.” Conflict of interest. Nearly half in Congress are millionaires, study finds. GAO Finds Serious Conflicts at the Fed. WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - A new audit of the Federal Reserve released today detailed widespread conflicts of interest involving directors of its regional banks.

GAO Finds Serious Conflicts at the Fed

The GAO detailed instance after instance of top executives of corporations and financial institutions using their influence as Federal Reserve directors to financially benefit their firms, and, in at least one instance, themselves. "Clearly it is unacceptable for so few people to wield so much unchecked power," Sanders said. "Not only do they run the banks, they run the institutions that regulate the banks. " Sanders said he will work with leading economists to develop legislation to restructure the Fed and bar the banking industry from picking Fed directors. "This is exactly the kind of outrageous behavior by the big banks and Wall Street that is infuriating so many Americans," Sanders said.

(pdf)and Increase Transparency. The Great Transformation (book) The Great Transformation is a book by Karl Polanyi, an Austro-Hungarian political economist. First published in 1944, it deals with the social and political upheavals that took place in England during the rise of the market economy. Polanyi contends that the modern market economy and the modern nation-state should be understood not as discrete elements, but as the single human invention he calls the "Market Society". A distinguishing characteristic of the "Market Society" is that mankind's economic mentalities were changed. Polanyi argued that the development of the modern state went hand in hand with the development of modern market economies and that these two changes were inexorably linked in history. The great transformation was begun by the powerful modern state, which was needed to push changes in social structure and human nature that allowed for a competitive capitalist economy.

Polanyi, K. (1944). Block, F., & Polanyi, K. (2003). Under Siege: How Government Centralization and Expansion Puts Democracy in the Service of Special Interests. In its first full year of business in 1998, the 99 Cents Only store in the north Los Angeles city of Lancaster did over $5 million in sales. This was welcome news to the city, given the space had been vacant ever since the new “Power Center” shopping development, where 99 Cents was located, opened ten years earlier. Almost immediately, however, 99 Cents’ next door neighbor, Costco, told the city it needed to expand. The owner of the center offered Costco optimal space behind 99 Cents, but Costco insisted that the city use its power of eminent domain to condemn 99 Cents’ business. If the city refused, Costco threatened to relocate to neighboring Palmdale, who surely would use every tool at its disposal to attract the lucrative big box store’s business.

To seal the deal, Costco issued an additional threat: not only would it relocate to Palmdale—it would leave its existing store shuttered and vacant as an economic deadweight on the city’s key commercial center. Dear Internet: It's No Longer OK to Not Know How Congress Works. Dear Internet: It's No Longer OK to Not Know How Congress Works Dec 19, 2011 Clay Johnson. Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. Who’s Financing the ‘Super PACs’ - Graphic.

Occupy Wall Street Makes Official Call To Amend Constitution. By Nike Sachs Posted: 1/6/12 12:43 PM ET Efforts to amend the Constitution to declare that corporations are not people and money is not speech gained support in two notable New York forums this week. The New York City General Assembly of the Occupy Wall Street movement on Tuesday officially called for a constitutional amendment to overturn a controversial Supreme Court decision from 2010 . On Wednesday, a similar resolution passed the New York City Council. Such an amendment would reverse not only the Supreme Court’s 2010 opinion in Citizens United v. Beyond New York, the Los Angeles City Council almost a month ago and several other city governments across the nation have supported anti-Citizens United resolutions. On Dec. 30, the Montana Supreme Court added its authority to the Citizens United backlash by upholding the state’s century-old ban on corporate cash in campaigns.

Corporatocracy: Living in the UCA (United Corps. of America) How the Rich Subverted the Legal System and Occupy Wall Street Swept the Land. Glenn Greenwald: With Liberty and Justice for Some. Glenn Greenwald: Too Big to Jail (Book Excerpt) In July 2010, Martin Joel Erzinger, a hedge fund manager for extremely wealthy investors at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, was driving his car near Vail, Colorado, when he hit a bicyclist from behind and then sped away. Corporatocracy to Democracy. Manufacturing consent -theoretical- Rootstrikers. Corporation.

Tax havens / tax evasion = money NOT invested in public domain

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought. Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else: "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," Consumer group accuses Hollywood of 'threatening politicians'

Tell congress to say NO to indefinite detention

Meldingsformulier - Ministermeldpunt. NYT: Members of Congress grew richer in past 6 years - politics - The New York Times. Noreena Hertz. Separation of Corporation and State. By Nova Spivack Originally published on July 28, 2004; Updated on October 10, 2011. WikiLeaks: We demand a separation of... The Failure of Governance in a Hyperconnected World. Reuters: Top Justice officials connected to mortgage banks. WikiLeaks Funding Killed By Corporations. Anonymous 5nov2011Operation Cash-Back -OpCashBack. Generation OS13: The new culture of resistance. Generation OS13 is an explosive insight into the attack on civil liberties occurring in western democracies and how artists, musicians, journalists and authors encourage the peoples right to resist against Banker occupation. Generation OS13: The new culture of resistance. Education activists seek to collaborate with Occupy Wall Street - The Answer Sheet. A group of parents, educators, students and activists who have organized to work to eliminate high-stakes testing in public education is now seeking to collaborate with the Occupy Wall Street protest movement on specific demands regarding school reform.

Progressive Ideas Page - OccupyWiki. Jeff Connaughton The Payoff Justice Department And Wall Street. THE PAYOFF: Why Wall Street Always Wins. In January 2009, Ted Kaufman, long-time aide to Vice President Joe Biden, was appointed to fill Biden’s seat in the US Senate. Former Biden staffer and top DC lobbyist Jeff Connaughton joined Kaufman as his chief of staff. Meritocracy. Glenn Greenwald: Can't wait until NBC repla... Representation Without Taxation: Fortune 500 Companies that Spend Big on Lobbying and Avoid Taxes. 75 Years in Prison For Videotaping Police. Inside job: banks & academia. Demise of journalistic independency & access to Uni / HE Media. NYPD for hire: how uniformed New York cops moonlight for banks. Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear.

STOP PRISON FOR PROFIT. Who Really Owns The NYPD? Turns Out It's Not Such A Rhetorical Question. Was NYPD 'white shirt' with pepper spray working for Wall Street? NYPD now on Big Bank Payroll. JP Morgan Funded NYPD Mass Arrests Over 700 Peaceful Occupy Wall Street Protesters : Turning the Police Into Private Security Guards. Financial Giants Put NYPD on Payroll.

'Paid Detail Unit' Wall Streets' Cops. Indefinite Detention of American Citizens: Coming Soon to Battlefield U.S.A. NYT: Unnecessary govt secrecy "corrodes the democratic process" & "jeopardizes national security." DARPA Sets Traps For Future WikiLeakers. Demos. Drie ton voor onderzoek legitimiteitscrisis democratie. Mitt Romney's $12 Million Mystery Man. Liquid Democracy. Alternatieve democratie. ZEMBLA: de verzuimpolitie. Four Horsemen - Official Trailer II.

Space corporate~private ?

Britain's shadow government: unelected, unbalanced and unaccountable. The NHS bill could finish the health service – and David Cameron. NHS health reforms: Extent of McKinsey & Company's role in Andrew Lansley's proposals. Management consultants get £7m to give GPs business skills. Tech firms face netroots uprising - Jennifer Martinez and Elizabeth Wasserman.

Who Stops Paying Social Security Taxes After Today? Conflict of interest. TEDxObserver - Rick Falkvinge - The Pirate Party - the politics of protest. FDL: Congress Guts STOCK Act Reporting Requirements. US diplomats cry foul as Obama donors take over top embassy jobs.

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Ewald Engelen: Referendum! Groene A'dammer. Engelen: Kamer snapt niet wat in EU op het spel staat - Politiek. Guardian: Accountancy firms 'use knowledge of Treasury to help rich avoid tax' – MPs. Chomsky: The U.S. Behaves Nothing Like a Democracy, But You'll Never Hear About It in Our 'Free Press' Conflict of interest. Kim Dotcom. Europe is slowly strangling national democracy. Démocratie en péril.

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