Category: Corruption

Stop Cashing In On Low-Income Students

Posted by Nexus – 25/02/2011

[via change.org]

Here’s how the Washington Post Company makes billions of dollars:

Veterans, single moms, and working parents are lured in by admissions counselors at Kaplan University Online (a for-profit college owned by the Post). Students use federal loans to sign up for classes that can be 14 times more expensive than a comparable community college class.

It’s basically a scam. Sixty-nine percent of students drop out. A third of students default on their loans, meaning taxpayers are stuck with the bill and the students have their credit destroyed — while Kaplan keeps all the money.

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To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century

Posted by Nexus – 08/02/2011

[via guardian.co.uk]

In David Cameron we have a leader whose job is to quietly legitimise a semi-criminal, money-laundering economy

‘I would love to see tax reductions,” David Cameron told the Sunday Telegraph at the weekend, “but when you’re borrowing 11% of your GDP, it’s not possible to make significant net tax cuts. It just isn’t.” Oh no? Then how come he’s planning the biggest and crudest corporate tax cut in living memory?

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Wikileaks cable reveals U.S. conspired to retaliate against European nations if they resisted GMOs

Posted by Nexus – 24/12/2010

[via naturalnews.com]

Wikileaks continues to rock the political world by shedding light on conspiracies, corruption and cover-ups. The latest batch of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveals what can only be characterized as a U.S.-led conspiracy to force GMOs onto European countries by making those countries pay a steep price if they resist.

The cable reveals the words of Craig Stapleton, the US ambassador to France, who was pushing the commercial interests of the biotech industry by attempting to force GMOs into France. In his own words (below), he expresses his frustration with the idea that France might pass environmental laws that would hamper the expansion of GMOs:

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24 Hours to Save Sakineh

Posted by Nexus – 02/11/2010

Iranian authorities could kill Sakineh Ashtiani tomorrow.

This July, a global outcry saved her from death by stoning. Now, the Iranian government has issued execution orders based on trumped-up charges — and she could be killed within a day. We have 24 hours to get world leaders with influence in Iran to do all they can to save her life.

Fill in the form below to send an emergency message directly to the leaders of Turkey, Brazil, and key UN nations who could sway Iran to halt the execution. These leaders heeded our calls in July and August, and their intervention made the difference. Now they must hear from us again, massively, and respond quickly. If enough of us raise our voices now, an outrage and a tragedy may yet be averted.

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Coporate corruption controls: close the revolving doors

Posted by Nexus – 02/11/2010

Top European Commission politicians are taking lucrative corporate lobbyist jobs.

It’s outrageous — over half of top European Union politicians move straight from their posts into lucrative corporate lobbying jobs — turning the EU into a “lobbyocracy” run by big business, not the people.

The European Parliament is up in arms and has just threatened to withhold EU budget money until a new code of conduct is introduced to block officials rushing to become lobbyists. In a few days parliamentarians will meet to hear the Commission’s proposals, but they need support to force a decisive change.

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British Government warns that it intends to religionise Britain

Posted by Nexus – 17/09/2010

[via secularism.org.uk]

Baroness Warsi

Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi has insisted that the coalition Government not only “does God” but that faith groups should have a greater role in public services under the auspices of David Cameron’s Big Society.

Speaking this week to a meeting of Church of England bishops in Oxford, Baroness Warsi said that whereas the coalition intended to be “on the side of” faith, the Labour government had seen religion as “essentially a rather quaint relic of our pre-industrial history”.

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Media-Mogul Attacks Avaaz

Posted by Nexus – 16/09/2010

Avaaz has come under attack from a major media-mogul.

Huge numbers of Canadian Avaazers recently mobilized against government favours for a new radical-right propaganda network run by the Prime Minister’s former spin doctor. The media empire behind the network and its billionaire owner, Pierre Karl Peladeau, has attacked our community with several smear pieces in their own newspapers, and one of their executives admitted insider knowledge of a criminal sabotage of our campaign. Now the mogul has threatened to sue Avaaz if we don’t take down our campaign within 24 hours!

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EU: No More Illegal Timber

Posted by Nexus – 08/06/2010

Right now European institutions are deciding on legislation that would ban illegal timber, which devastates forests and enriches organized crime. But certain member states with large timber industries are blocking negotiations.

Within days, the European Union could ban illegal timber from entering the market — but powerful companies are blocking discussions.

Forests are the habitat and life source of many peoples and are essential in preventing climate change, but while there is high demand for timber, illegal logging thrives, killing species, and fuelling corruption and organized crime.

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Gaza: investigate the raid, end the blockade

Posted by Nexus – 01/06/2010

Israel’s deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships headed for Gaza has shocked the world.

Israel, like any other state, has the right to self-defence, but this was an outrageous use of lethal force to defend an outrageous and lethal policy — Israel’s blockade of Gaza, where two thirds of families don’t know where they’ll find their next meal.

The UN, EU, and nearly every other government and multilateral organization have called on Israel to lift the blockade and, now, launch a full investigation of the flotilla raid. But without massive pressure from their citizens, world leaders might limit their response to mere words — as they have so many times before.

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Scenes From The Drug War

Posted by Nexus – 05/05/2010

[via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com]

Above is video from a February raid in Missouri. Balko captions:

SWAT team breaks into home, fires seven rounds at family’s pit bull and corgi (?!) as a seven-year-old looks on. They found a “small amount” of marijuana, enough for a misdemeanor charge. The parents were then charged with child endangerment.

And advocates:

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