corruption

Several environmental advocacy groups are asking the US State Department to launch an investigation over the State Department's handling of the Keystone XL review. This is a bit nuanced but important, and I want to make clear what is going on here. Normally, environmental impact assessments are done by private contractors ultimately hired by the entity that is building the project that could have the impacts. I often hear people complain that Trans Canada, the group that wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline across the United States to allow the export of it's bitumen (a kind of soft coal…
The RNA committee of the Icelandic Alþingi has, finally, issued its Black Report, into the collapse of the Icelandic economy and the events leading up to it. The entire report, all 2000 pages or so, are being read aloud by a series of actors at the City Theater. Initial reactions range from the weasel "mistakes were made", through blunt assertions of robbery and treason. It can be done... I remember, as an idealistic teenager, being outraged as I became conscious of the ongoing political corruption in Iceland. Yet, there was some reassurance in noting its pettiness. It was a bottle, or a…
Are Democrats intentionally trying to lose the next election? Because that's the only possible way to explain this: Twelve Democratic Senators spent last weekend in Miami Beach raising money from top lobbyists for oil, drug, and other corporate interests that they often decry, according to a guest list for the event obtained by POLITICO. The guest list for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's "winter retreat" at the Ritz Carlton South Beach Resort doesn't include the price tag for attendance, but the maximum contribution to the committee, typical for such events, is $30,000. There…