Oversight

Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis UNITED NATIONS, June 27 -- The UN Ethics Office has recommended that the UN Development Program pay as restitution 14 months back pay to the whistleblower who exposed irregularities in the agency's programs in North Korea. Ethics Officer Robert Benson, in an eight-page report, specifically finds a lack of due process. UNDP ru

Since January, the U.S. civil liberties oversight board — meant to monitor the government's impact on American's privacy and civil liberties — has been shuttered with the expiration of the five members' terms. Unfortunately, the White House is now blocking the board's progress by refusing to accept the nomination of progressive civil liberties expert Morton Halperin: Without any public

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL), Chairman and Ranking Member respectively of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to the Fed, SEC and the Treasury cautioning them against rushing into inter-agency 'Memorandum of Understanding' to reform regulation of financial institutions on Wall Street. In the letter, Dodd and Shelby recognize the agencies’ efforts to improve and

The New York Times The Bank of England announced a revamp of its leadership on Thursday as it was granted enhanced powers to manage financial crises in the biggest overhaul of Britain’s financial regulatory system in a decade. The government appointed two close allies of the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, as chief economist and deputy governor at the central bank, a move tha

FDIC chief calls for more investment-bank oversight By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch Last Update: 6/18/2008 2:03:00 PM NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Amplifying on the discussion about increasing oversight of the global financial system, one of America’s top banking regulators called for more restrictions on risk, liquidity and capital at investment banks. “It makes sense to extend some f

"First Manager To 'Leave Post' Odds", March 28:Is it obvious enough yet?McLaren was definitely the best one here. Widely respected baseball men expected them to win 92 games, and they're on pace to lose 108. We nailed that one, they just canned a different guy.But after that, how'd we miss Randolph? The manager of a team that blew a seven game lead in 18 days, which was expected to win 90+ game

I consider myself fairly well read and informed about the issues of the day. But I missed this story last week and only caught it through the satirical website Ironic Times. It appears that John Conyers has threatened to subpoena members of Dick Cheney's office to testify about their deliberations over the torture issue. The lawyer for one of Cheney's aides, David Addington, claims that Congress lacks the authority to question members of the vice president's staff, in an apparent nod to Cheney's earlier argument that the vice president's office is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch. I guess that amidst all the stories about Obama's flag pin, Rev. Wright, Clinton's "testicular fortitude" and the gas tax, such a vital showdown over the very nature of

Can we please get some oversight here in America? Memri The Iraqi government has permitted Iraqi security forces to dispatch security agents to mosques to monitor the Friday sermons. The government has also issued an order preventing preachers without proper training to deliver sermons, with the aim of preventing incitement and the fanning of tensions in sermons. Source: Alnajafnews.net, [...]

I routinely get links for risque sites on the News, Software & Java forum. Often I will wade through the links looking for credible forum signups. Some of the sites that I review are very enlightening, in terms of “things I never knew about.. sex”. Last night I studied guys that look like [...]

The Bush administration is calling for a major overhaul of how we monitor the financial industry in what would be the largest financial regulatory makeover since the Great Depression. It isn’t as much oversight as many Democrats are demanding, but it is fairly substantial.I am generally against added government regulation, so this doesn’t sit well with me. The government has a way of making things more complicated and costly than they need to be, and it is taxpayers who bear the burden. Increased regulations in the financial and mortgage industries will only make lending tougher. It seems that people want the government to protect them from themselves and from lenders who might take advantage of them. If the government gets involved, some people may be protected, but fewer people will

Hank Paulson’s wildly moronic plan to deal with the current financial crisis via massively expanded Federal Reserve System (privately owned) oversight of the total financial sphere of the economy smacks 100% of “not-goodness”. There is something inherently wrong with the following chain of activity: 1. Federal Reserve System helps foment seriously unstable financial circumstances (credit bubble) 2. Federal [...]

The US government is set Monday to propose sweeping new oversight powers to the Federal Reserve, including tighter surveillance of financial markets in a bid to avoid calamities like the current “subprime” lending crisis.The nation’s financial regulatory agencies have been accused by experts of failing […]

Yahoo! Selects Oversight Systems’ Continuous Auditing Solution for High-Confidence Assurance of Financial Transaction Integrity Oversight’s Real-Time Transaction Monitoring Delivers Forensic Auditing Insight for Risk Mitigation ATLANTA, Mar 24, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Oversight Systems, the leading provider of automated continuous monitoring software, today announced that Yahoo! Inc. has selected Oversight’s solution for the company’s financial transaction risk mitigation program. Regarding the selection of [...]

Bush weakens everything, oversight, the dollar, national integrity, honor, and justice. A weak person leads to weakness, a weak leader leads to disaster after disaster. He has the touch of failure. read more | digg story

Iraq Special Inspector Stuart Bowen didn't just discuss his Maine junket yesterday before Congress. He also admitted, after some prodding, that between 2003 and 2006, "There wasn't enough [Iraq] oversight in general in that period of time."Bowen was responding to a question from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) about the paucity of hearings on Iraq contracting by the Governmental Affairs Committee--specifically, Sen. Collins' record of holding only a single hearing with a single witness during that timeframe.In the video, Bowen first hems and haws. But then he goes out of his way to amend his hedged remarks, interrupting Lautenberg with the categorical statement above.So here we have another close ally of Sen. Collins--a man who was willing to violate executive branch protocol to support her r

Ya es hora de Jericho un nuevo capitulo te espera lleno de accion, y lo unico que debes hacer es accesar al foro y bajartelo por alguna de las muchas alternativas que tenemos para ti en 350 o 100MB y 190MB Sub que esperas? entra ya!Entrar al Foro

I had dinner with my friend Patty a few days after Heath Ledger's death.Before we got headlong into a discussion of Mary-Kate Olson, Patty said:"And what about Brad Renfro? That pisses me off.""What about Brad Renfro?""Exactly."You see, less than a week before Heath Ledger died, the young actor Brad Renfro died of a heroin overdose.I'm not sure why, but it wasn't exactly breaking news on any front.At least, I thought, Renfro would get some sort of acknowledgment in the Oscar ceremony (in the long-standing traditional "here's to the departed" film reel).And...once again, Renfro's death was ignored.Although the academy took the time to remember the other actors and the executives and the make-up artists and the hair bangers and the choreographers and the secretaries and the fluffers and the

.... It is our job today, as Members of this Committee, to ensure that the NRC remains a strong and independent regulator, true to its mission of protecting public health and safety, and promoting the common defense and security.  Some excerpts: The NRC cannot condone, and this Committee cannot ignore, security guards sleeping on duty in violation of procedures.   There are reports that NRC staff recommended an additional $22 million for new reactor licensing that was NOT included in the final budget request and that the shortfall will lead to delays of 8 months or more in reviewing applications filed in FY'09.  If this is true, then I am very concerned to hear that the NRC may already be jeopardizing its ability to conduct thorough reviews in a timely f

Over the course of the past few weeks, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has hauled out Brian McNamee, a trainer, Andy Pettitte, pitcher, and Roger Clemens, also a pitcher, to testify on steriod use. McNamee told baseball investigator George Mitchell that he injected Clemens at least 16 times with steroids and [...]

Steve Benen brings us a snippet from an article on Iraq oversight in today's (subscription-only) Roll Call:The day news broke that the Iraqi government was revoking the license of Blackwater USA over a questionable Baghdad shootout that killed 17 civilians, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) announced plans for hearings to probe the State Department’s reliance on private security contractors.On that same day--Sept. 17--Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) announced two firefighting grants for the towns of Bolton and Willington in his home state.Though the two committees have similar investigative powers and mandates to uncover waste, fraud and abuse of government funds, Waxman has held eight hearings on Iraq and contracting abuses this year, while Lieberman has held only one on reconstruction challenges in both Iraq and Afghanistan.And though Waxman rarely has missed an opportunity to fire off angry l

Dear Taco Bell,Since your online customer complaint form only allows 250 words, I'll make this brief:It's one thing to save money by using sporks instead of spoons and forks, but to then supply cheap sporks that break before you can even get them out of their plastic wrap is just mean. I shattered two sporks before I was finally able to poke one out of its plastic bag. I then had to explain to my confused toddler what the heck it was and why she should eat with it."Penny, use your spork," I said when she began shoveling the beef and rice dish into her mouth with her hands."My what?" she asked."Your...forget it." It was better she just use her hands then play your dirty game of spork. I tried to spear a piece of beef to lift to my mouth but the tiny teeth of my spork were unable meet the task. I ended up using my fingers as well.At the end of our meal I cleared the table of spork fragments and the taco debris. I was headed for the door when my eye caught sight of the condiments

The Food and Drug Administration does very little to ensure the safety of the millions of people who participate in clinical trials, a federal investigator has found. In a report due to be released Friday, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, Daniel R. Levinson, said federal health officials did not know how many clinical trials were being conducted, audited fewer than 1 percent of the testing sites and, on the rare occasions when inspectors did appear, generally showed up long after the tests had been completed. New York Times September 28, 2007

A group of states that led by California said in a court that ending Microsoft’s business practices oversight in November would not allow enough time to consider the antitrust implications of the new Window Vista operating system. The software maker, the Justice Department and a group of states led by California have been asked to submit reports on Thursday by US District Judge Collen

Hamden School Continued To Pay Director After State Demanded His OusterMore than a year after the state warned a Hamden charter school to fire him, Lyndon Pitter still had a hand in the school's operations - and, state officials say, in its bank account.Investigators want to know why the Highville Mustard Seed Charter School wrote a series of checks for at least $150,000 between October and April to Pitter - who was already the target of an investigation for allegedly spending thousands in school funds on personal expenses from Armani suits to limousines.The case could make Pitter, the school's longtime director, a poster child for the need for tighter controls over charters, the publicly funded experimental schools that have often been an appealing alternative for parents.Charters, part of a popular nationwide movement, are granted freedom from customary administrative and union rules in an effort to foster innovation. The unusual degree of freedom has produced success stories such

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The high-profile and high-powered task force watchdogging FAMU finances has two new members: T. Willard Fair (left) and Michael B. Chavies (right). Fair is chair of the state Board of Education, president of the Urban League of Greater Miami and a close ally of former Gov. Jeb Bush. Chavies, also from Miami, is a lawyer, a former judge (appointed to Miami-Dade Circuit Court by the late Gov. Lawton Chiles) and a member of 100 Black Men of South Florida. The Board of Governors created the task force in March after yet another state audit found FAMU's fiscal controls lacking. Its next meeting is June 21 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

As  I first wrote about here, it appears the bloom is off the rose in regards of the carbon offset scam. Now congress wants more oversight into this, you can read about it here. This whole idea of voluntary carbon offsets or carbon credits is a way to get the American people used to paying for their indulgences. Once people get used to this notion that they can live their lives however they want as long as they pay for these credits it won’t be long until these credits become mandatory. This whole global warming fiasco is a political issue designed to tax and regulate you. It is not an environmental issue, it is a political issue. America, you need to put a stop to this before your every move is taxed.

The high-profile task force overseeing FAMU's finances won't be able to hire a consultant and may have to scale back its work in light of less-than-expected legislative funding, its chair said Friday. The task force wanted $3 million. It got $1 million. "We're going to have a difficult job picking and choosing the things we can accomplish," chair Lynn Pappas told other members in a conference call. "It is not the scope of work I went into this hoping to accomplish." The Board of Governors formed the task force in March, after the most recent state audit found continuing fiscal problems at FAMU. The group was considering hiring a consultant that specializes in higher-ed turnarounds, but even $3 million probably would have been short, given how much such consultants typically charge for work on comparable projects, Pappas said. Instead, the task force will have to think long and hard about exactly what it wants to accomplish, and see if there are creative ways to draw resources and

Chuck "i never met a camera i didn't like" Shumer giving some candid remarks about who is to blame for the fired US attorneys.Thanks to Mateo for bringing this juicy tid-bit to our attention.Senate Judiciary Hearing on the Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys -FULL STREAMING VIDEO, Afternoon Session, Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales testifies before a Judiciary Cmte. hearing on the recent firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. Critics have questioned the motivation for the firing and the Atty. Gen.'s role in the process. Technorati Tags: President Bush and White House or Alberto R. Gonzales and Attorney General, or U.S. Attorneys and advice and consent, or Harriet Miers, and Department of Justice, or Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, and Kyle Sampson, or Senate Judicary Oversight Hearing, Chuck Schumer,

Senate Judiciary Hearing on the Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys - Morning Session FULL STREAMING VIDEOPrepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales at the Senate Judicary Oversight Hearing, April 19, 2007, WASHINGTON, D.C.Good morning Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Specter,and Members of the Committee.www.flickr.comI want to begin by recognizing those who died and were injured Monday. The tragic events in Blacksburg have shocked and saddened Americans, who have come together this week to grieve, to remember, and to try to make sense out of this senseless act of violence. I offer my prayers and condolences to the victims, their families, and friends.I also want to recognize the law enforcement personnel who bravely responded to the scene. As I watched Monday’s events unfold, I was filled with pride watching men and women risk their lives and care for victims in the line of duty. Moments like these underscore my commitment to the mission of law enforcement -- and the honor that

As James Madison famously said, "if men were angels, no government would be necessary," (Federalist #51). The founding father also said, in Federalist #10, that "No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity." And to think Madison wrote all this before the discovery of modern genetics and the advent of evolutionary biology.Why are those two disciplines relevant? Unless you are a creationist, you must acknowledge that mankind is the result of billions of years of evolution. And the singular quality of all those billions and billions and billions of creatures that stayed alive long enough to reproduce is selfishness--the biological imperative to wrest from the environment the resources necessary for survival. That imperative is still with us today to some degree. Certainly the selfish impulse varies from individual to individual (just as other traits vary genetically from individual to

Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) and Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), a long-time critic of pork and lame earmarks in Congress, introduced a bill yesterday that would improve oversight of the DHS grant process. Under the current system, money trickling down from DHS to the local level is not tracked centrally and often used inappropriately, [...]