Nonprofit accountability

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Wednesday June 06, 2007 · 12:45 PM PDT

2007/06/06 · 12:45

Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies Blog

What’s the least accountable sector of our society?

It may just be the nonprofit sector; and there appears to be at least two people in Congress who are cooperating in an attempt to reform that situation.

As OMB Watch has reported, Senator Max Baucus and Charles Grassley, the Democratic and Republican leaders respectively of the Senate Finance Committee, have asked the Treasury Secretary to make nonprofit tax filings more informative and transparent.

Dave in MA

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Thursday May 31, 2007 · 8:24 AM PDT

2007/05/31 · 08:24

Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies Blog

Why are the executives of American companies paid so much, and why is nothing seemingly ever done about it?

At least one researcher is shedding some light on this phenomenon, and his findings have to do with the often misunderstood dynamics of the relationships among corporate executives, boards of directors, and shareholders.

The work of Lucian Bebchuk at Harvard is proving to be groundbreaking in that it is challenging some long-held assumptions–in particular about the power of a company’s investors, the true owners of its wealth. Bebchuk’s seemingly counter-intuitive but well-researched findings point to the conclusion that the corporate deck is stacked in favor of the company’s executives and the board of directors, and that the shareholders are relatively powerless outsiders.

Dave in MA

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Thursday May 10, 2007 · 7:59 AM PDT

2007/05/10 · 07:59

(Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies Blog)

In the lead paper in a series of essays on citizen participation and governance in the March/April 2007 issue of Public Administration Review, one of the leading academic journals on government, R. Karl Rethemeyer puts forth a relatively pessimistic view of the role of the Internet in helping save representative democracy in America. The only problem is he doesn’t discuss blogs.

Dave in MA

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Thursday March 22, 2007 · 7:24 AM PDT

2007/03/22 · 07:24

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a warship blasts away endlessly with its guns at an uninhabited coastline. There’s no apparent reason for the wanton destruction of the jungle. Yet someone assures Marlow, the narrator, that there was a camp of natives, "enemies, hidden out of sight somewhere."

Could this serve as a metaphor for the way Bush and Cheney have proceeded for the last six years? It’s been well documented how the administration has blasted away at our constitutional and moral values, particularly in the name of the supposed war on terror. But what will happen if the rest of the world follows suit and creates a new landscape cleared of all moral and legal protections for people everywhere?

Dave in MA

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Monday January 29, 2007 · 6:58 AM PST

2007/01/29 · 06:58

In justifying their past suicide bombings in Israel, Hamas, the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, Islamic Jihad and the other perpetrators have always claimed their actions were in retaliation for Israel's brutal repression in the West Bank, targeted assassinations, continued occupation etc.

Now, in the lastest suicide attack on a bakery in the Israeli resort town of Eilat, those stated reasons have become secondary at best.

Dave in MA

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Thursday January 11, 2007 · 6:23 AM PST

2007/01/11 · 06:23

CNN reported yesterdaythat President Bush had been "upset" after watching the video of Saddam Hussein's execution, particularly at the taunting of Hussein moments before he was hanged.

I have to admit to having been a bit skeptical of the news account, which seemed to leave a lot of questions unanswered, such as why this was only now being reported, and who were the unnamed officials? More than that, it seemed a bit unlike W, cowboy president that he is, to get upset over a little, old-fashioned hangin'with a little old-fashioned tauntin' thrown in.

Dave in MA

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Tuesday November 14, 2006 · 5:50 AM PST

2006/11/14 · 05:50

At the end of this month, Lori Berenson, an American citizen, will have spent 11 years imprisoned in Peru, and will, at that time, have nine years left to go in that country's practically medieval prison system. After her initial detention in 1995, she was convicted of collaborating with a Peruvian terrorist group, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement or MRTA, and given a 20-year sentence, with credit for time already served.

She has become essentially forgotten in this country today. And that's to our detriment and disadvantage, because the lack of interest our government and the public at large have shown in this case bodes ill for other Americans who may get in trouble abroad, regardless of their guilt or innocence. Read More

Who was Kerry Healey protecting?

Dave in MA

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Friday October 13, 2006 · 7:51 AM PDT

2006/10/13 · 07:51

Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey is making it a major part of her campaign strategy to accuse her Democratic opponent, Deval Patrick, of being "soft on crime."

As a defense attorney, Patrick sought to lessen the death sentence for a convicted cop-killer, she points out in an ad with which her campaign is blanketing the airwaves. He also contributed to a fund to get a DNA test for a convicted rapist.

Yet, as The Boston Globe has reported, Healey voted when she was a private citizen against the release of criminal background information on persons seeking sensitive jobs with agencies that serve people with disabilities. Read More

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Nonprofit accountability

Executive pay and shareholder power

The Internet, citizen involvement...and blogs

Our journey into the Heart of Darkness: toward a world-wide police state

The pretense has been dropped

An imagined White House conversation

An American forgotten by the right, the MSM, and yes, the left

Who was Kerry Healey protecting?