U.S. is twentieth most corrupt nation on Earth

From CNN.com:

Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) ranks 163 countries based on perceived levels of corruption among public officials and politicians in its 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

TI said several countries had a significant worsening of their ratings, including Brazil, Cuba, Israel, Jordan, Laos, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the United States.

"This survey suggests that corruption in Iraq is very bad," TI Chief Executive David Nussbaum told Reuters.

Nussbaum, noting the recent Enron trial, said U.S. court cases had highlighted the scale of corruption there and may have contributed to the deterioration in the U.S. score. The United States was ranked 20th, next to Belgium and Chile.

Wow, we really do stink.

Not only did the U.S. suck at the Winter Olympics, World Cup, World Baseball Classic and the World Basketball Championships this year (not to mention yesterday's New York Marathon), we’re not even capable of being number one at evil? What kind of shit is this? Where's the pride?

Let’s all go out and vote tomorrow. Be sure to pick the candidates most likely to do evil, so hopefully we’ll break into the upper echelons of corruption next year and blow away punk ass countries like Seychelles.

In case you didn't know, Part II

From CNN.com:

U.S. report says Iraq war has fueled terror threat

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A classified intelligence report concludes that the Iraq war has worsened the terrorist threat to the United States, U.S. officials told CNN Sunday.

Some intelligence officials have said as much in the past, but the newly revealed document is the first formal report on global trends in terrorism by the National Intelligence Estimate, which is put out by the National Intelligence Council.

Intelligence officials told CNN the report, completed five months ago, said the war and the insurgency are the main recruiting vehicles for new Islamic extremists.

Duh.

Read more...

In case you didn't know

From Wikinews:

US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence finds no link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda

September 18, 2006

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has found no link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. The 148-page report that was 3-years in the making states that Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and regarded Islamic extremism as a threat to his regime.

Read more...

Predictions for 2006

These are my psychic predictions for 2006.

• Sports: Barry Bonds takes over as the all-time homerun leader. The White Sox will fail to make the post season. Roy Jones, Jr. is put into a coma, but recovers.


• World Events: Osama bin Laden’s body is found, but neither the war in Iraq nor the “war on terror” are affected.


• Local Events: A scandal will reveal that the NYPD has systematically underreported crime statistics over the last eight years.


• National Events: Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez is forced to resign. Dick Cheney is forced to resign “for health reasons.”


• Economy: Google’s stock price drops to $80. The Dow at the end of the year will be under 10,500.


• Entertainment: Peter Jackson begins preproduction on The Hobbit. Studios experiment with releasing DVDs of movies at the same time they appear in the theaters in order to combat piracy.


• Technology: TiVo goes bankrupt, but Microsoft adopts the technology.


• Natural Disasters: A hurricane will wreck havoc above the Mason-Dixon line. A blizzard will cause Washington D.C. governmental offices to close for three days. There will be an earthquake in Missouri causing panic, but minor damage.

Sleeper Cell

I like this new series Sleeper Cell on Showtime. The pacing and strong writing reminds me of the first season of 24.

The (admittedly improbable) plot centers around Darwyn Al-Sayeed, an African-American deep-cover FBI agent who does a stint in prison in order to gain entry into an Islamic terrorist group’s sleeper cell.

Darwyn is an interesting character for TV. He seems to be primarily motivated to oppose the Muslim extremists because he’s offended by their perversion of his religion. He has chivalrous tendencies towards females and children in distress, but though he says his religion forbids sex outside of marriage, he’s quick to fall into a sexual relationship with a white single mom who works at a nail salon.

As is the case in most of the best TV shows, the surrounding cast is what takes the show to another level. I appreciate the way that the show features a variety of Muslims. Darwyn, as an African-American Muslim, is not considered a “real” Muslim by an Egyptian in episode one. Christian, a Frenchman, converted to Islam because of his Moroccan wife, but he is estranged from her and he’s evidently more of a believer than she is. Tommy, a blond haired, blue-eyed boy from a rich liberal family, seems to have turned to Islam as a rejection of his privileged childhood. Ilija is a Bosnian Muslim who blames the West for allowing Orthodox Serbs to kill his people in the early 90’s. Lastly, the mysterious Farik, leader of the sleeper cell, has the ultimate cover -- he works in a security company and he’s passing as an Israeli.

The only problem with the show? They’re showing the episodes on consecutive nights in December! I think this show is flying under the radar, and that’s a shame.

Iraq 2K

Well, we hit another sorry milestone in the war in Iraq this week. The death toll has hit 2,000 and we’re still over there, nearly three years after “major hostilities” supposedly ended in 2003.

I got an email from the Navy Reserve the other day asking me if I’d care to re-up in the military. They’re taking people up to age 39 now and you’ll come in with no reduction in rank if you have prior service in any branch.

They’re totally desperate for bodies.

Read more on the 2,000 dead.

A GTMO Special

When I came home today there was a hefty envelope in the mail from my old Army unit.

Surprise!

No, they haven’t called me back to active duty to replace the dead in Iraq -- they sent me an Army Achievement Award for service I initiated three years ago.

This is the citation:

“Sergeant Michelle M. Pessoa, United States Army Reserve, distinguished herself by superior meritorious achievement as a print journalist while deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Joint Task Force GTMO at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from June to December 2002. Through her distinctive accomplishments Sergeant Pessoa reflects credit upon herself, the United States Army and the Department of Defense.”