Whistleblowers

My state, Connecticut, has just added itself to the at least 14 states that provide for public official pension forfeiture. Like some of the other states, its new law covers municipal officials.

Pension forfeiture is the capital punishment of government ethics.  It makes legislators look like they care about ethics, and it makes people feel that justice has been done. And with all these "good" emotions sparking supportive editorials, few think about the arguments pro and con, or the alternatives, which include fines and restitution (some of which could be taken out of future pension payments). Pension forfeiture is more about retribution than it is about ethics, law enforcement, or accountability.

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Recently, Google has taken what appears to be a distinctly less transparent and open approach to their news distribution search engine. Matthew Lee maintains a small blog/website called http://www.innercitypress.com/ and has a reputation for hounding the UN - specifically the UNDP about what he considers corruption. Recently though, google announced a partnership with the UNDP and here is what happened next:

(it seems that) "... someone at the UNDP had pressured Google into "de-listing" him from Google News — essentially preventing Inner City Press from being classified on Google News as a legitimate news source and from having its stories pop up when someone conducts a Google News search."