Tag: Hartman

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Review: Mandate for Change–Policies and Leadership for 2009 and Beyond

3 Star, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Politics, Priorities
Amazon Page
3.0 out of 5 stars Rotten Job by Publisher, Too Expensive
January 1, 2010

Chester W. Hartman et al

I would normally have bought this book, I used past Mandate for Change books to devise the twelve core policies for Earth Intelligence Network (Agriculture, Diplomacy, Economy, Education, Energy, Family, Health, Justice, Immigration, Security, Society, Water), and I was very intrigued by the title but there are three strikes here:

1) Publisher has not done their job in posting table of contents and other descriptive materials.

2) The book is way too expensive, it costs a penny a page for books in lots of 2,500 or so, the publisher is being greedy and not serving the public interest–the author should go with Amazon's books on demand or post the book free online.

3) No other comments? It would appear neither the existing Administration nor anyone else cares about what's in this book. I would, if it were better documented and more reasonably prices.

Strike three, this book is OUT.

BUT: If anyone has this book and wants to share the Table of Contents, I would be very interested, my contact information is on the About page of PBI/PIB.

To access my other 1,500 or so reviews, 99% non-fiction, in 98 categories, use Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog, where all reviews lead back to Amazon pages for the respective books.

My own two mandate for change books, both free online as well as here at Amazon:
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

Am working on a third, being posted chapter by chapter at PBI/PIB, seeking comments, critques, etcetera.
INTELLIGENCE for EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainaabilty. Goes to the printer 1 February at the latest.

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Journal: Race, Class, Money & Truth

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Policies, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats

In keeping with our new-found commitment to focus on public intelligence and leave political reform to others, this commentary provides an overview  of the political scene (including political commentary from journalists lacking any independence), and concludes that what is missing from our national dialog are integrity and public intelligence.

First, the political “terrain” of ideological conviction, borrowing from Michael Crane with permission.

Death of the Center
Death of the Center

As best we can tell, there is not a single think tank free of ideological conviction andall are also lacking in full access to all relevant sources of information, to serious processing power, and to multi-cultural analytics.

The two-party tyranny is “running on empty” and  has effectively destroyed the center, where ideas should meet, and also greatly extended the chasm between those in power (the power of the purse and the day to day operations of government) and those with knowledge (generally in the private sector, generally not being listened to by the so-called “intelligence community” that thrives on expensive secrets at the public's expense (double-entendre).

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