Month: September 2009

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Journal: 300,000 Beijing residents to access National Library through TV

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Original Story
Original Story

September 10, 2009 marked the 100th anniversary of the National Library. Reporters learned that the National Library is now popularizing new reading channels, enabling citizens to access content from the National Library through their digital TV. By the end of this year, more than 300,000 Beijing citizens will enjoy this service.

With a hundred-year history, the library now has an area of more than 250,000 square meters, making it the third largest library in the world; it has a collection of 27 million books, making it among the top five in the world; its daily attendance of 20,000 guests is unrivaled in the world.

Currently, there is Internet access at every desk in the buildings of the north part of the library, and wireless Internet covers the whole library; in the China Digital Library for the Blind, blind people can listen to digital books and music as well as online lectures for free; the DIY circulation service in National Library enables the readers to return books to the circulation counter without having to enter the building, making 24 hours circulation service possible; National Library is also now developing a handheld National Library system with which users can use their cell phone as an access terminal, allowing citizens to receive digital information and services of the library through several channels, including text messages.


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Worth a Look: Legislation Of, By, and For the Public

Legislation, Worth A Look

As Europe contemplates the creation of a Mutlinational Information-Sharing and Sense-Making Network, and Singapore and South Africa among others think about expanding the over-the-horizon and continent-wide networks, only one major power remains deliberately deaf, dumb, and blind to the 80% or more of the information that cannot be stolen but can be acquired freely from open sources in 183 languages we do not speak: the United STATES of America.

As Members begin thinking about how they are going to deal with the virulently angry public between now and 2010, there are two legislative proposals that have been on the table for over a decade–some would say two decades, both eminently sensible, eminently patriotic, and perhaps–if executed inelligently–the only thing that might fireproof those Members who now fear they will not be re-elected.

Electoral Reform Act
Electoral Reform Act

The books and articles on the failure of Congress to honor Article 1 of the Constitution, and the failure of Members to honor their constituencies by eschewing “party line” voting, are now legion.  Congress has been tarred and feathered; Independents are now 43% of the eligible voters and rising; and the 70% that did not vote for this Administration in 2008 is likely to come back to the polls in 2010 with an “anything but” mind-set.

Time to think really big thoughts, strategic thoughts, thoughts that benefit the public which is the heart and soul of the Republic and has been living with a stake in its heart all these years, a dysfunctional dishonest electoral system.

This act, eight measures, four for 2010 and the other four for 2012, restores the Republic.

Smart Nation - Safe Nation Act
Smart Nation - Safe Nation Act

Restoring the primacy of the public and the legitimacy of the electoral system is not enough.  America is coming off fifty years of mortal failure across all its paradigms, and only the creation of a Smart Nation – Safe Nation that connects the public to all possible information and Congress to both the public and all possible information, will restore the survivability and prosperity of the Republic.  The second act, created in service to Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02), now running for the Senate, does that.

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Journal: Intelligence Is A Critical Need

05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

Intelligence Is A Critical Need

To do the job right and win

By Rep. Peter Hoekstra and Rep. John Shadegg

September 25, 2009  Pg. 21

Phi Beta Iota: Despite the fact that Representative Hoekstra is now Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), neither of these two individuals (or their staffs) appear to know what it would take to do proper intelligence in Afghanistan; why their commentary is fifteen years too late; and/or why it is also moot in the absence of a coherent reality-based strategy and the rescinding of the existing rules of engagement that are incapcitating our troops.  Both good men trapped in a bad system, they have no access to ground truth from iconoclasts and are a perfect reprise to the “best and the brightest” on Viet-Nam–brilliantly uninformed.

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Journal: Eye Opener–Census Worker Found Hanged

11 Society, Civil Society, Ethics, Peace Intelligence, Reform
Full Story Online
Full Story Online

A part-time Census Bureau field worker was found hanged in Kentucky Sept. 12 with the word “fed” scrawled across his chest, according to a law enforcement source. Bill Sparkman, 51, who was white, was found at the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky, the Associated Press first reported Wednesday night.

Summary of Book
Summary of Book

Summary of Book
Summary of Book

Phi Beta Iota: The Washington Post was among the early casualties in the new business.  They don't read a lot, just replay the hand-outs from government, so something that is an eye-opener to them is old news to the rest of us.  This story is note-worthy because it is the first story we have seen that a politician in Washington might actually read.  To better understand the Legitimate Grievances of all Americans against the “out of control” Federal Government that has–with the best of intentions and really rotten intelligence–combined with  the Federal Reserve (neither Federal nor a Reserve) to destroy the pension funds and the life savings of the vast majority of the public, see the two reviews behind the two covers, and contemplate some of the other books accessible via the Reviews menu.  We spoke in 19 small towns and cities across America after 9/11 and that was our own eye-opener.  The anger against the Federal Government across the land cannot be exaggerated, and is co-equal with the elitist obliviousness to the plight of the people.  The public is losing its mind because the government has lost its soul.

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Journal: Ralph Peters on The Rules Murdering Our Troops

05 Civil War, 10 Security, Military, Policy, Reform, Strategy
Marine Barracks Today
Marine Barracks Today

Over 200 Marines died in the barracks by the beach in Beirut, in their sleep, because the White House failed to understand that the strategic situation had changed; because chicken hawk staff approved the launching of battleship salvos (think really pissed-off Volkswagons in flight) that certified the US was “taking sides” rather than seeking to preserve the peace;  and because the “rules of engagement” imposed on Colonel of Marines Tim Gerrity required that his Marines not have rounds in the chambers and not fire as approaching vehicles that failed to stop–at the same time, intelligence sucked then as it sucks now.

The photos are our own, from Beirut in August 2007.  We grieve for our Marines, who sought to serve their country while being used as an expendible tool by the White House.  Today the same thing is happening in Afghanistan and Ralph Peters has unleashed his own volley against the insanity of asking our troops to allow themselves to be killed whenever a civilian is in the area.  Click on the collage for today's deja vu.

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Journal: Afghanistan Bay of Pigs Reprise

05 Civil War, 10 Security, Military

Wall Stree Journal Full Story Online
Wall Stree Journal Full Story Online

What Next In Afghanistan? The Five People Obama Is Asking

Click on photo for full story.  Grades and comments are those of Phi Beta Iota.

Vice President Joe Biden. C+. Scale back, Drones and Special Forces on high-value targets.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. F.  Delusional on Taliban as lovers of Al Qaeda, listening to slick Australian on spending our way into hearts and minds.

National Security Adviser James Jones. D. Good man that does not know what he does not know, drops from a C to a D because his job is outreach and ensuring the President hears from a diversity of views, that is not happening.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen.  C+. A strategic savant trapped between a rock and a hard-place, his integrity fights his loyalty every day.  A for the rest of the world, D for not calling AF for what it is: a blunder of epic proportions.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates.  B-. Found his integrity in pushing the troop demand into the public eye after first being a loyalist.  Learned from Viet-Nam that Ho was a nationalist after all, Taliban is more of the same.  A lame duck while Obama decides between Chuck Hagel and John Hamre.

Administration Over-All:  D. Empire as Usual, Bureaucracy as Usual, Sacrificing our Troops to Buy Time, Not Listening to Serious Experts, Not Able to Think a Strategic Thought, Not Able to Plan, Program, and Execute a Whole of Government Anything.

noble gold