Category: Collaboration Zones

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Journal: Appeal to Obama on Afghanistan

02 Diplomacy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military
DefDog Recommends...

Obama ‘must talk to Afghan Taliban'

By Staff Reporter
AFP Global Edition

Dec 11, 2010 11:36 EST

A group of influential international experts on Afghanistan Saturday appealed to US President Barack Obama to radically change his strategy in the war-ravaged nation and negotiate directly with the Taliban.

. . . . . . .

“It is better to negotiate now rather than later, since the Taliban will likely be stronger next year.”

“The situation on the ground is much worse than a year ago because the Taliban insurgency has made progress across the country,” the letter said.

“The Taliban today are now a national movement with a serious presence in the north and the west of the country.”

. . . . . . .

“Like it or not, the Taliban are a long-term part of the Afghan political landscape and we need to try and negotiate with them in order to reach a diplomatic settlement. The Taliban's leadership has indicated its willingness to negotiate and it is in our interests to talk to them.”

Full article….

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Journal: Presidential Election 2012 Rolling Update

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government

9 Dec 10 Nader: Bloomberg Could Win–21 Reasons (Daily Beast)

9 Dec 10 Ralph Nader Predicts Obama Will Face Democratic Primary Challenger in 2012 (Politics Daily)

He called the president “opportunistic” and lacking in principles.  “He's a con man. I have no use for him,” Nader said.

6 Dec 10 Journal: Rabbi Michael Lerner, Barack Obama, and the Washington Cesspool Update

Starting Point:  Be Very Afraid – 29 Candidates

Constant Good Value:  On The Issues

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Journal: The Wall Street Pentagon Papers–Biggest Scam In World History Exposed–Are The Federal Reserve’s Crimes Too Big To Comprehend?

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
WANTED

The Wall Street Pentagon Papers: Biggest Scam In World History Exposed: Are The Federal Reserve’s Crimes Too Big To Comprehend?

By David DeGraw
The Public Record
Dec 10th, 2010

What if the greatest scam ever perpetrated was blatantly exposed, and the US media didn’t cover it? Does that mean the scam could keep going? That’s what we are about to find out.

. . . . . . .

The Fed doled out $12.3 trillion in near-zero interest loans, using the American people as collateral, demanding nothing in return, other than a bunch of toxic assets in some cases. They only gave this money to a select group of insiders, at a time when very few had any money because all these same insiders and speculators crashed the system.Do you get that? The very people most responsible for crashing the system, were then rewarded with trillions of our dollars. This gave that select group of insiders unlimited power to seize control of assets and have unprecedented leverage over almost everything within their economies – crony capitalism on steroids.

Read full blast….

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Reference: Lying is Not Patriotic–Ron Paul

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, Hill Letters & Testimony, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Movies, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Videos/Movies/Documentaries, YouTube
Chuck Spinney Recommends....

Several truths, nine questions.

Ron Paul on YouTube

Phi Beta Iota: Here are the questions as asked:

01  Do the American people deserve to know the truth regarding the on-going war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen?

02  Could a larger questions be how can an Army private gain access to so much secret information?

03  Why is the hostility mostly directed at Assange the publisher and not  our government's failure to protect classified information?

04  Are we getting our money's worth from the $80 billion dollars per year we are spending on intelligence gathering?

05  Which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths?  Lying us into war, or WikiLeaks revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers?

06  If Assange can be convicted of a crime for information that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the First Amendment and the independence of the Internet?

07  Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on Wikileaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?

08  Is there not a huge difference between releasing secret information to help the enemy in a time of declared war, which is treason, and the releasing of information to expose our government lies that promote secret wars, death, and corruption?

09  Was it not once considered patriotic to stand up to our government when it is wrong?

See Also:

Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both

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Journal: National (Government) Brands–Do Good or Die

Earth Intelligence

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Can Cancún Can-Do?

“Our governments are incompetent at best, corrupt and greedy at worst, and people now get that. What Karl Rove couldn’t accomplish, Hillary Clinton is driving home.”

EXTRACT:  Anholt, a Planetary Emergency Technician who parachutes in to hot spots to advocate rescue remedies where others have failed (his business card bears only his name), said that countries know that they need a good image to have success, and so they waste millions of tax dollars on gawd-awful propaganda, not noticing that in the information age it has gotten harder to buy a good reputation. Sweden’s message is that you may have to actually do something good, like give to the poor, or save the environment. Many companies are starting to get this. Countries will eventually have to.

EXTRACT: As we begin the chaotic Anthopocene Epoch, the public is beginning to understand that no one is in charge and we are all aboard a burning ocean liner. Are there evacuation plans? A fire brigade? Any plan at all? Do we have a string quartet to play “Nearer My God to Thee?” Rajendra Pachauri told the audience that the only superpower today is public opinion.

Read full and ably illustrated article….

Tip of the Hat to Paul Harper at Facebook.

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Journal: The Open Tri-Fecta–Open Spectrum Next

Earth Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Mobile, Policy, Real Time, Reform, Standards, Strategy

As the world shifts to open spectrum

The Economic Times (India), 10 December 2010

The 2G spectrum scam has highlighted the economic and commercial value of spectrum. Mobile services are critical to our shift towards a more knowledge and service-based economy. The increasing mobility of our workforce has created the need for the ability to send and receive data on the go. Competitive pressures have accentuated this need. The decreasing price-performance ratio and the ability to access the internet have further increased the need for mobile wireless services.

The critical input for these services is the electromagnetic spectrum. However, since electromagnetic waves may interfere to effectively manage wireless communications, allocations are often made on an exclusive basis. So, each country has its own institutions and regime to manage it. But with changes in technology, it has become possible to provide for shared usage amongst multiple users in the same band as in Wi-Fi or through cognitive radios. Such changes require a rethink of the existing institutions and instruments for managing wireless.

Read rest of article…

Learn More

See Also:

Graphic: Open Everything

Journal: Open Mobile, Open Spectrum, Open Web

2007 Open Everything: We Won, Let’s Self-Govern

2004 Gill (US) Open Wireless Spectrum and Democracy

Review: Everything Is Miscellaneous–The Power of the New Digital Disorder

Who’s Who in Collective Intelligence: David Weinberger

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Journal: Can’t Sell Complicated to Simpletons

Cultural Intelligence

Seth Godin Home

“The answer is simple”

…is always more effective a response than, “well, it's complicated.”

One challenge analysts face is that their answers are often a lot more complicated than the simplistic (and wrong) fables that are peddled by those that would mislead and deceive. Same thing is true for many non-profits doing important work.

We're not going to have a lot of luck persuading masses of semi-interested people to seek out and embrace complicated answers, but we can take two steps to lead to better information exchange:

1. Take complicated overall answers and make them simple steps instead. Teach complexity over time, simply.

2. Teach a few people, the committed, to embrace the idea of complexity. That's what a great college education does, for example. That's what makes someone a statesman instead of a demagogue. Embracing complexity is a scarce trait, worth acquiring. But until your customers/voters/employees do, I think the first strategy is essential.

You can't sell complicated to someone who came to you to buy simple.

Phi Beta Iota: Integrity, properly understood, is about embracing the complicated.