Government – Page 635 – Public Intelligence Blog

What Democracy Lost in 2012

No matter the outcome, big money and voter suppression crippled the election. This is no way to run the world’s oldest democracy.

Bob Moser

American Prospert, January 28, 2013

Last November 7, a syndicated cartoon made the rounds in progressive circles. Drawn by Signe Wilkinson, it showed a battered, bruised, patched-up Uncle Sam defiantly flexing his biceps and flashing the dazed grin of a fighter who’d survived a vicious knockdown and prevailed in 15 rounds. The caption, “Democracy Wins,” became a popular meme amid the liberal euphoria that broke out on election night. President Barack Obama had been re-elected, Karl Rove had been embarrassed on national television, and the Sheldon Adelsons and National Rifle Associations of the world had thrown hundreds of millions of dollars down the toilet. Voter suppression had not kept blacks and Latinos from the polls. Citizens United had not done its worst. Democracy had been tried and tested, and emerged banged up but miraculously intact.

Liberals had earned their moment of giddiness. But the assumption that “democracy won” because Obama won and Democrats carried the U.S. Senate is flat wrong. Dangerously wrong. Democracy, already in a weakened state, suffered serious defeats in 2012. The battle to win it back will be long, fierce, and uphill.

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Continue reading “John Steiner: What Democracy Lost in 2012”

2013/02/12

Yoda: BIll Moyers & Others US Internet Access Slow, Costly, Unfair

Autonomous Internet, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Dark, the Force is, in Washington DC.

Bill Moyers: Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair

>Americans are getting bilked for second class internet access.

BILL MOYERS: You’ve heard me before quote one of my mentors who told his students that “news is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity.” That’s why two books are rattling the cages of powerful people who would rather you not read them. Here’s the first one. Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age by Susan Crawford. Read it and you’ll understand why we Americans are paying much more for internet access than people in many other countries and getting much less in return. That, despite the fact that our very own academics and engineers, working with our very own Defense Department, invented the internet in the first place.

EXTRACT (Susan CVrawford)

What's happened is that these enormous telecommunications companies, Comcast and Time Warner on the wired side, Verizon and AT&T on the wireless side, have divided up markets, put themselves in the position where they're subject to no competition and no oversight from any regulatory authority. And they're charging us a lot for internet access and giving us second class access. This is a lot like the electrification story from the beginning of the 20th century.

. . . . . . . .

BILL MOYERS: In here you call it the digital divide. Describe that to me.

SUSAN CRAWFORD: Well, here's the problem. For 19 million Americans, many in rural areas, you can't get access to a high speed connection at any price, it's just not there. For a third of Americans, they don't subscribe often because it's too expensive. So the rich are getting gouged, the poor are very often left out. And this means that we're creating yet again two Americas and deepening inequality through this communications inequality.

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2013/02/12

GI Wilson: Republicans Focus on Malfeasance by Brenner and CIA 7th Floor

Corruption, Government, Military

MILNET passing this around.

Brennan-led secret raids may have led to Benghazi retaliation, book claims

EXTRACT

“Brennan waged his own unilateral operations in North Africa outside of the traditional command structure,” the book says, calling it an “off the books” operation not coordinated with Petraeus and the CIA. The authors then claim that these raids were a “contributing factor” in the militant strike on the U.S. Consulate and CIA annex on Sept. 11. The raids, they said, “kicked the hornets' nest and pissed off the militia.” Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack, “was kept in the dark and ultimately killed in a retaliation that he never could have seen coming,” they wrote. “Likewise, the CIA never knew what hit them.”

. . . . . . .

“The reality of the situation is that high-ranking CIA officers had already discovered the affair by consulting with Petraeus' PSD and then found a way to initiate an FBI investigation in order to create a string of evidence and an investigative trail that led to the information they already had — in other words, an official investigation that could be used to force Petraeus to resign.”

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Reference: John Brennan’s Opening Statement — Extreme Fluff + CIA Meta-RECAP

2013/02/122013/02/12

Owl: Lt Chris Dorner USNR Fan Club Grows — Are Citizen Snipers Swarming to Los Angeles? Presidential Pardon and Truth & Reconciliation Recommended!

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Law Enforcement

Lt Chris Dorner, USNR (Honorable Discharge) is acquiring a fan club.

Chris Dorner Fan Club

The 2nd half of this article below is about a a 1972 incident in New Orleans about another black, a vet, who loses it from constant injustice, and ends up killing a lot of cops and civilians before they get him. What amazes me is he has virtually no gun training, since he's Navy, yet he's an amazing shot, who himself avoids the bullets most of the time:

Exterminating Angels

Blacks in the street cheered this guy as he's shooting at cops, and the author of this piece concludes, “Does anyone cheer Dorner”

Well, yes. Scroll down to last reply (I bolded most interesting text) – here's cut/paste:

Continue reading “Owl: Lt Chris Dorner USNR Fan Club Grows — Are Citizen Snipers Swarming to Los Angeles? Presidential Pardon and Truth & Reconciliation Recommended!”

2013/02/12

Chuck Spinney: The Iraq Surge Memo No One Read

Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, Military, Peace Intelligence

For those who think the Iraqi surge was a stunning success, a small dose of reality from one of the most knowledgeable observers of Iraq

The Sunni Revolt Is Growing

Saddam and the US Failed Iraq

by PATRICK COCKBURN

Counterpunch, FEBRUARY 11, 2013

Baghdad.

The civil war in Syria is destabilising Iraq as it changes the balance of power between the country’s communities. The Sunni minority in Iraq, which two years ago appeared defeated, has long been embittered and angry at discrimination against it by a hostile state. Today, it is emboldened by the uprising of the Syrian Sunni, as well as a growing sense that the political tide in the Middle East is turning against the Shia and in favour of the Sunni.

Could a variant of the Syrian revolt spread to the western Anbar Province and Sunni areas of Iraq north of Baghdad? The answer, crucial to the future of Iraq, depends on how the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, responds to the seven-week-long protests in Anbar and the Sunni heartlands. His problem is similar to that which, two years ago faced rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. They had to choose between ceding some power and relying on repression.

Most Arab rulers chose wrongly, treating protests as if they were a plot or not so broadly based that they could not be crushed by traditional methods of repression. The situation in Iraq is not quite the same, since Maliki owes his position to victory in real elections, though this success was not total and depended overwhelmingly on Shia votes. He has nevertheless ruled as if he had the mandate to monopolise power.

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2013/02/122013/02/12

Mongoose: Understanding How “Loss of Jurisdiction” Can Kill Your Clearances — Vital to Those Departing Government Service

Government, Military

Security Clearance “Loss of Jurisdiction”

William Henderson

Few things cause more frustration than being rejected by a prospective employer because of a “Loss of Jurisdiction” and an “Incident Report.”

When you’re terminated from a job where you held a Department of Defense (DoD) security clearance, your former employer “separates” you in the Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS—the DoD security clearance database). If you were terminated from your job for cause, the employer often concurrently submits an Incident Report via JPAS describing the reason for termination. This occurs when the termination is related to one of the thirteen Adjudicative Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Information.

Normally when an employer submits an Incident Report to the DoD Central Adjudication Facility (CAF) responsible for your clearance, the CAF reviews the report to decide what action is necessary. If the report doesn’t contain any disqualifying information, the CAF closes the Incident Report simply by updating the JPAS record. Alternatively the CAF can request additional information, including a new Questionnaire for National Security Positions (Standard Form 86—SF86), and/or a limited investigation. Once sufficient information is received, the CAF can decide whether to favorably adjudicate the Incident Report and “continue” your clearance or begin the process of clearance revocation.

When the Incident Report occurs at the same time you’re “separated” in JPAS, the CAF cannot review the Incident Report or take any other action, and a Loss of Jurisdiction is entered into your JPAS record. The Loss of Jurisdiction and the unresolved Incident Report remain in your JPAS record, and your name is flagged in red letters. Getting the red out can be a problem.

Continue reading “Mongoose: Understanding How “Loss of Jurisdiction” Can Kill Your Clearances — Vital to Those Departing Government Service”

2013/02/122013/02/12

SchwartzReport: White House Pigs versus Public Ducks

Corruption, Government, Ineptitude

The Right's fact free economic theories, and its hate for Obama, combine to drive us back into recession. This really does need to be understood by the American middle class. Here is a very good take on what the Sequester would do.

WHITE HOUSE WEB SITE

Fact Sheet: Examples of How the Sequester Would Impact Middle Class Families, Jobs and Economic Security

Unless Congress acts by March 1st, a series of automatic cuts—called a sequester—that threaten thousands of jobs and the economic security of the middle class will take effect. There is no question that we need to cut the deficit, but the President believes it should be done in a balanced way that protects investments that the middle class relies on. Already, the President has worked with Congress to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion, but there’s more to do. The President believes we can not only avoid the harmful effects of a sequester but also reduce the deficit by $4 trillion total by cutting even more wasteful spending and eliminating tax loopholes for the wealthy.

Unfortunately, many Republicans in Congress refuse to ask the wealthy to pay a little more by closing tax loopholes so that we can protect investments that are helping grow our economy and keep our country safe. Our economy is poised to take off but we cannot afford a self-inflicted wound from Washington. We cannot simply cut our way to prosperity, and if Republicans continue to insist on an unreasonable cuts-only approach, the middle class risks paying the price. The most damaging effects of a sequester on the middle class are:

Read full list of alleged harm to public of sequester cuts.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: White House Pigs versus Public Ducks”