Government – Page 827 – Public Intelligence Blog

Ideological Underpinnings of the “Great Society”

By Robert Higgs

Campaign for Liberty, 05/10/11

[The Freeman (March 2011). An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Steven Ng, is available for download.]

The surge of federal economic interventions that occurred during Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency — the much-ballyhooed Great Society, whose centerpiece was the War on Poverty — differed from the four preceding surges, each of which had been sparked by war or economic depression. No national emergency prevailed when Johnson took office following John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. The nation was not engaged in a major shooting war, and the economy was on the mend after the mild recession of 1960-61. For the most part, the Great Society represented simply the culmination of economic, political, and intellectual developments stretching back as far as the 19th century.

Read full article….

Continue reading “Ideological Underpinnings of the “Great Society””

2011/05/092011/05/09

NATO Says AF Insurgency Weakened–Really?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military, Peace Intelligence

It is amazing that nowhere in this article does it mention the media coup that the Taliban scored. I also am not sure that the information released by NATO is accurate. If so, it contradicts previously reported Taliban strength levels. Nor does NATO address the recent high profile security breaches…..

NATO says insurgency weakened

By PATRICK QUINN

The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO said Monday that it has significantly weakened the Taliban insurgency, capturing or killing thousands of militants in Afghanistan during the past three months.

Read full article….

2011/05/08

Patrick Meier: Ushahadi Election Monitoring

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Geospatial, Government, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), IO Mapping, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, Open Government, Reform, Standards, Tools

Analyzing U-Shahid’s Election Monitoring Reports from Egypt

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Patrick Meier| Leave a comment

I’m excited to be nearing the completion of my dissertation research. As regular iRevolution readers will know, the second part of my dissertation is a qualitative and comparative analysis of the use of the Ushahidi platform in both Egypt and the Sudan. As part of this research, I am carrying out some content analysis of the reports mapped on U-Shahid and the SudanVoteMonitor. The purpose of this blog post is to share my preliminary analysis of the 2,700 election monitoring reports published on U-Shahid during Egypt’s Parliamentary Elections in November & December 2010.

Read full posting with links & graphic…

2011/05/082011/05/08

Cynthia McKinney is NOT Happy with NATO

02 Diplomacy, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Immigration, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Sense-Making, Military, Peace Intelligence

nato mckinney — Click on Image to Enlarge

Sent to me by a Libyan who hates what his country is becoming due to the racists now supported by NATO and who are in control of part of his country.

Cynthia McKinney

Nato units left 61 African migrants to die of hunger and thirst

Jack Shenker, Guardian, 8 May 2011

Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised

Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned.

refugees libya — Click on Image to Enlarge

A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted.

All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. “Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard,” said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. “By the final days, we didn't know ourselves … everyone was either praying, or dying.”

Read full article….

Continue reading “Cynthia McKinney is NOT Happy with NATO”

2011/05/082011/05/08

The Age of De-Leveraging is Just Beginning

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Sense-Making

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

Phi Beta Iota: 10 more years of pain.

– – – – – – –

While the political elite obsesses over the rise in public debt, the US is on the cusp of an era of deleveraging — or more bluntly, a massive liquidation of private debt — the ramifications of which, in the best of times would be colossal, but could well be disastrous the irrational obsessions of our political elites work their magic.

The real policy question that will determine the future well-being of the vast majority of Americans is how liquidation of their private debts unfold — rapidly via rising waves of bankruptcies, foreclosures, and repudiations, as happened in the 1930s, or more gradually, which will require some kind of active intervention by government, and for which there is no real precedent, and clearly no acumen among the elites in Versailles on the Potomac.

Either evolutionary pathway will be painful, because the liquidation of private debt will require cutbacks that reduce aggregate demand and investment, thereby slowing growth and pushing the economy into a period of sluggish growth over the long term or into a depression (some economist argue we are already in a depression).

Continue reading “The Age of De-Leveraging is Just Beginning”

2011/05/082011/05/08

Arturo Valenzuela Quits–US Ignoring South

01 Brazil, 07 Venezuela, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Strategy, Threats

The head of the U.S. State Department’s Latin American and Caribbean will resign this summer.

Arturo Valenzuela announced he will leave his post of Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs to return to Georgetown University, where he taught before his appointment by Barack Obama in 2009.

The United States currently doesn’t have ambassadors in Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. There are only rudimentary diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Bin Laden Show 00: DNA Testing Fraud

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call

Bert Laden was buried at sea within 24 hours of being gunned down in what was probably a CIA safehouse set up with help from Blackwater. Claims by the White House and CIA that DNA confirmation of his identity are bogus.

DNA tests take 3-10 days to run and are not something that can be done in flight or at sea.

Continue reading “Bin Laden Show 00: DNA Testing Fraud”