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Obama Fails in Middle East

Robert Dreyfuss on 11/06/2009

Chuck Spinney Sends…..

The announcement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he will not run for reelection is the exclamation point on the utter collapse of the Obama adminstration's Middle East policy. Launched to great expectations — the appointment of George Mitchell, Obama's Cairo declaration that the plight of the Palestinians is intolerable — it is now in complete disarray. It is, without doubt, the first major defeat for Obama's hope-and-change foreign policy.

Here's how it unraveled.

Continue reading “Journal: Obama-Clinton Implode Middle East”

2009/11/052009/11/05

Journal: Out of Touch with Reality III

02 Diplomacy, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Government, Peace Intelligence

Chuck Spinney Sends… America's diplomatic recipe for winning the hearts and minds of “furriners” in the 21st Century:

Mix – Blind unreasoning fear with the
Domestic politics of privatizing embassy protection and the
Domestic politics of huge construction contracts

into neat grand-strategic soufflé, then bake it in the domestic political-economic oven of heated by the coals of the MICC's Long War Against Terrorism and serve hot to a world that hungers for American values.

For those readers who question the political relevance of such a tasty dish, I offer the following op-ed by Simon Tisdall of the Guardian

Continue reading “Journal: Out of Touch with Reality III”

2009/11/04

Journal: DARPA Tests Twitter

Civil Society, Government, Methods & Process, Military, Mobile, Real Time, Technologies

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DARPA to hold Internet competition

Challenge features 10 red balloons

By Doug Beizer Nov 04, 2009

A contest planned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will challenge contestants to use the Internet to locate the 10 large red weather balloons the agency will place across the continental United States, DARPA officials announced last week. DARPA will put the balloons in publicly accessible locations and display them for one day during daylight hours. The first participant to identify the latitude and longitude of all the balloons will receive the $40,000 cash prize. The balloons will be positioned Dec. 5, DARPA officials said Oct. 29.

Phi Beta Iota: This is a no-brainer for Twitter–Graphics: Twitter as an Intelligence Tool

2009/11/032009/11/03

Journal: Afghanistan–The Arithmetic of the Frontier

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Government, Military

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Boston Globe

By H.D.S. Greenway

November 3, 2009

PRESIDENT OBAMA is doing the arithmetic of fighting in Afghanistan and figuring the odds of Pakistan pulling through. He must not only add up the numbers of soldiers he wants to hand over to his generals, but must also measure what is achievable against what his country has to spend in money and blood. General Stanley McChrystal?s requests echo those of Marshal Akhromeyev, who begged the Soviet Politburo for more soldiers for his war 20 years ago.

Continue reading “Journal: Afghanistan–The Arithmetic of the Frontier”

2009/11/032009/11/03

Journal: Chuck Spinney Sends–Katrina & Fear

03 Environmental Degradation, 08 Wild Cards, 12 Water, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military

The Detritus of Katrina and the Paralysis of Fear:
A Metaphor for Contemporary Politics

The vast Mississippi Delta in Louisiana is sinking as sea water from the Gulf of Mexico seeps in to destroy its fresh water marshlands. The Army's Corps of Engineers says it can not protect New Orleans from the inevitable storm surges caused by hurricanes (see the Guardian report attached below).

Some may dismiss this warning as alarmist hype, and the Army's Corps of Engineers certainly does not have an enviable track record in this regard. That said, the Corps' warning does make evident the political-economic detritus left over from Hurricane Katrina. Inferentially, the warning also highlights the hollowness in the scare tactics used by global warming advocates to raise money for their far more costly ambitions, not to mention the paralyzing political-economic consequences posed by the politics of fear practiced by the Pentagon.

The reality of the Delta thus becomes a metaphor for the larger emptiness that now pervades American politics.

Below the Fold: Balance of Spinney Comment, Full Article with Highlight, Books
Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney Sends–Katrina & Fear”

2009/11/02

Journal: Political-Corporate Corruption in USA

Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Full Story Online — Online Ordering (All Sources)

WASHINGTON — A new book detailing the political contributions and practices of nearly 5,000 companies goes on sale today, providing consumers with a powerful tool in helping them vote with their wallets.

New to The Blue Pages, Second Edition is the reporting of federal lobbying expenditures, which in 2008 totaled $3.3 billion. Additionally, the new edition expands listings with environmental policies and practices of the companies tracked. Each sector overview opens with commentary from an expert in the field.

Examples:

• AT&T — Total contributions to Republican Party: $2,875,123; Total contributions to Democratic Party: $2,531,482; Lobby Spending: $32,214,784;

• ExxonMobil — Total contributions to Republican Party: $1,085,223; Total contributions to Democratic Party: $333,799; Lobby Spending: $45,940,000;

2009/11/022009/11/02

Journal: True Cost–Israel and Palestine

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, True Cost

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November 2, 2009

Clinton, Goldstone and true cost of the occupation

Hever: The Israeli government is hiding the true cost of the occupation even from itself

The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported last Friday that at least 11 locations within settlement colonies in the West Bank are escalating construction in order to alter “facts on the ground.” In October, the joint Israeli-Palestinian organization, Alternative Information Center, organized a conference on the economy of the Israeli occupation in Bethlehem. The Real News' Lia Tarachansky attended and spoke to the AIC's Shir Hever about the real costs of maintaining Israel's occupation.

Cost estimated at US$9 billion to the governments of Israel and the USA, while profit is almost entirely privatized.

Continue reading “Journal: True Cost–Israel and Palestine”