Category: Communities of Practice

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DefDog: Completely False Story from Coalition on Taliban

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Media, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call
DefDog Recommends....

This story is completely false.  NightWatch's compilation of data reveals that “March saw the highest level of fighting up to March 2011 and May was higher still. July looks down, but much more focused and lethal against senior officials.”

Just more of the aversion of truth that permeates Washington…..it also goes against all the previous reporting of having the Taliban on the ropes…..

Coalition holds line on Taliban attacks, data show

By Jim Michaels

USA TODAY, 28 July 2011

For the first time in five years insurgent-initiated attacks in Afghanistan have not increased with the start of a new fighting season, suggesting that a surge of U.S. forces has blunted Taliban momentum, according to the coalition forces.

Read full story…

Continue reading “DefDog: Completely False Story from Coalition on Taliban”

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Robert Young Pelton: USA Road to Debt Decisions

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Robert Young Pelton

Useful survey on when the recent as well as the further back decisions on going into debt were made.  From April, but so very relevant today.

Running in the red: How the U.S., on the road to surplus, detoured to massive debt

By

The Washington Post, April 30, 2011

The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis.

. . . . . . .

All told, Obama-era choices account for about $1.7 trillion in new debt, according to a separate Washington Post analysis of CBO data over the past decade. Bush-era policies, meanwhile, account for more than $7 trillion and are a major contributor to the trillion-dollar annual budget deficits that are dominating the political debate.

. . . . . .

William Hoagland, who was for years a top budget aide to Domenici and other GOP Senate leaders, said it is simplistic to think today’s fiscal problems began just 10 years ago. In 1976, as a young CBO analyst, Hoagland produced a long-term simulation that showed entitlement costs gradually overwhelming the rest of the federal budget.

“This situation really goes back to long before [the Bush administration], which is to say to old dead men that have long left the Congress,” he said.

Read full article (three screens)…

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Venessa Miemis: Beyond Systems Thinking

Advanced Cyber/IO, Articles & Chapters, Briefings (Core), Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Policies
Venessa Miemis

Excellent piece from Rethinking Complexity: Studying Systems for a Humane and Sustainable World.

From Systems Thinking to Systems Being

CONCLUSION

Systems being involves embodying a new consciousness, an expanded sense of self, a recognition that we cannot survive alone, that a future that works for humanity needs also to work for other species and the planet. It involves empathy and love for the greater human family and for all our relationships – plants and animals, earth and sky, ancestors and descendents, and the many peoples and beings that inhabit our Earth. This is the wisdom of many indigenous cultures around the world, this is part of the heritage that we have forgotten and we are in the process of recovering.

Click on Image to Enlarge

Systems being and systems living brings it all together: linking head, heart and hands. The expression of systems being is an integration of our full human capacities. It involves rationality with reverence to the mystery of life, listening beyond words, sensing with our whole being, and expressing our authentic self in every moment of our life. The journey from systems thinking to systems being is a transformative learning process of expansion of consciousness—from awareness to embodiment.

— Kathia Laszlo, Ph.D., directs Saybrook University's program in Leadership of Sustainable Systems

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Secrecy News: ACLU to Congress on Curbing Secrecy

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, White Papers
Steven Aftergood

ACLU:  CONGRESS MUST ACT TO CURB SECRECY

“Congress must take the lead in challenging the laws and practices that have allowed excessive secrecy to become the dominant feature of our national security culture,” the American Civil Liberties Union urged in a new report on government secrecy.

“The excessive secrecy that hides how the government pursues its national security mission is undermining the core principles of democratic government and injuring our nation in ways no terrorist act ever could,” wrote Mike German and Jay Stanley, the authors of the ACLU report.  “It is time for Congress to make the secrecy problem an issue of the highest priority, and enact a sweeping overhaul of our national security establishment to re-impose democratic controls.”

The report provides a fluid account of current secrecy policy, along with a critique from first principles as well as from recent experience.  Highly readable and thoroughly footnoted, the 51 page report covers a spectrum of secrecy issues, from the state secrets privilege to secret law to the role of national security whistleblowers, and a lot more.  It concludes with a menu of recommended reforms that Congress could and, the authors say, should undertake.

The title of the report sums it up:  “Drastic Measures Required:  Congress Needs to Overhaul U.S. Secrecy Law and Increase Oversight of the Secret Security Establishment” by Mike German and Jay Stanley, July 2011.

Continue reading “Secrecy News: ACLU to Congress on Curbing Secrecy”

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Penguin: Grand Theft USA – Details on 2004 Electoral Theft

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Who, Me?

Forget Anonymous: Evidence Suggests GOP Hacked, Stole 2004 Election

By John Thorpe

Benzinga Staff Writer

July 21, 2011 1:07 PM

EXTRACT

“A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush,” according to Bob Fitrakis, columnist at http://www.freepress.org and co-counsel in the litigation and investigation.

If you recall, Ohio was the battleground state that provided George Bush with the electoral votes needed to win re-election. Had Senator John Kerry won Ohio's electoral votes, he would have been elected instead.

Evidence from the filing suggests that Republican operatives — including the private computer firms hired to manage the electronic voting data — were compromised.

Read full article….

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Koko: Americans Elect – Electoral Theft Part IV

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Misinformation & Propaganda
Koko the Reflexive

At this time, while espousing the most laudable goals, Americans Elect reeks of subterfuge. Electoral Theft I was Florida in 2000.  Electoral Theft II was Ohio in 2004.  Electoral Theft III was Obama in 2008.  And now we have Americans Elect.

Here are a few stories documenting their connections with Michael Bloomberg and NO LABELS, the tragic farce that ended with a silly song.  Hedge-fund money, New York City roots.

Headlines with links below the line.

Continue reading “Koko: Americans Elect – Electoral Theft Part IV”

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Koko: Politicians, Taxes, Lies, and Corruption

Articles & Chapters, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices… 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

-By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

Continue reading “Koko: Politicians, Taxes, Lies, and Corruption”