The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Every weekday the National Archives and Records Administration publishes the Federal Register, a detailed description of the Executive branch’s doings, including 150 daily policy decisions of President and Federal agencies, such as proposed and enacted changes to federal regulations. (Source)
Federal Register daily RSS feed
Federal Register past archives/bulk data
Fedthread.org
Govpulse.us
Egypt’s Ire Turns to Confidant of Mubarak’s Son
CAIRO — As Egyptians turned their anger on symbols of the state late last month, torching police stations along with the headquarters of President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party, they reserved a special hatred for a garish building with black tinted windows in an upscale neighborhood, setting fire to it three times.
Phi Beta Iota: Americans are slow to anger, but we see the day coming when Connnecticut mansions begin to burn….the preconditions for revolution in the USA are virtually all present.
We Could Have Stopped The Terror At Fort Hood
Washington Post February 6, 2011 Pg. B1
By Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman and Susan M. Collins
Maj. Nidal Hasan, accused in the murders of 13 people and the attempted murders of 32 others in the shooting spree at Fort Hood, Tex., in November 2009, appears to be the toughest kind of terrorist to spot: a lone wolf who plots without the overt support of domestic cells or foreign sponsors.
Still, the attack did not come as a complete surprise to some in the Army and the FBI, and that makes this incident all the more tragic. Our Senate committee's 14-month investigation of the Fort Hood killings has concluded that the Department of Defense and the FBI “collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan's radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it.”
The deaths at Fort Hood could and should have been prevented. The Defense Department's failure to acknowledge the threat of violent Islamist extremism within its ranks, coupled with organizational and communication flaws in the FBI's counterterrorism operations, contributed to the tragedy.
Continue reading “Terror at Fort Hood? Or Terror from America?”
YOU, TOO, CAN BE A CONGRESSPERSON
by Tom Atlee
Why would you want to become one? Here are four very enticing reasons:
The alternative approach:
* You might have to advocate policies that would be hard on yourself, your constituents or your supporters — even temporarily. You might become unpopular. You might get assassinated or your plane might develop unexplained engine trouble and crash. You might even not get re-elected!
* You would actually have to face reality, get the facts, learn about complicated stuff like how complex systems work. (It's really unfortunate, but most of our thorny problems are all tangled up with complex systems that are tangled up with other problems, too. Yuck!!)
* You would have to listen to and work with people who see things differently from you. After all, they may know something that's important to take into consideration. That could be really unpleasant and take you far afield from your party line, out in the political boonies where the real danger lies.
* You just wouldn't get the same adrenaline rush you get when you stick with oversimplifications, grandstanding, being loved by your supporters, and launching juicy attacks on your enemies. There just aren't as many ego-strokes or perks available for working with others to deeply understand things and come up with what makes sense for the long haul.
The Economist on Democracy in America
I'M HAVING trouble writing about the GOP effort to reach a compromise over whether to cut $100 billion out of the 2011 budget, or just $50-60 billion. My problem is that I can't really write about the advantages or disadvantages of one or another version of the cuts when the entire enterprise appears completely senseless to me.
. . . . . . .
That still wouldn't have anything to do with what the US economy needs over the next year or two. But at least it would make sense as a long-term strategy. What the GOP is doing now is frenziedly cutting often worthwhile small programmes because they can't face the political consequences of taking on entitlements and defence or proposing tax hikes, and it's very hard for me to take the charade seriously.
Government Launches Health Care Fraud Most-Wanted List
WASHINGTON — Health care fraud used to be a faceless crime — until now.
Medicare and Medicaid scams cost taxpayers more than $60 billion a year, but the average bank holdup is likely to get more attention. Seeking the public's help to catch more than 170 fugitive fraudsters, the government has launched a new health care most-wanted list, with its own website. Read more…
Phi Beta Iota: What the government does in terms of fraud, waste, and abuse is VASTLY greater, resulting from a mix of ignorance and corruption. It's a good idea–achieving full transparency for all records would put all citizen eyeballs on the mix and produce more corruption leads faster, better, cheaper. What the government is not telling us is that the Connelly law firm has created a 15 company team led by Booz Allen that is about to take over “profit recovery” for the US Government across the entire health care industry–privateers with with civil and criminal authorities. BAD IDEA and the natural outcome of the government not being able to do the right thing–competent employees and trusted information–so instead it does the wrong thing righter–gets bigger, more expensive, outsources more.
Obesity Has Nearly Doubled Worldwide Since 1980: Report
FRIDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) — New research shows that obesity is on the rise worldwide — it's doubled since 1980 — but people in the wealthiest nations are managing to reduce their blood pressure and cholesterol level.
Moms’ Work Schedule Is Making Kids Fat
Childhood obesity has been steadily rising in the U.S. in the past 30 years, and a new study from American University in Washington, D.C. has found that a child’s weight may depend on how much their mothers were away at work growing up.
