Communities of Practice – Page 839 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/05/082013/05/09

Mini-Me: US Air Force Unconstitutional? Justice Scalia Leads Majority Opinion — Could the Department of Homeland Security Also Be Unconstitutional? Plus ANON 1 Comment

Huh?

In Stunning 5-4 Decision, Supreme Court Declares Air Force Unconstitutional

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court, in a shocking decision, declared the U.S. Air Force unconstitutional earlier today.

EXTRACT:

After receiving briefs and hearing oral arguments, the Court retired for deliberations. After three months, the Justices announced their decision. The Air Force cannot constitutionally exist as an independent entity.

The majority, led by Justice Antonin Scalia, reasoned: “This question is very simple. We must look to the text of the Constitution. That text is clear by its absence. The Constitution, despite establishing the Army and Naval Forces, says absolutely nothing about the Air Force. Our inquiry must end there.”

In a concurring opinion, Justice Kennedy elaborated, “the constitution is remarkably silent about any militarized air units. And it is not as if the drafters of the Constitution were unaware of flight. Lighter than air and dirigible technology were around at the time the constitution was written. If the founders knew about these things and did not enumerate Congress with the power to create an Air Force, we must assume that this is a power retained by the States as per the 10th Amendment.”

In a blistering dissent, Justice Ginsburg said, “this is just another instance of the conservative branch of the high court hiding behind textual originalism instead of going through the effort of making a sensible argument. This is judicial laziness which will have devastating effects down the road.”

The exact fate of personnel in the Air Force remains unclear. The President and the Department of Defense have released a vague press release, saying, “While [the Air Force’s] current form is unconstitutional, Justice Kennedy’s concurring opinion suggests that the Constitution would be open to a state-operated Air militia. We will be looking into a vast restructuring in order to comply with the mandates of the Constitution.”

According to an anonymous source at the Pentagon, there are whispers of, perhaps, rolling the Air Force back into the Army. This would reflect the constitutionally permissible subservience that the Marine Corps has with the Navy. If that is not far enough, some have said they’d be rolled back into the Signal Corps.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: US Air Force Unconstitutional? Justice Scalia Leads Majority Opinion — Could the Department of Homeland Security Also Be Unconstitutional? Plus ANON 1 Comment”

2013/05/08

Berto Jongman: YouTube 14:17) 2012 Corbett Report on Media Manipulation

Corruption, Media

Published on Jan 2, 2012

SOURCES AND TRANSCRIPT: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=3588

As the US and Iranian governments escalate tensions in the already volatile Straits of Hormuz, and China and Russia begin openly questioning Washington's interference in their internal politics, the world remains on a knife-edge of military tension. Far from being a dispassionate observer of these developments, however, the media has in fact been central to increasing those tensions and preparing the public to expect a military confrontation. But as the online media rises to displace the traditional forms by which the public forms its understanding of the world, many are now beginning to see first hand how the media lies the public into war.

Learn more about the media manipulations behind the beginning of war in this week's GRTV backgrounder.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: YouTube 14:17) 2012 Corbett Report on Media Manipulation”

2013/05/08

Berto Jongman: Post-Industrial Journalism – A Report

Ethics, Media

From the Columbia Journalism School.

Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present

Conclusion:

More than any one strategy or capability, the core virtue in this environment is a commitment to adapting as the old certainties break and adopting the new capabilities we can still only partially understand, and to remember that the only reason any of this matters to more than the current employees of what we used to call the news industry is that journalism—real reporting, about whatever someone somewhere doesn’t want published—is an essential public good.

2013/05/08

Richard Falk: The Wrong Red Lines

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military

The wrong ‘red line'

The world we inhabit badly needs red lines, but “the right red lines”, writes Falk.

Richard Falk

Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.

EXTRACT

Debate on Syria: ‘Missing red line'

What is missing from the debate on Syria, and generally from the challenge to foreign policy, is a more fundamental red line that the US at another time and place took the lead in formulating – namely, the prohibition of the use of international force by states other than in cases of self-defence against a prior armed attack.

This prohibition was the core idea embodied in the United Nations Charter, and it was also consistent with the prosecution and punishment of surviving German and Japanese leaders after World War II for their role in “Crimes against Peace“, that is, aggressive warfare. The only lawful exception to this prohibition was use of force in accord with a prior authorisation given by the UN Security Council.

Read full article.

2013/05/08

Berto Jongman: Robert Fisk: We Might As Well Name Our Newspapers ‘Officials Say’

Corruption, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Media, YouTube

He calls it the “Cancer of American Journalism”

Robert Fisk: We Might As Well Name Our Newspapers ‘Officials Say'

May 7, 2013

Watch the full 20-minute interview with Robert Fisk on Democracy Now! at http://owl.li/kN9jD. Longtime Middle East correspondent of the British newspaper The Independent, Robert Fisk, tells Democracy Now! that journalists covering Syria and other conflicts are too often relying on anonymous government sources for their stories.

ROBERT FISK: Oddly enough, you have to be in Syria to realize how mad it is. There's an odd thing that when you actually are traveling around Syria — Latakia, Tartus, Damascus and further north than Latakia — and you listen to the news coming out of Washington, it's like Americans are living in this kind of fantasy world that bears no relation to planet earth, where I'm trying to report. And this is getting steadily worse.

And I think one of the problems is, as I say, this parasitic, osmotic relationship between journalists and power, our ever-growing ability, our wish, to — you know, to rely on these utterly bankrupt comments from various unnamed, anonymous intelligence sources. And I'm just looking at a copy of the Toronto Globe and Mail, February 1st, 2013. It's a story about al-Qaeda in Algeria. And what is the sourcing? “U.S. intelligence officials said, “a senior U.S. intelligence official said,” “U.S. officials said,” “the intelligence official said,” “Algerian officials say,” “national security sources considered,” “European security sources said,” “the U.S. official said,” “the officials acknowledged.” I went—boy, I've got another even worse example here from The Boston Globe and Mail sic, November 2nd, 2012. But, you know, we might as well name our newspapers “Officials Say.” This is the cancer at the bottom of modern journalism, that we do not challenge power anymore. Why are Americans tolerating these garbage stories with no real sourcing except for very dodgy characters indeed, who won't give their names?

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2013/05/07

Marcus Aurelius: The Cyber-Dam Break — “Blame It On China” Goes Into High Gear

02 China, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call

The Cyber-Dam Breaks

Sensitive Army database of U.S. dams compromised; Chinese hackers suspected

BY: Bill Gertz

The Washington Free Beacon, May 1, 2013

U.S. intelligence agencies traced a recent cyber intrusion into a sensitive infrastructure database to the Chinese government or military cyber warriors, according to U.S. officials.

The compromise of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams (NID) is raising new concerns that China is preparing to conduct a future cyber attack against the national electrical power grid, including the growing percentage of electricity produced by hydroelectric dams.

According to officials familiar with intelligence reports, the Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams was hacked by an unauthorized user believed to be from China, beginning in January and uncovered earlier this month.

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2013/05/072013/05/07

Eagle: Robo-Litigation Law Review Article — Still to be Documented: Crooked Judges, Especially in Florida and Maryland

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

ROBO-LITIGATION

DUSTIN A. ZACKS*

Cleveland State Law Review Vol 60 2013)

ABSTRACT

The recent housing crisis increased demand for attorneys to process foreclosures through state courts. This increase in demand was coupled with a desire for the fastest and cheapest legal services available. As a result, large foreclosure firms designed to handle an enormous number of foreclosure cases quickly and inexpensively evolved and flourished. During their ascendancy, these firms consistently generated complaints about their conduct, including questions about their ethical decision-making and about the veracity of the pleadings and documents they filed. Scholarly literature on the housing crisis, however, is largely devoid of
commentary on ethical issues related to increased foreclosures.

This Article tracks the rise and fall of several notorious high volume foreclosure firms and to examine the numerous instances of serious misconduct their attorneys and paralegals perpetrated. The Article accordingly examines the curiously muted reaction from state bar associations, judges, and state legislators.

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