Penguin: Watch Out! Sane Conservatives & Anonymous in Confluence ! ! ! !

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government
Who, Me?
Who, Me?

Who would have imagined!

The Untold Story of Antiwar Conservatives

And how the truth about invading Iraq was suppressed by laptop bombardiers.

What’s missing from reminiscences of the War on Iraq is how and why the war propaganda was spread so effectively, particularly among Republicans. In fact, the refusal of most conservative media to publish contrary information was one of the reasons this magazine was founded. The American Conservative provided an outlet for many respected conservatives who couldn’t get antiwar views published.

. . . . .

Conservatives opposed to empire and war included Pat Buchanan, Scott McConnell, Charley Reese, Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Gottfried, myself, Doug Bandow, Bill Kauffman, Sheldon Richman, Leon Hadar, Allan Brownfeld, Martin Sieff, Phil Giraldi, as well as other respected leaders such as congressmen John Duncan and Ron Paul and future senator James Webb.

Read rest of article.

The loose collective Anonymous have targeted a number of big institutions in recent years
The loose collective Anonymous have targeted a number of big institutions in recent years

VIDEO: Eminem, Ice Cube and Korn Team Up with Anonymous to Call For Global Revolution
‘Everything's corrupt, everything's fucked up.'

The word “epic” long ago lost all its linguistic potency when Burger King and Hot Topic began to use it in the advertisement of their products. Yet if ever if there was an occasion to resurrect the term, it would be to describe the music video released today by elements of Anonymous along with Ice Cube, Eminem, and Korn.

They team up to splice together a nuance-eschewing, face-melting, testosterone-charged collaboration meant to incept a massive wave of action against the seemingly indomitable power of corporatist-totalitarianism within the world's leading liberal republics.

Read full article and see video.

Continue reading “Penguin: Watch Out! Sane Conservatives & Anonymous in Confluence ! ! ! !”

Jean Lievens: Amsterdam enabled private rentals as non-businesses, encouraging the sharing economy

Civil Society, Commerce, Ethics, Government
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Amsterdam adopts new private rental policy that benefits Airbnb hosts and the sharing economy

By Josh Ong,

The Next Web, Thursday, 13 Feb '14

The city of Amsterdam has approved a new set of rules that allows residents to rent out their homes on Airbnb with less red tape. Previously, Amsterdam required renters to secure permits in order to list on Airbnb, a move that wasn’t exactly a ban, but did serve as an obstacle to would-be hosts.

Under the new policy, citizens can classify their houses as “Private Rentals.” They’ll still have to pay taxes on the income, and renters that cross the line into running a business may be subject to investigation.

Airbnb’s Head of Global Public Policy David Hantman celebrated the rules as “great news” for the startup’s customers.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Amsterdam enabled private rentals as non-businesses, encouraging the sharing economy”

Reference: Draft Smart Nation Act of 2014

Advanced Cyber/IO, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace

DOC (1 Page): Draft Smart Nation Act of 2014

Proposed Legislation: The Smart Nation Act of 2014

• Within the Department of State, expands the capabilities for Open Government, Citizen Engagement, Participatory Budgeting, Global Engagement and Whole of Government planning, programming, and budgeting, by providing the Secretary of State with oversight authority of the Open Source Agency (OSA) and the Office of Information Sharing Treaties and Agreements.

• Creates an Open Source Agency (OSA), redirecting the necessary funds on a non-reimbursable basis from Program 50 to Program 150, as a sister-agency to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), with the same arms-length independence that Congress wisely mandated to assure journalist independence, but in this case, to assure the integrity of public intelligence in the public interest across Whole of Government and in all exchanges with foreign and non-governmental entities. The small Headquarters will be constructed on the South-Central Campus, adjacent to both the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), which could serve as a partner in global information peacekeeping, and to George Washington University as well as the John F. Kennedy Center conference and parking facilities. All information obtained by open means will be a public good and a copy also provided as acquired to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), who shall make no claim on the disposition of original open sources and methods. The OSA will be the national proponent for Open Source Everything (OSE) across the education, intelligence (decision-support) and research sectors.

• Creates an Office of Information Sharing Treaties and Agreements, to negotiate no-cost information sharing treaties with Nations, and no-cost information sharing agreements with non-governmental and private sector organizations including universities world-wide, while also adopting OSE standards facilitating both sharing and semantic web sense-making across all languages (33 initially, 183 at full operating capability).

• Creates a Multinational Warning & Decision-Support Center (MWDC) and related global information-sharing and sense-making network.

• Creates a Multinational Multiagency Conference Center to serve as a foundation for local to global outreach and cross-fertilization across all education, intelligence, and research topics.

• In partnership with academic, civil society, and non-profit organizations, creates the World Brain Institute and the Global Game to foster whole systems true cost economics thinking.

• Creates, in partnership with a university providing accreditation and administrative services, a School of Future-Oriented Hybrid Governance, a Horizons College, and a Multidisciplinary Research Consortium.

• Support the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) with an Internet dissemination capability that offers free universal access to all unclassified information acquired by the OSA, with a robust man-machine translation capability that offers free online education in at least 33 major languages and 12 dialects of Arabic as an important new foundation for public diplomacy and information peacekeeping.

• Supports the roles of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA) as executive level partners of the Open Source Agency, with priority on decision-support from the OSA in support of all federal needs of common concern.

• Expands and enhances the role of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the General Accountability Office (GAO) with direct access to all available information, advanced analytic processing tools, and sufficient personnel to provide each jurisdiction of Congress with unclassified decision-support that can be shared with constituents and the media. –o–

Berto Jongman: John Bell on Age of Dissent

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

The age of dissent

Why are people resorting to street politics across the globe?

John Bell

Al Jazeera, 11 February 2014

John Bell is Director of the Middle East Programme at the Toledo International Centre for Peace in Madrid.

In 2012, after the beginnings of the Arab revolutions, Paul Mason, editor at BBC's Newsnight programme, wrote a book called Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere – The New Global Revolutions. Mason pointed out that social neworks, a newfound sense of self-reliance, and a disjuncture between the young and an old political order are ushering in a new age of discontent.

He may well be right. Today, while the Arab world continues with its political somersaults, the street in Thailand, Ukraine, Brazil and Turkey and elsewhere is alive with protest. Foreign Policy magazine has put together a timeline highlighting that demonstrations have indeed significantly increased globally over the past 20 years.

Why are people going out on the street to address their woes? It's an act of courage and determination that can land you in jail, one far more difficult than simply casting a vote in the ballot box. What has changed?

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: John Bell on Age of Dissent”

Henry Jenkins: Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture – Media Education for the 21st Century

Academia, Civil Society, Ethics, Media
Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins

WHITE PAPER: 72 Pages

Executive Summary

According to a recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life project (Lenhardt & Madden, 2005), more than one-half of all teens have created media content, and roughly one-third of teens who use the Internet have shared content they produced. In many cases, these teens are actively involved in what we are calling participatory cultures.

A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also
one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created). Forms of participatory culture include:

Continue reading “Henry Jenkins: Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture – Media Education for the 21st Century”

David Swanson: Convicting Protesters Instead of Pilots — So Similar to Convicting Occupy, Instead of Wall Street

Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government
David Swanson
David Swanson

More Drone Protesters, Instead of Pilots, Convicted of a Crime

The following report comes in from Toby Blomé

Feb. 3, 2014:  “Wheatland 4” Trial:  Anti-Drone Protesters Convicted of Trespassing 

Sentenced to 10 hours of Community Service and a $10 fee.Judge Claire warns of harsher consequences next time due to “ban & bar” orders served to them at the time of arrest.

Read full post.

Phi Beta Iota: Over 7,000 Occupy protesters jailed — no bankers even arrested. A revolution vastly greater than anything the USA has seen since 1776, is emergent. The two-party tyranny and Wall Street are a precise parallel to King George and the East India Company. ENOUGH!

See Also:

REVOLUTION Graphic & Refs