Cynthia McKinney from Libya: Primal Anger/Angst

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Sense-Making, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Cynthia McKinney

Revelations of secret bombing in Yemen bring President Obama closer to Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Nixon and their secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War than is appropriate for any Nobel Peace Laureate.  How many wars is this President going to start?  As many as the American people will allow.

Der Spiegel reports that the Pentagon released the remaining papers of the Pentagon Papers while admitting that lies were told about the war.  We know that.  But here it is from them.  The four volumes of the Gravel Papers can be accessed through Der Spiegel by clicking on the link below.  How many more lies will the U.S. government tell the American people and the international community?  As many as the American people will allow.

Are NATO's allies child soldiers?  Isn't that against the law?  So what else is new with this war?  How long will war crimes and crimes against humanity be committed by NATO?  As long as the American people allow these crimes to be committed.

Please see these:

1.  Libyan rebel group sells first oil to U.S.

2.  Hedge funds ‘grabbing land' in Africa

3.  Children work with weapons to aid Libya's rebels

Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.

Doc Searls on user-driven democracy

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Computer/online security, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Cyberscams, malware, spam, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Sense-Making, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Privacy, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Technologies, Tools
Jon Lebkowsky Bio

Doc Searls on user-driven democracy

by jonl

Speaking at the 2011 Personal Democracy Forum, Doc talks about how power relationships work in markets vs how they should  and could work. Markets are conversations, and they should be symmetrical conversations. Note his bit about how the language of marketing parallels the language of slavery….and the part where all their cookies end up giving them 50% completely wrong information.

Doc is the co-author of the Clue-Train Manifesto.

Direct Link to Personal Democracy Video

See Also:

48 Recordings on Tap from Personal Democracy 2011

ACDU O-6: Mendacity [on AF] is Egregious–Sickening UPDATED with Comment from In-Country O-5

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policy
Chuck Spinney Recommends...

UPDATED with Comment from O-5 (at end).

This email is from an active duty colonel who travels all over Afghanistan. He actually goes on foot patrols with troops to see things for himself. Here is his latest report.  His message is bad Ju Ju, I am afraid.

Chuck Spinney
La Ciotat, France

To All,

The mendacity is getting so egregious that I am fast losing the ability to remain quiet; these yarns of “significant progress” are being covered up by the blood and limbs of hundreds – HUNDREDS – of American uniformed service members each and every month, and you know that the rest of this summer is going to see the peak of that bloodshed.

The article by Michael O'Hanlon last week (i.e. Success worth paying for in Afghanistan) and the one in today's WSJ by Kagan and Kagan (i.e., We Have the Momentum in Afghanistan) made me sick to my stomach – especially the latter.  Have you seen it yet?  It is the most breathless piece of yellow journalism I’ve seen in the entire OIF-OEF generation.

Continue reading “ACDU O-6: Mendacity [on AF] is Egregious–Sickening UPDATED with Comment from In-Country O-5”

BitCoin: The Bubble versus The Trust

03 Economy, 11 Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process
John Robb

THE BITCOIN BUBBLE

If you haven't already heard about bitcoin, the first popular cypto-currency, you soon will.  The idea for the currency is simple.  It's a software system that makes it possible to manufacture and trade (P2P), in a public and decentralized way, a limited digital resource.  That's it.

So why the interest in bitcoin?

Simple.  It appears to be gaining critical mass as a transactional currency that operates outside of the traditional monetary conduits (banks, SWIFT, etc.).  That fact alone has attracted lots of people to the system, despite the fact that it's not built to allow completely anonymous transactions (it can't be, given that it requires network broadcasts of every transaction to maintain the integrity of the system and prevent counterfeiting).

As a transactional currency that operates outside of traditional systems, it's actually a pretty good medium of exchange (particularly if those transactions are small and quick).  The problems arise when people confuse bitcoin's role as a transactional medium and its role as a store of value (as in: holding it as an asset).

Continue reading “BitCoin: The Bubble versus The Trust”

Open Source Anonymous Banking….Here Now!

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Technologies, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Reform, Tools
Michael Ostrolenk Recommends...

What Happens When Anonymous Gets a Bank?

Dominic Basulto on May 18, 2011

bigthink

The same people who brought you Wikileaks are back, and this time, they've created a virtual currency called Bitcoin that could destabilize the entire global financial system. Bitcoin is an open-source virtual currency generated by a computer algorithm that is completely beyond the reach of financial intermediaries, central banks and national tax collectors. Bitcoins could be used to purchase anything, at any time, from anyone in the world, in a transaction process that it is almost completely frictionless. Yes, that's right, the hacktivists now have a virtual currency that's untraceable, unhackable, and completely Anonymous.

And that's where things start to get interesting. Veteran tech guru Jason Calacanis recently called Bitcoin the most dangerous open source project he's ever seen. TIME suggested that Bitcoin might be able to bring national governments and global financial institutions to their knees. You see, Bitcoin is as much a political statement as it is a virtual currency. If you think there's a shadow banking system now, wait a few more months. The political part is that, unlike other virtual currencies like Facebook Credits (used to buy virtual sock puppets for your friends), Bitcoins are globally transferrable across borders, making them the perfect instrument to finance any cause or any activity — even if it's banned by a sovereign government.

You don't need a banking or trading account to buy and trade Bitcoins – all you need is a laptop. They're like bearer bonds combined with the uber-privacy of a Swiss bank account, mixed together with a hacker secret sauce that stores them as 1's and 0's on your computer. They're “regulated” (to use the term lightly) by distributed computers around the world. Most significantly, Bitcoins can not be frozen or blocked or taxed or seized.

Read full article….

See Also:

Open Money

Link TV Educating Americans About Real World

04 Education, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Peace Intelligence, Whole Earth Review
John Steiner

Dear Friends far and wide:

Link TV in San Francisco is a precious resource for the progressive/transpartisan communities, and we¹re asking you to join us in making a gift to Link.

In December 1999, our good friend and colleague, Kim Spencer,
http://www.linktv.org/whoweare/staff launched Link TV, the first nationwide television network dedicated to providing Americans with global perspectives on news, events and culture. In the wake of media consolidation. Americans have little access to diverse perspectives on critical global issues, and Link challenges this trend.  Today, Link is now broadcast into 35 million homes across the US (largely through DISH, DIRECT TV and with some cable outlets), has 6.7 million regular viewers (many across the political and cultural divides), and provides coverage not found anywhere else in the US.

Link is the only US provider of Al Jazeera English, broadcasts Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! daily, and has won a Peabody Award for its Middle East news program, Mosaic.

Continue reading “Link TV Educating Americans About Real World”

Worth a Look: Digital (Interactive) Citizens Project

Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Technologies
John Steiner

The Digital Citizen Project builds upon the new digital capabilities of television broadcasting and the Internet’s advances in social engagement, to bring an unprecedented degree of citizen participation to news programming for the 2012 election period. The project is premised on the belief that, when offered the chance to appear in media as “informed citizens,” a large number of people will rise to the challenge.

How it Works: Digital Citizen 2012 is a cross-platform and converged media series that seamlessly connects people using social and mobile applications, to television programming of the 2012 campaign. Using well-established online engagement tools, public participants contribute video, audio, text and still images of themselves to the station’s website, stating their opinions and posing questions. Initially, the online community will vet contributions. Producers will join in, to assure the inclusion of representative groups in this process and to track contributors whose posts are popular among the community. Utilizing the digital capabilities of modern studio production equipment, a significant number of the pre-recorded contributor questions and comments will appear on the live programs.

A much smaller number of contributors, whose articulate positions prove popular with the community, will be offered the opportunity to appear live via webcam on the TV program. These participants will be required to take part in a carefully designed online facilitation process that bolsters their arguments with facts, and introduces them to others with different opinions. These “informed citizens” will then be able to speak directly with journalists, experts and candidates during the programs.

Learn more….