The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 27: Over 700 hundred Continental and United pilots, joined by additional pilots from other Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) carriers, demonstrate in front of Wall Street on September 27, 2011 in New York City. The pilots want to draw attention to the lack of progress on negotiations of the pilots' joint collective bargaining agreement ahead of the one-year anniversary of the corporate merger close date of United and Continental airlines.
Drawing on the Open Society Foundations' research into the worldwide impact of new and digital media, this forum will discuss the role that these evolving forms of media can play in the development and strengthening of democratic societies.
The discussion will consider questions such as:
With panelists from Morocco, Spain, and the United States, this event promises international insights into a global issue.
Dead federal retirees are paid $120 million annually, report says
By Ed O’Keefe (Wash Post)
The federal government pays out millions of dollars to dead people each year — including deceased retired federal workers, according to a new report.
In the past five years, the Office of Personnel Management has made more than $601 million in benefits payments to deceased federal annuitants, according to the agency’s inspector general. Total annual payouts range between $100 million and $150 million.
Published: 22 September 2011
The new wave of land deals is not the new investment in agriculture that millions had been waiting for. The poorest people are being hardest hit as competition for land intensifies. Oxfam’s research has revealed that residents regularly lose out to local elites and domestic or foreign investors because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively and to defend and advance their interests.
Summary | Full report | (PDFs)
(Source) “Starting on October 6, 2011, thousands of concerned Americans will assemble in Freedom Plaza, in Washington DC to take control of our country and our lives. We will occupy the plaza and hold a People's Assembly where we come up with just and sustainable solutions to the crises we face and demand that these solutions be presented and that the people's needs be addressed. We will plan and engage in creative acts of civil resistance and demand that our inherent rights and freedoms be protected, and that our children have a chance to live in peace,to breathe clean air, and to grow edible natural food.”
“Will you stand with us and denounce the systems and institutions that support endless war and unrestrained corporate greed ?”
Also see:
October 2011 list of organizers
Comment: It's interesting how often the graphic of the raised fist has been used as mentioned in this video “The Revolution Business.”
This is really good analysis.
Fiascos of American Foreign Policy
by Patrick Seale
Agence Global, 27 Sep 2011
U.S. President Barack Obama is piling up foreign policy disasters. In at least three areas, crucial for world peace and American interests — Arab-Israel, Afghanistan-Pakistan and Yemen-Somalia — he is pursuing a course which can only be described as foolhardy. The anger and hate towards the United States which he is generating could take a generation to dispel.
. . . . . . .
Is it not time to enquire whether U.S. policy has not created more terrorists than the CIA has managed to kill? Would it not be better if the United States were simply to declare victory in Afghanistan — and indeed in all the other places where its Special Forces operate — bring its troops home as soon as possible and turn its attention to tending the wounds in its own broken society?
Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle for Arab Independence: Riad el-Solh and the Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press).
Phi Beta Iota: The assumption that US foreign policy is somehow focused on peace or prosperity is evidently not correct. The people who make policy and give orders are not stupid–they are achieving the outcomes they desire. What is different is that a much greater percentage of the public than ever before can now use public intelligence to determine that these policies are not in the public interest, and therefore, are much more likely to be associated with treason–high crimes and misdemeanors that yield personal profit and public pain.
This kind of information should be spread as fast as possible. – Tom
Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control
Exclusive: A laboratory shows how an e-voting machine used by a third of all voters can be easily manipulated
Brad Friedman, Salon, 27 September 2011
It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.
Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.
Phi Beta Iota: The two political parties and the Department of Justice under varied Administrations have known of all this since the Diebold machines were first introduced and their CEO bragged publicly that he would “deliver” the next election to George Bush Junior. What kind of Nation is so stupid and so apathetic as to tolerate this kind of pervasive electoral crime?
See Especially:
For $26 and an 8th Grade Education, You Can Hack a Voting Machine
Two of the lead researchers in the study were able to demonstrate a number of different ways that voting machines could be hacked. They used a $1.29 microprocessor and a circuit board that costs about $8, along with a $15 remote control. They demonstrated that the cheap hack worked from over a half-mile away.
See Also:
Journal: The U.S. electoral system is in danger, once again.
Review: Grand Illusion–The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny
Wikipedia entry for “Diebold Election Systems” which was acquired by “Premiere Election Solutions” then by “Election System & Software” (ES&S) which was then acquired by “Dominion.”
