Journal: Supreme Court May Smack Executive Down

09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call

Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Smackdown of Obama by Supreme Court may be inevitable

Full Story Online

According to sources who watch the inner workings of the federal government, a smackdown of Barack Obama by the U.S. Supreme Court may be inevitable.

Ever since Obama assumed the office of President, critics have hammered him on a number of Constitutional issues. Critics have complained that much if not all of Obama's major initiatives run headlong into Constitutional roadblocks on the power of the federal government.

Phi Beta Iota: Our Contributing Editor received the entire story via email but without a date from a Colonel serving in Afghanistan.  This story is evidently circulating among military personnel and for that reason we take note.  However, we note that it was originally posted9 July 2010, and have linked to that original post rather than post the entire email.  We would observe that ever since Dick Cheney was Chief of Staff in the White House, Executive disrespect for the Constitution and Congress has been growing, and that Newt Gingrich was the one who led Congress to its practice of abdicating its Article 1 role in the Constitution, instead playing foot-soldier to a party president.  We reiterate, there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by Electoral Reform.

Journal: U.S. Army Partially Criminal & Drugged Up

03 Economy, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Officers Call
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

I can't confirm all of what's in here because I don't currently work with those issues, but this reads like the Vietnam era…

McClatchy Newspapers (mcclatchydc.com)

September 17, 2010

As Iraq Winds Down, U.S. Army Confronts A Broken Force

By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — When Lt. Col. Dave Wilson took command of a battalion of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, the unit had just returned to Texas from 14 months traveling some of Iraq's most dangerous roads as part of a logistics mission.

What he found, he said, was a unit far more damaged than the single death it had suffered in its two deployments to Iraq.

Nearly 70 soldiers in his 1,163-member battalion had tested positive for drugs: methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. Others were abusing prescription drugs. Troops were passing around a tape of a female lieutenant having sex with five soldiers from the unit. Seven soldiers in the brigade died from drug overdoses and traffic accidents when they returned to Fort Bliss, near El Paso, after their first deployment.

“The inmates were running the prison,” Wilson said.

Continue reading “Journal: U.S. Army Partially Criminal & Drugged Up”

Worth a Look: Ric Merrifield Blog, Extract on Privacy

Privacy, Worth A Look
WLIP
Home Page

Bynamite

Reputationdefender

MyIDPal

Abine

Foursquare

. . .even Zillow

Not familiar with these companies?  You should be, because they are plotting the course for the future of internet privacy and how we interact with people and merchants.

Bynamite is just the latest and there is a very good article about them here.  In short, Bynamite has (correctly, in my opinion) seen that each time we conduct a search on the internet, the search itself is a transaction because it gives merchants and the search engines more information about our interests, tastes, and needs.  Bynamite also thinks that this sort of profile information will in short order play a very real role in the prices we pay for goods and the kinds of coupons we get.  I think they are right about that as well – and this by itself is one of the most fundamental changes in the world of commerce to come along in a very long time – a set of one, or many, micro transactions prior to the primary transaction(s) that then inform the price we pay for future transactions – in essence context-rich transactions.

Read Rest of Post

Blog Home Page

NIGHTWATCH Extract: China-Sri Lanka

02 China, 03 Economy, 03 India, 10 Security

Sri Lanka Ports

China-Sri Lanka: On 16 September, China and Sri Lanka agreed to enhance bilateral military cooperation. The announcement came during a meeting between General Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army of China, and Sri Lankan Defense Minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The terms and value of the agreement are not yet known. Nevertheless, any new Chinese defense cooperation initiative with any South Asian country will draw the attention of the Indians. This reinforces China's defense connections with the country immediately south of India and in which India has strategic interests, albeit badly managed most of the time.

Following the near trebling of the armed forces to achieve victory over the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan Army requires a major overhaul, downsizing, retraining and re-equipment. It is significant about Sri Lankan leadership views of India that they turned to China. India, China and Pakistan all have helped Sri Lanka in fighting the Tigers.

For India, this will reinforce suspicions that China plans and intends to encircle India with client states.

NIGHTWATCH  KGS Home

See Also:

2010 Chinese firm partners with Sri Lanka's Aitken Spence on Colombo Port project
2010 China eyes rail link to Chittagong
2009 India Alarmed As Chinese Built Gwadar Port Of Pakistan Becomes Operational
NIGHTWATCH Extract: China-Iran Rail + China ReCap

Undersea Cable Ships, Cables, & the People that Help Facilitate the Global Internet

Commerce, Geospatial, Photography, Technologies, True Cost
Photo by David Meyer/ZDNet UK

Aboard an Alcatel-Lucent undersea cable ship
September 5, 2010

The Ile de Batz is one of three dedicated ships that Alcatel-Lucent uses to lay the submarine fiber-optic cables that carry broadband connectivity across the oceans.

The ship is usually based in Calais, France, but made a stop recently in Greenwich, England, to pick up components from Alcatel-Lucent's factory. The telecommunications infrastructure company invited ZDNet UK to see the factory and the ship, and have a look at a vital part of the global Internet that's normally hidden by miles of water.

The Ile de Batz usually spends between 30 and 40 days at sea on each voyage. It can lay up to 200 kilometers (120 miles) of cable per day, in normal conditions, to a depth of about 8km. That cable and its components are expected to have a lifespan of about 25 years.

Continue reading “Undersea Cable Ships, Cables, & the People that Help Facilitate the Global Internet”

Journalists, Media Professionals Donating Frequently to Federal Political Candidates

Government, Media
source article

Journalists, Media Professionals Donating Frequently to Federal Political Candidates this Election Cycle
By Megan R. Wilson on September 14, 2010

Last year, Christopher Hayes gave $250 to the congressional campaign of a good friend, Alabama Democrat Josh Segall. That’s hardly noteworthy, but for one factor: Hayes is the Washington, D.C., editor of The Nation, a left-leaning news magazine that covers U.S. politics. And his political donation is not an anomaly in journalism, where donating to or otherwise advocating for politicians is often taboo – if not prohibited outright by some news companies.

Hayes is one of 235 people who identified themselves on government documents as journalists, or as working for news organizations, who together have donated more than $469,900 to federal political candidates, committees and parties during the 2010 election cycle, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.

People identifying themselves as working for hard news outlets such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Post, News Corp., Vanity Fair and Reuters are among the listed donors. Also listed are employees from outlets offering lighter fare — ESPN, Vogue — or community news. Some have donated thousands of dollars.
The average contribution per person identified is eight times Hayes’ amount, and because of some big-spending media professionals, that number is slightly skewed upwards — with the median amount donated coming in at $500. Sixty-five percent of all identified donations went to Democrats, the Center’s research indicates.

To download an itemized spreadsheet of self-identified journalists and other people working for news organizations, click here: Media Donations 091410.xls

noble gold