There are six big issues in the United STATES of America that the media is ignoring. Among the Members of Congress, only one, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX-22), speaks publicly and coherently about these issues. Here they are:
1) The Power to Wage War. This is vested in Congress and has been abdicated to the Executive.
2) The Power of the Purse. This is vested in Congress and has been abdicated to the Executive.
3) Consent of the Senate. This is the new issue, that of “czars” unconfirmed by the Senate who have broad powers (or are merely very bad impotent theater, depending on your perspective).
4) Of, By, and For the People I. Corporate Personality and the legitimacy–or illegitimacy–of corporate spending on campaigns combined with the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the two-party tyranny, demand scrutiny by the public and finally–decades late–concerted public decision on how “it is supposed to be” in order to be consistent with the vision of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution of the United STATES of America.
PITTSBURGH (Reuters) – The Group of 20 is set to become the premier coordinating body on global economic issues, reflecting a new world economic order in which emerging market countries like China are much more relevant, according to a draft communique.
Phi Beta Iota: G-20 along with the International Monetary Fund (IMB) and the World Bank are headed for a rude decline in the next decade. What matters now is NOT trade in industrial era terms (that ignored “true cost”) but rather population and the potential of that population to create wealth. Here's our take, followed by a new book we recommend, and several categories of books that we have reviewed that bear on this matter.
There are at least two organized gangs in cloud computing, with several more emerging in the wings. This is a first cut at what we have in play.
Below the fold are a list of members of the Infrastructure 2.0 Gang and the Cloud Connect Gang, followed by a number of headlines from 2007 to date that comprise a rapid read-in.
As with the origin of computers, when librarians were not consulted, the focus on these gangs is on technical connectivity and related issues (e.g. authentication, security), and NOT on information-sharing and sense-making as the ultimate objective.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to expand and codify the FCC's four network neutrality principles and to utter horror of wireless carriers, make them apply the mobile Internet. It all adds to one of greatest policy battles at the FCC in years.
The entire story is strongly hostile to the FCC and a “must read.”
Full Story Online
See also: Net neutrality fight begins. Not unexpectedly, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski this week issued a call for an “open Internet,” and wireless networks are not immune. Most wireless operator executives aren't happy.
Meanwhile, we're focusing on Open Spectrum and Bottom-Up Clouds.
Cloud of Clouds is the new new meme, burying Semantic Web. You can see Vint Cerf in his traditional vest. We've asked for the names of all those attending, perhaps that will come out soon.
In the meantime, we see Google and CISCO-Nokia going head to head, whle Amazon and IBM fritter on the sides, HP brings out SkyRoom, and China creates its own Google killer. What India might be up to is a mystery–if we were in their shoes we'd be putting a Nokia factory in EACH province, and demanding that all computers sold in india be wireless equipped and capable of creating ad hoc neighborhood clouds that can survive the Obama Administration's shutting down of the Internet in the USA.
September 10, 2009 marked the 100th anniversary of the National Library. Reporters learned that the National Library is now popularizing new reading channels, enabling citizens to access content from the National Library through their digital TV. By the end of this year, more than 300,000 Beijing citizens will enjoy this service.
With a hundred-year history, the library now has an area of more than 250,000 square meters, making it the third largest library in the world; it has a collection of 27 million books, making it among the top five in the world; its daily attendance of 20,000 guests is unrivaled in the world.
Currently, there is Internet access at every desk in the buildings of the north part of the library, and wireless Internet covers the whole library; in the China Digital Library for the Blind, blind people can listen to digital books and music as well as online lectures for free; the DIY circulation service in National Library enables the readers to return books to the circulation counter without having to enter the building, making 24 hours circulation service possible; National Library is also now developing a handheld National Library system with which users can use their cell phone as an access terminal, allowing citizens to receive digital information and services of the library through several channels, including text messages.
As Europe contemplates the creation of a Mutlinational Information-Sharing and Sense-Making Network, and Singapore and South Africa among others think about expanding the over-the-horizon and continent-wide networks, only one major power remains deliberately deaf, dumb, and blind to the 80% or more of the information that cannot be stolen but can be acquired freely from open sources in 183 languages we do not speak: the United STATES of America.
As Members begin thinking about how they are going to deal with the virulently angry public between now and 2010, there are two legislative proposals that have been on the table for over a decade–some would say two decades, both eminently sensible, eminently patriotic, and perhaps–if executed inelligently–the only thing that might fireproof those Members who now fear they will not be re-elected.
Electoral Reform Act
The books and articles on the failure of Congress to honor Article 1 of the Constitution, and the failure of Members to honor their constituencies by eschewing “party line” voting, are now legion. Congress has been tarred and feathered; Independents are now 43% of the eligible voters and rising; and the 70% that did not vote for this Administration in 2008 is likely to come back to the polls in 2010 with an “anything but” mind-set.
Time to think really big thoughts, strategic thoughts, thoughts that benefit the public which is the heart and soul of the Republic and has been living with a stake in its heart all these years, a dysfunctional dishonest electoral system.
This act, eight measures, four for 2010 and the other four for 2012, restores the Republic.
Smart Nation - Safe Nation Act
Restoring the primacy of the public and the legitimacy of the electoral system is not enough. America is coming off fifty years of mortal failure across all its paradigms, and only the creation of a Smart Nation – Safe Nation that connects the public to all possible information and Congress to both the public and all possible information, will restore the survivability and prosperity of the Republic. The second act, created in service to Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02), now running for the Senate, does that.
