Category: Policies

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The Real “National Security Budget: $1.2 Trillion

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Military
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Tomgram: Chris Hellman, $1.2 Trillion for National Security

Here’s the thing: the House Republicans are going after their version of unsightly pimples on the body politic — the programs they and their billionaire sponsors find ideologically unpalatable — without seriously considering where our money really flows.  We at TomDispatch thought we might lend a hand to Congress’s deliberations this week by offering something new: the first real figure on what American taxpayers actually pay for the Pentagon, the U.S. military, homeland security, our distant wars, the care of veterans, intelligence, and every other aspect of our national security and war state.

. . . . . . .

$1.2 Trillion: The Real U.S. National Security Budget No One Wants You to Know About

by Chris Hellman  •  March 1, 2011     www.tomdispatch.com

What if you went to a restaurant and found it rather pricey? Still, you ordered your meal and, when done, picked up the check only to discover that it was almost twice the menu price.

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Worth a Look: Open Enterprise

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, IO Multinational, Key Players, Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Threats

The Open Enterprise is a new organizational design. Unlike organizations using traditional management structures, Open Enterprises replace the command and control hierarchy with a meritocracy based on collaboration and open participation.

Open Enterprise Manifesto

Open Enterprise Governance Model

BetterMeans Open Project Management Software

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Director of National Intelligence Self-Destructs…Again

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Reform
Dead on Arrival

Senator: Remarks about Libya ‘should be the final straw' for Clapper (CNN)

Clapper lambastes Russia; wait, isn’t Joe Biden in Russia? (The Hill)

U.S. Intelligence Chief Says Qaddafi Has Edge in Conflict (NYT)

US should keep up Lebanon military aid: intel chief (AFP)

Losing Libya III (PajamasMedia)

Phi Beta Iota: We used to admire Jim Clapper, so much so that a member of our collective issued a press release in his defense when Donald Rumsfeld fired him for telling the truth.  General Clapper appears to have forgotten how to tell the truth, and he is not leading the US Intelligence Community, he is administering it with cronies assigned to administer the various agencies.   There is no longer intelligence at the top of the intelligence community.  It is time for a full-spectrum house cleaning, to include the conversion of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, which is not needed, into the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Peace Operations, which IS needed.  Mike Vickers is not qualified for either position.

Media Spin: Clapper told the truth.  Reality: Clapper is out of touch with reality–he cannot even outline the ten high-level threats to humanity or explain why continued fragmentation of the US Government is the greatest threat to our near term as well as a long term stability and prosperity.  Russia and China are not military threats to the US but rather economic threats, and in the case of China, a demographic and scientific & technology threat.  The Old Guard is dead, may they rest in peace.  Sadly, there is no bench within the US Intelligence Community OR the contractor world.  We anticipate nothing beneficial for our $90 billion a year.

See Also:

Obama to Clapper: “Disappointed.” Duh.

Journal: Reflections on Integrity

Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both

Review: Ideas and Integrities–A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure

What’s Right with America? Let Me List the Books…

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Death Row Inmates Willing to Donate Organs are Rejected/Wasted

07 Health, 09 Justice, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Giving Life After Death Row

By CHRISTIAN LONGO
March 5, 2011

Salem, Ore. EIGHT years ago I was sentenced to death for the murders of my wife and three children. I am guilty. I once thought that I could fool others into believing this was not true. Failing that, I tried to convince myself that it didn’t matter. But gradually, the enormity of what I did seeped in; that was followed by remorse and then a wish to make amends.  I spend 22 hours a day locked in a 6 foot by 8 foot box on Oregon’s death row. There is no way to atone for my crimes, but I believe that a profound benefit to society can come from my circumstances.  I have asked to end my remaining appeals, and then donate my organs after my execution to those who need them. But my request has been rejected by the prison authorities. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, there are more than 110,000 Americans on organ waiting lists. Around 19 of them die each day.

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Reference: The Global Democratic Revolution Anew

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Analysis, Articles & Chapters, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, Reform

The great events in tthe Arab world are part of a wider hidtorical process of worldwide democrativ advance.But the distrous events of the post-9/11 decade have made it far slower and more conflictual than needed, says Martin Shaw*

EXTRACT:  “…everywhere, the unifying thread is opposition to authoritarianism and aspiration to democratic rule; and the sense of a psychological break with the dictatorial past is unmistakable.”

* Martin Shaw is professorial fellow in international relations and human rights at Roehampton University, London, and an honorary research professor of international relations at the University of Sussex. His books include War and Genocide: Organised Killing in Modern Society (Polity, 2003); The New Western Way of War: Risk-Transfer War and its Crisis in Iraq (Polity, 2005); and What is Genocide? (Polity, 2007).

Read complete analytic offering….

Phi Beta Iota: One of the most concise, thoughtful, and inspiring summaries of both the present prospects and the recent failed past, all in the context of the past half century.

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Michael Moore on the Class War & Looting of America

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence
John Steiner

Recommended!

Phi Beta Iota: Two items are included in full below the line in sequence.  To read them in their original online form, here are the two headlines:

How I Got to Madison, Wisconsin …a letter from Michael Moore

Michael Moore: The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far — And We're Finally Fighting Back

 

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