07 Other Atrocities – Page 448 – Public Intelligence Blog

Useful survey on when the recent as well as the further back decisions on going into debt were made. From April, but so very relevant today.

Running in the red: How the U.S., on the road to surplus, detoured to massive debt

By Lori Montgomery

The Washington Post, April 30, 2011

The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis.

. . . . . . .

All told, Obama-era choices account for about $1.7 trillion in new debt, according to a separate Washington Post analysis of CBO data over the past decade. Bush-era policies, meanwhile, account for more than $7 trillion and are a major contributor to the trillion-dollar annual budget deficits that are dominating the political debate.

. . . . . .

William Hoagland, who was for years a top budget aide to Domenici and other GOP Senate leaders, said it is simplistic to think today’s fiscal problems began just 10 years ago. In 1976, as a young CBO analyst, Hoagland produced a long-term simulation that showed entitlement costs gradually overwhelming the rest of the federal budget.

“This situation really goes back to long before [the Bush administration], which is to say to old dead men that have long left the Congress,” he said.

Read full article (three screens)…

2011/07/282011/07/28

Robert Steele: Secrecy, Self-Restraint, & Democracy Done in By Elites and “Experts”

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency

steele smiling final — Robert David STEELE Vivas

The times they are a' changing. I was asked to comment on the recently published Reference: Protecting Sensitive “Open” Information and do so gladly. The author of that work means well, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the substance of what he expouses. It is simply not reasonable nor feasible in context.

I know this better than most because I have been here before. In 1990-1994 Winn Schwartau sparked a public debate and ultimately testified to Congress on the likelihood of an “electronic Pearl Harbor.” Congress chose to ignore him just as it had ignored all the well-documented warnings on Peak Oil, Peak Water, AIDS, and so on in the late 1970's. Peter Black and I and others published articles outlining how easily America could be taken down, and how irresponsible the government and the private sector were being about the fundamentals of information security and data integrity.

Continue reading “Robert Steele: Secrecy, Self-Restraint, & Democracy Done in By Elites and “Experts””

2011/07/282011/07/28

Secrecy News: ACLU to Congress on Curbing Secrecy

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, White Papers

ACLU: CONGRESS MUST ACT TO CURB SECRECY

“Congress must take the lead in challenging the laws and practices that have allowed excessive secrecy to become the dominant feature of our national security culture,” the American Civil Liberties Union urged in a new report on government secrecy.

“The excessive secrecy that hides how the government pursues its national security mission is undermining the core principles of democratic government and injuring our nation in ways no terrorist act ever could,” wrote Mike German and Jay Stanley, the authors of the ACLU report. “It is time for Congress to make the secrecy problem an issue of the highest priority, and enact a sweeping overhaul of our national security establishment to re-impose democratic controls.”

The report provides a fluid account of current secrecy policy, along with a critique from first principles as well as from recent experience. Highly readable and thoroughly footnoted, the 51 page report covers a spectrum of secrecy issues, from the state secrets privilege to secret law to the role of national security whistleblowers, and a lot more. It concludes with a menu of recommended reforms that Congress could and, the authors say, should undertake.

The title of the report sums it up: “Drastic Measures Required: Congress Needs to Overhaul U.S. Secrecy Law and Increase Oversight of the Secret Security Establishment” by Mike German and Jay Stanley, July 2011.

Continue reading “Secrecy News: ACLU to Congress on Curbing Secrecy”

2011/07/28

Penguin: Grand Theft USA – Details on 2004 Electoral Theft

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Forget Anonymous: Evidence Suggests GOP Hacked, Stole 2004 Election

By John Thorpe

Benzinga Staff Writer

July 21, 2011 1:07 PM

EXTRACT

“A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush,” according to Bob Fitrakis, columnist at http://www.freepress.org and co-counsel in the litigation and investigation.

If you recall, Ohio was the battleground state that provided George Bush with the electoral votes needed to win re-election. Had Senator John Kerry won Ohio's electoral votes, he would have been elected instead.

Evidence from the filing suggests that Republican operatives — including the private computer firms hired to manage the electronic voting data — were compromised.

Read full article….

2011/07/272011/07/27

Koko: Americans Elect – Electoral Theft Part IV

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Misinformation & Propaganda

Gorilla Kitten on Top — Koko the Reflexive

At this time, while espousing the most laudable goals, Americans Elect reeks of subterfuge. Electoral Theft I was Florida in 2000. Electoral Theft II was Ohio in 2004. Electoral Theft III was Obama in 2008. And now we have Americans Elect.

Here are a few stories documenting their connections with Michael Bloomberg and NO LABELS, the tragic farce that ended with a silly song. Hedge-fund money, New York City roots.

Headlines with links below the line.

Continue reading “Koko: Americans Elect – Electoral Theft Part IV”

2011/07/262011/07/27

DefDog: Criminal Complicity at Department of “Justice”

03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH:

There is a massive complicity in America today between the corporations that fund elections and the officeholders they elect. Actions like Tim's are aimed at disrupting that complicity. For our children, for our country and for the world, we should honor his courage and self-sacrifice and pledge to follow in his footsteps, each in our own way.

Op-Ed

Tim DeChristopher's courageous bid to save our world

In disrupting a federal auction of oil and gas leases, Tim DeChristopher became a hero, but he now faces as many as 10 years in prison.

By Peter YarrowLos Angeles Times, July 26, 2011

In March, Tim DeChristopher was convicted of two felony counts for a nonviolent act of civil disobedience. Acting out of his deepest convictions and his abiding concern for the survival of humankind, Tim bid on oil and gas leases on federal land that he didn't have the means to pay for. On Tuesday, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison for his actions.

2011/07/232011/07/23

Dolphin: DARPA Runs Amok in Afghanistan

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Analysis, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Military, Real Time, Waste (materials, food, etc)

More lipstick on a pig, anyone?

The plethora and pace of the development of these one-off “solutions”
is killing me ….the collective defense and intelligence community
apparently can't keep up with themselves in order to prove who is more
irrelevant…. we continue to throw good money after bad.

Will this ever end?

Exclusive: Inside Darpa’s Secret Afghan Spy Machine

Noah Shachtman

WIRED, 21 July 2011

The Pentagon’s top researchers have rushed a classified and controversial intelligence program into Afghanistan. Known as “Nexus 7,” and previously undisclosed as a war-zone surveillance effort, it ties together everything from spy radars to fruit prices in order to glean clues about Afghan instability.

The program has been pushed hard by the leadership of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. They see Nexus 7 as both a breakthrough data-analysis tool and an opportunity to move beyond its traditional, long-range research role and into a more active wartime mission.

But those efforts are drawing fire from some frontline intel operators who see Nexus 7 as little more than a glorified grad-school project, wasting tens of millions on duplicative technology that has nothing to do with stopping the Taliban.

“There are no models and there are no algorithms,” says one person familiar with the program, echoing numerous others who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the program publicly. Just “200 lines of buggy Python code to do what imagery analysts do every day.”