The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Mike Lofgren on Dysfunction in Our Political Parties
August 31, 2012
Bill talks with Mike Lofgren, a long-time Republican who describes the modern dysfunction of both the Republican and Democratic parties. In Lofgren’s view, Republicans have become overly obsessed with obstructing President Obama, and the Democrats suffer from political complacency. Lofgren’s new book is The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.
Canada's politicians take on the F-35.
When Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party (NDP) invited me to testify before a mock hearing (on Parliament Hill with only NDP members present) addressing the country's purchase of the U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, I was confident I knew what to expect.
I expected the Canadian politicians, like members of the U.S. Congress, to give vaguely informed (sometimes stunningly misinformed) statements about the F-35, even when they agreed with my position. I expected their questions to be read off of staff memos in a manner so clumsy that it was clear the questioner had only the dimmest understanding, if any, of the words he or she was reading. Follow-up questions based on my responses would be a concept the questioner had never seen any use for. In other words, I didn't expect much, but the opportunity to inform the debate in Canada about the high cost and low performance of the F-35 was important; so I accepted the invitation.
My expectations were completely wrong. The differences between Canadian politicians and members of Congress are utterly stunning. Unlike here, oversight in the Canadian Parliament is alive and well. In Canada, I found two political behaviors unheard of in the United States: Opposition politicians actually try to understand the issue they are talking about, and they take offense at being lied to.
Phi Beta Iota: “Intelligence” (decision-support) should not be limited to secret collection against a sub-set of foreign challenges. Knowing oneself is just as important — perhaps even more important — than knowing the enemy. This is especially true when public policy and acquisition and operations are completely disconnected from the public interest. DoD acquisition today is divorced from reality, divorced from need, and divorced from ethics. A “perfect storm” is brewing within the Pentagon.,
How bad is our bloat of generals? How does it compare with other armies?
“In place of that optimax of 5% {officers} that the MI never can reach, many armies in the past commissioned 10% of their number, or even 15%! This sounds like a fairy tale but it was a fact, especially during the 20th century. What kind of an army has more officers than corporals? And more noncoms than privates! An army organized to lose wars — if history means anything. An army that is mostly red tape and overhead, most of whose soldiers never fight.”
— Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (1959). Heinlein was Annapolis class of 1929, discharged in 1934 due to TB.
Contents
Read full post with many supporting links and excellent graphics.
Phi Beta Iota: The review charts the rather troubling migration of Pentagon flag officers and Pentagon methods of fraud, waste, and abuse, over to the Department of Homeland Security, the new pork-fest. Our focus is always on the public interest, and in the military, the public interest cannot be separated from the welfare of the enlisted force, and particularly that portion of the force, the infrantry, 4% of the total force, taking 80% of the casualties, and receiving 1% of the Pentagon budget. This is a crime by politicians and policymakers and so-called professional flag officers, against our very own. On a positive note, we are meeting more and more “insiders” that confirm our view that the US Government is comprised of good people trapped in a bad system — senior grades — who have pretended to drink the kool-aid, abhor all that they do, and would be profoundly appreciative of any leadership oriented toward reform.
Google Targeting of Individuals Made Simple – Excellent Slideshow
Tip of the Hat to Crytpome
Published under the Public Domain, freely downloadable in HTML, epub or PDF, “The P2P Mode of Production: An Indiano Manifesto” is the first collective Indiano work translated into English.
This document is a call to action, based on Las Indias’ analysis that the reduction of the optimal scale of production is the root of the current crisis — in Spain particularly, but also worldwide. This is a grave threat for huge corporations (and to a lesser extent, national governments), but very promising for small enterprises. That’s because the core of the P2P mode of production is a “knowledge commons” available to all. Abundant information on every topic imaginable, but especially on small-scale production, means that local producers can freely choose the most effective, efficient and accessible processes, without the shackles of intellectual property. This will lead to a blossoming of local enterprise. And that’s where you can take action.
There’s a lot more to it — see for yourself!
The translation and formatting of this book is US$1000 worth of work. The content is available for free, as a webpage, epub or PDF, but please consider donating one half of one percent of that — or as much or as little as seems right to you. This will go a long way toward encouraging future translations of the works of Las Indias.
Phi Beta Iota: Michel Bauwens is one of the iconic figures of the transitional period from past to future, from Industrial Era stove-pipes and greed, to Information Era open source everything and sharing to create collaborative economies.
See Also:
Collaborative Economy Coalition
Tom Atlee, Empowering Public Wisdom: A Practical Vision of Citizen-Led Politics (Evolver, 2012)
Michel Bauwens, Report: A Synthetic Overview of the Collaborative Economy (Orange Labs and P2P Foundation, 2012)
Robert Steele, THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Truth (Evolver, 2012)
Washington Post, September 9, 2012, Pg. 1
A President Cornered
The inside story of Obama's struggle to keep Congress from controlling outcome of 2011 debt-ceiling crisis
By Bob Woodward
Adapted from “The Price of Politics,” by Bob Woodward.
