WInslow Wheeler: Congressional Deception on Pentagon Pork [PBI: Until DoD Down to $400B a Year, 50% Waste is Order of the Day]

Corruption, Government, Military
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Winslow Wheeler
Winslow Wheeler

“Omnibus” Information and Commentary Paper: What Did the Appropriators Really Do to Defense Spending?

Bottom line: At $600B plus, DoD is a pig — easily 40% waste.

Summary of Findings:

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Greg Palast: Why are Christie and the Kochs in my driveway? It’s time to subpoena the Committee for Our Children’s Future

Civil Society, Corruption, Government
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Greg Palast
Greg Palast

Why are Christie and the Kochs in my driveway?

It’s time to subpoena the Committee for Our Children’s Future

By Greg Palast for Truthout
Thursday, 16. January 2014

Far more insidious, more corrosive and dangerous than the Governor of New Jersey playing traffic warden is the story of Gov. Chris Christie's secret meetings with a gaggle of billionaires –– and the legality of the spending by the front organization set up following these hidden hugger-muggers.

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9/11 DVD: Who Had Demolition Access to WTC?

9-11 Online Video, YouTube
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First uploaded in 2010. Tip of the Hat to Pete Lindall @ LinkedIn.

Let the Investigations and Prosecutions Begin! 9 years after the attacks we are finally zeroing in on the people responsible. Kevin Ryan has been kicking ass and taking names, while the pseudo-savior Julian Assange censors cables dealing with Israel and calls 9/11 Truthers “annoying”. Assange staked the reputation of Wikileaks on the public never learning about Building 7. So ask yourself: Who would want to silence the biggest controversy in history? Why is Julian Assange doing this? Who is he?

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Berto Jongman: Bits, Bytes, & Stuff

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
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Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

BOOK: America's Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East

From the 9/11 attacks to waterboarding to drone strikes, relations between the United States and the Middle East seem caught in a downward spiral. And all too often, the Central Intelligence Agency has made the situation worse. But this crisis was not a historical inevitability—far from it.

NB: If John Kerry had an Open Source Agency, he would be vastly better informed and much more effective.

ANALYSIS: 36 Signs The Media Is Lying To You About How Radiation From Fukushima Is Affecting The West Coast

ANALYSIS: Interpreting Al Qaeda — Milbank Gets It Wrong

ANALYSIS: Spinning Al Qaeda — Flawed Analysis = Bad Policy

ANALYSIS: US Intelligence Challenged by MIT on Ghouta Chemical Attack

CULTURE: Culture of Blessed Death in Mexico

CYBER: Blackberry Owns Patent to NSA's Mandated (Purchased) Backdoor RSA Algorithm

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Who’s Who in Earth Intelligence: Hans Rosling

Alpha Q-U, Earth Intelligence
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Hans Rosling
Hans Rosling

Professor of International Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Discoverd konzo, a new epidemic paralytic disease, when serving as doctor in Mocambique 1979-81. Two decades of research in rural Africa traced the cause to toxic ill-processed cassava roots, hunger and poverty. Co-founded Médecines sans Frontier Sweden. Started courses and wrote textbook on Global Health. Initiated university collaborations with Asia and Africa. Co-founded Gapminder that unveils the beauty of statistics by turning boring numbers into enjoyable animations that make sense of the world.

QWANT Media / Hans Rosling

Wikipedia / Hans Rosling

Jean Lievens: Tim O’Reilly on Open Data and Best (Open) Security

Data, Security
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Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Opening up open data: An interview with Tim O’Reilly | McKinsey & Company

The tech entrepreneur, author, and investor looks at how open data is becoming a critical tool for business and government, as well as what needs to be done for it to be more effective. A McKinsey & Company article.January 2014

Interview transcript

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Winslow Wheeler: USAF Still Trying to Kill the A-10 — Absent Intelligence with Integrity, They Will Get Away With This Idiocy

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military
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Winslow Wheeler
Winslow Wheeler

Soon to be at the Harper's website, at http://harpers.org/, is the attached article by Andrew Cockburn.  “Tunnel Vision: Will the Air Force Kill Its Most Effective Weapon?” is sure to generate howls of protest from officialdom in the Air Force and its mouthpieces.

The article makes numerous important, indeed key, points.  They involve not just the unique capabilities of the supposedly too old, too slow, too primitive and too cheap A-10, but also about the real limitations of wonder weapon technologies that have a strong appeal to those who don't bother to look beyond the glitz and the many that have a material and dogmatic vested interest in them.
Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge
Please pay close attention to the incident that Cockburn, a friend and colleague, uses to open the article–and to the denouement of the incident related at the end.  Also, central to the article is the destruction of the notions that the F-35 will ever be able to perform the close air support mission of the A-10 or that the Air Force's leadership cares about that in the slightest.