REVIEWS PENDING — All Three Books Recommended

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The following books are in line for review over this coming week, in the order in which they have been published or will be published.

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Amazon Page

RELEASED:  13 February 2013.  No reviews at Amazon.

How have the intelligence services been forced to adapt to try and combat the threat of terrorism? In this gripping book, former security correspondent Mark Huband takes us inside the shadowy world of intelligence-gathering. Drawing on previously unseen material, unpublished letters and exclusive interviews, he explores how the role and purpose of ‘intelligence' has evolved from its origins in nineteenth-century Ireland to today's fight against terrorism. Using his unique sources, he exposes the hidden blunders of the western intelligence agencies, such as the CIA's total misreading of the KGB's intentions during the Cold War, and the politicisation of intelligence in the build up to the Iraq War, and throws light on their evolving methods, including the manipulation of the media. Ranging from Kandahar to Belfast, this fast-paced book provides not only a compelling account of modern spycraft but a thoughtful and sobering analysis of its current fitness to combat the threat of 21st century terrorism.

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

RELEASED EARLY: 22 March 2013.  1 idiot review at Amazon flagged for deletion.

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side.”–Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln led America through one of the most tumultuous times in our nation's history. Reading his words today, it is clear we still have much to learn concerning what it means to be on God's side.

”There are few people on the scene who can put together mature Christianity with mature politics without compromising either. Jim Wallis does it best–and does it again here.”  —Richard Rohr, OFM, Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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Amazon Page

RELEASE DATE IN APRIL 2013. No reviews allowed until release.

Told with candor and passion, Collapse of Dignity is Gómez’s account of the union’s fight, mounted in the face of traitors, armed aggression, death threats, and a political alliance extending all the way up to the presidential residence at Los Pinos. As he fends off absurdly complex legal charges, organizes the resistance from exile in Canada, and uncovers an anti-union conspiracy stretching back to years before the explosion, he only becomes more committed to fighting for the rights of Los Mineros—and by extension the workers of every country.

Gómez’s story is one of outrage, but also one of hope. Though Collapse of Dignity lays bare sickening injustice and inexcusable aggression against the Mexican working class, it is at its core a fervent call for a global workers’ movement that will represent the fundamental rights of every person who works for a living.

Collapse of Dignity is an unblinking and unnerving look inside our world’s labor struggle. Gómez’s incredible account of the fight for justice in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity is a warning, a lesson, and—ultimately—an impassioned call for international change. Essential reading for any working person.”  —Thom Hartmann, Author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

“A riveting story about standing up to big corporations, Collapse of Dignity delivers a message for us all: We the People must force the global corporatocracy to serve us, the workers and consumers. The contrast between Chile and Mexico is a striking call to action.”  —John Perkins, New York Times Bestselling Author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and Hoodwinked

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Review (Guest): Eisenhower in War and Peace

5 Star, Biography & Memoirs
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Jean Edward Smith

Publisher's Summary:

In his magisterial bestseller FDR, Jean Edward Smith gave us a fresh, modern look at one of the most indelible figures in American history. Now this peerless biographer returns with a new life of Dwight D. Eisenhower that is as full, rich, and revealing as anything ever written about America’s thirty-fourth president. As America searches for new heroes to lead it out of its present-day predicaments, Jean Edward Smith’s achievement lies in reintroducing us to a hero from the past whose virtues have become clouded in the mists of history.

Here is Eisenhower the young dreamer, charting a course from Abilene, Kansas, to West Point, to Paris under Pershing, and beyond. Drawing on a wealth of untapped primary sources, Smith provides new insight into Ike’s maddening apprenticeship under Douglas MacArthur in Washington and the Philippines. Then the whole panorama of World War II unfolds, with Eisenhower’s superlative generalship forging the Allied path to victory through multiple reversals of fortune in North Africa and Italy, culminating in the triumphant invasion of Normandy. Smith also gives us an intriguing examination of Ike’s finances, details his wartime affair with Kay Summersby, and reveals the inside story of the 1952 Republican convention that catapulted him to the White House.

Smith’s chronicle of Eisenhower’s presidential years is as compelling as it is comprehensive. Derided by his detractors as a somnambulant caretaker, Eisenhower emerges in Smith’s perceptive retelling as both a canny politician and a skillful, decisive leader. Smith convincingly portrays an Eisenhower who engineered an end to America’s three-year no-win war in Korea, resisted calls for preventative wars against the Soviet Union and China, and boldly deployed the Seventh Fleet to protect Formosa from invasion. This Eisenhower, Smith shows us, stared down Khrushchev over Berlin and forced the withdrawal of British, French, and Israeli forces from the Suez Canal. He managed not only to keep the peace—after Ike made peace in Korea, not one American soldier was killed in action during his tenure—but also to enhance America’s prestige in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Domestically, Eisenhower reduced defense spending, balanced the budget, constructed the interstate highway system, and provided social security coverage for millions who were self-employed. Ike believed that traditional American values encompassed change and progress.

Unmatched in insight, Eisenhower in War and Peace at last gives us an Eisenhower for our time—and for the ages.

Guest Review Below the Line

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Review (Guest): The Squandered Computer: Evaluating the Business Alignment of Information Technologies

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Information Operations, Information Society, Information Technology
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Amazon Page

Paul Strassmann

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves careful study–a powerful message about technology March 4, 1999

By Lou Agosta (lagosta@21stcentury.net)

The main targets for Paul Strassmann's unmasking of misconceptions about the business use of computers include the Gartner Group, advocates of Best Practices, and that mouth piece of computing vendors, the computing trade press (e.g., CIO Magazine). While not a particularly angry polemic, Strassmann is all the more devastating for his understated, simple, and straight-forward marshaling of basic facts.

The Gartner group is making a fortune telling executives in various industries what per cent of revenue for a particular vertical industry should be spent on their firms computing function in order to remain profitable. For example, insurance spends a relatively high per cent of revenue, whereas manufacturing is less. Retail is in the middle. In industry after industry, Strassmann demonstrates there is no correlation in spending on computers and profitability. None.

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Chuck Spinney: The Mind of the Decider — Ignorance Plus Arrogance — Disconnected from Reality While All Others Buried Their Integrity

08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Lessons, Military, Officers Call
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Chuck Spinney
Chuck Spinney

NATIONAL SECURITY

Iraq Invasion Anniversary: Inside The Decider’s Head

By Chuck Spinney, March 22, 2013

[note: a shorter version of this essay also appeared in Counterpunch here]

In the summer of 2002, during the lead up to the Iraq War, a White House official expressed displeasure about with article written by journalist Ron Suskind in Esquire. He asserted people like Suskind were trapped “in what we call the reality-based community,” which the official defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.”

President Bush announces the invasion of Iraq from the Oval Office, Mar. 19, 2003.
President Bush announces the invasion of Iraq from the Oval Office, Mar. 19, 2003.

Suskind murmured something about enlightenment principles grounded in scientific empiricism, but the official cut him off, saying,

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

This is a revealing statement about the mentality in the Bush White House prior to the Iraq War.

Think about it: in effect, the official is claiming the mind of a decider, who is tasked with making decisions to cope with the constraints of the real world, has the power to create a new reality over and over again. Therefore the decider need not be worried about matching his actions against those constraints, or even observing those constraints, before making his decisions.

Arrogant? To be sure.

Unusual inside the Beltway?  Not really, based on my experience in the Pentagon.

But this outlook also reflects an incredibly stupid and dangerous way to orient one’s decision cycle to events in the real world.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: The Mind of the Decider — Ignorance Plus Arrogance — Disconnected from Reality While All Others Buried Their Integrity”

SmartPlanet: Japan discovers massive rare earth deposit

SmartPlanet
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smartplanet logoJapan discovers massive rare earth deposit

For the second time this month, Japan has made an important natural resource discovery.

Japanese researchers say they have found a massive rare earth deposit on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The deposit, according to AFP, is 20 to 30 times more concentrated than Chinese mines, the world’s largest rare earth supplier.

Why is this important? For one, these precious metals are used in high-tech manufacturing. The computer or phone you’re reading this from is brought to you by rare earth metals. The other major reason is that this find could break up China’s rare earth monopoly. It controls about 90 percent of the global supply and has been somewhat of a rare earth bully, banning exports as it pleases. (Though those restrictions have led to industry innovations.)

The big question will be if Japan can find a cost-effective way of extracting the minerals that are nearly 20,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. If it figures out that puzzle, there are an estimated 6.8 million tonnes of rare earth materials waiting on the seabed — that’s equal to 230 years of rare earth use in Japan.

Marcus Aurelius: USAF Priorities — Relieve One Colonel of Command for a Waistline (He Passed the PT Test), Never Mind the F-35 Killing Pilots and Budgets, or Generals Who Cannot Win Wars….

Corruption, Idiocy, Military
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Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

Priorities!

Colonel relieved of command for failing PT [Waist Measurement]

By Jeff Schogol – Staff writer

Military Times, Wednesday Mar 20, 2013 16:47:54 EDT

The Air Force has relieved a full colonel with an impeccable resume for failing his physical fitness test [Phi Beta Iota: he passed the physical test, it was his waist measurement that was found to be beyond USAF “standards,” such as they are.]

Effective immediately, Col. Tim Bush is no longer in command of the 319th Air Base Wing at Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., said Maj. Mike Andrews, spokesman for Air Mobility Command, in a statement Wednesday afternoon. The wing’s vice commander, Col. Christopher Mann, will serve as interim commander until a replacement is found.

“Bush was not relieved for alleged misconduct or wrongdoing,” said a news release from Air Mobility Command.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: USAF Priorities — Relieve One Colonel of Command for a Waistline (He Passed the PT Test), Never Mind the F-35 Killing Pilots and Budgets, or Generals Who Cannot Win Wars….”