Iran, Oman, Bahrein, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya
Review (DVD): Inside Job
6 Star Top 10%, America (Founders, Current Situation), Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Congress (Failure, Reform), Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Economics, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason, Justice (Failure, Reform), Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Reviews (DVD Only), Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)
Matt Damon (Narrator)
6+ Truth Not Reaching Most Americans
February 28, 2011
AFTERTHOUGHT: What Wall Street greed did to the economy with the aid of its corrupt US Government enablers, the US Government did to US society and to global stability, spending trillions a year on the wrong things for the wrong reasons. See my chapter on “Paradigms of Failure” in the book (both here at Amazon and free online) ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig.
The other reviews are very good and I strongly recommend that whether or not you buy or rent the DVD (or watch it in a hotel as I have just done), that you read all the reviews, especially those that provide summary detail.
For myself, this movie is most extraordinary for the manner in which it pieces together the story to include very compelling interviews with many of the culprits including professors of economics who themselves were corrupted. Those who declined to be interviewed, including Laura Tyson, Paulson, Geithner, Greenspan, Summers, and a few others, are the worst of the culprits.
Compellingly–and consistent with all my reading on the two-party tyranny and the corruption of the US Government–the film is especially strong in showing with absolute clarity that the Obama Administration has been, if anything, more of a Wall Street front than any prior administration. “Nobody's gone to jail.” Worse, there have been no serious investigations. The US Government is NOT representing the public interest.
My focus with this review is to point to ten books that I have reviewed in summary form:
Foreign Policy Slanders Sy Hersh–Loses Its Integrity
07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Analysis, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Misinformation & Propaganda
Pulitzer Prize Winner Seymour Hersh And The Men Who Want Him Committed
ByĀ Matthew Phelan onĀ February 23, 2011
WhoWhatWhy: Forensic Journalism
It seems unusual for a staid, respected publication (one that has received three National Magazine Awards in just this past decade) to start treating a celebrated journalist (who himself has won two National Magazine Awards in just this past decade) as if he were nothing more than a paranoidĀ crank.
It seems unusual, but itās exactly what the staff of Foreign Policy has done to Seymour Hersh, following a lecture the venerated reporter gave at Georgetown Universityās campus in Doha, Qatar. You may know Hersh as the dogged investigator who exposed the My Lai Massacre during Vietnam. You may know him as the staff writer for The New Yorker who published some of the earliest pieces on Abu Ghraib in May 2004. You might even know him as the man derided and then vindicated for claiming that Dick Cheney was running a secret assassination squad right out of the Vice Presidentās office. (In truth, the squad was and is a bipartisan affair, initiated under Clinton and still operative underĀ Obama.)Ā Read more….
Phi Beta Iota: Sy Hersh is as honest as it gets.Ā Foreign Policy used to be a reputable, imaginative endeavor.Ā This is now the second time it has been disreputable and ignorant.Ā Inquiry has established that Moises Naim, the extraordinary editor who took Foreign Policy from nothing to being twice as good as Foreign Affairs, has moved to other duties within the Carnegie Endowment, and it is clear to us that with his departure, Foreign Policy has lost its integrity as well as its intelligence.
Review: Toward Wiser Public Judgment
4 Star, Civil Society, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Democracy, Education (General), Information Society, Intelligence (Public), Politics
Daniel Yankelovich (Editor), Will Friedman (Editor)
Good Mainstream View, Not Enough, Out of Touch With Alternative Models
February 28, 2011
I have spent eleven years being mentored on the topic of public co-intelligence and citizen wisdom by Tom Atlee, author of The Tao of Democracy: Using co-intelligence to create a world that works for all and Reflections on Evolutionary Activism: Essays, poems and prayers from an emerging field of sacred social change; by Jim Rough, author of Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People; by Peggy Holman, author of The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems and the more recent Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity; and many others whose works I have reviewed here at Amazon, with a special nod toward Harrison Owen, with whom I lunch regularly to keep my sanity, he is the author of a number of books, including Open Space Technology: A User's Guide and more recently, Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World.
It is in that context that I recommend this book as a superb example of mainstream thinking, while also respectfully observing that this approach is both inadequate, and out of touch with the alternative Epoch B bottom-up models that have been proven not only recently, but centuries ago within indigenous societies, as documented by, among others, Charles Mann in 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.
For this review, I decided to consult my mentors, and with their permission, offer two of their comments as a collective review–wisdom of the very crowds the authors of this book think they can help be wiser.
Tahrir Project: Decentralized Anonymous Twitter
Autonomous InternetThe Tahrir Project
Tahrir will be decentralized anonymous Twitter, from the crazy fool that brought you Freenet. It is early days but I'm making rapid progress.
Tahrir aims to be a distributed, decentralized, scalable, and anonymous “workalike” for Twitter.
Autonomous Internet Google Group Comment: Not sure what it solves what http://code.google.com/p/torchat/ doesn't do live.Ā Also, I wonder why they picked MIX and not PIR, as Twatr isn't too latency-sensitive, so you can pick systems more resistant to timing analysis.
Riposte: I imagine it's got a good name is a good reason for the trend. As we've seen in this group, the tech isn't always what brings people it's the political implications of what they are doing. The best tech may not win.
Secrecy News: CIA Culture In Detail
07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Analysis, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Officers Call, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
LONG STRANGE JOURNEY: A WHISTLEBLOWER'S TALE
In the vast literature of intelligence-related memoirs, the new book Long Strange Journey by Patrick G. Eddington stands out in several ways.
Eddington entered the intelligence arena as an imagery analyst for the CIA's National Photographic Intelligence Center.Ā Imagery analysis is a predominately technical activity and is not normally considered a hotbed of intrigue or controversy.Ā Nor has it been widely featured in the intelligence “literature of discontent.”Ā Eddington provides an introduction to the world of light tables, mensuration and the now-defunct world of the NPIC analyst.
Then Eddington himself defies easy stereotyping.Ā As an Army veteran, a political conservative, and a person of faith, he might have been voted least likely to rock the boat and to become a whistleblower.Ā But that's what he did.
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Event: 2 Mar Fort Myer VA Pentagon Labyrinth
Uncategorized
The anthology's ten authors bring over 400 years of experience in the military services, weapons design and testing, Pentagon management, budget and cost analysis, defense investigations, journalism, intelligence, military history and congressional national security staff work.
You are invited to join us for the release of the printed version of The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It. The hard copies will be hot off the press. A free copy to all who attend.
When: Wednesday, March 2 at 6:00 until 8:00 PM
Where: The Old Guard Lounge (downstairs) at the Officers' Club at Fort Myer in Rosslyn, VA. (See directions below.)
What: Meet the authors; debate the issues with us, or just enjoy the event. There will be a cash bar and light snacks.
RSVP: winslowwheeler@msn.com [RSVP REQUIRED IN ADVANCE]
The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It is a 150 page handbook-guide for both newcomers and seasoned observers to cope with the often byzantine nature of defense issues.
Continue reading “Event: 2 Mar Fort Myer VA Pentagon Labyrinth”
