I was going to write about Legitimate Grievances today, but something more important has come up: Obama's Choice.
Context first. My friend and colleague for the past decade, Chuck Spinney was and remains a reformer. He was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in the 1980's, and I am including that graphic here because I think it is very important for the public to understand that NOTHING HAS CHANGED since the 1980's. We still have the same two-party tyranny that has sold out to Wall Street, we still have the same Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex (MICC) that moves wealth from the individual taxpayer to the top 1% of our citizens, who have hollowed out America without regard for the Constitution, the Republic, or the Commonwealth. Below is a note Chuck sent me, a short snippet and pointer to the New York Times article to which he refers, and my comments with a few links.
New options from the nomenklatura listed below is a silly oxymoron.
WASHINGTON — With critical decisions ahead on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is about to receive an unusual opportunity to reshape the Pentagon's leadership, naming a new defense secretary as well as several top generals and admirals in the next several months.
It is a rare confluence of tenure calendars and personal calculations, coming midway through Mr. Obama's first term and on the heels of an election that challenged his domestic policies. His choices could have lasting consequences for his national security agenda, perhaps strengthening his hand over a military with which he has often clashed, and are likely to have an effect beyond the next election, whether he wins or loses.
That is all the more reason that Mr. Obama's choices are certain to face scrutiny in a narrowly divided Senate, whose Republican leadership has declared itself intent on defeating him.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said he plans to retire next year, while the terms of four members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are scheduled to end: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman; Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman; Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief; and Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations.
Phi Beta Iota: The current and prospective leaders being discussed and considered are all inter-changeable. They share the same paradigmatic views, the same commitment to the military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC), and therefore, to suggest that changing out the guard is in any way an option, is to demonstrate profound naivete or a gift for deception. President Obama is truly at a historic fork in the road: he can go on with business as usual, bailing out Wall Street and carrying on with a global military cmapaign that is both ineffective and unaffordable-or he can reach deep down and come up with one startling insight and two serious options.
Startling insight: integrity matters. Doing the right thing is more important than continuing to do the wrong thing righter.
Option B: Hold an Open Space Technology event on the future of the USA in all its forms, in the Washington Convention Center, a no-notice open public event, with Harrison Owen as the facilitator.
Sadly, we are quite certain neither the startling insight nor either of the two options will be considered. The Titanic is sinking and the President is being asked to re-arrange the name cards for dinner…..thus does the Republic flail in the tar pit of history.
We predict, with a depth of despair, that Obama will choose to go along and eventually be as wealthy as Bill Bradley and Al Gore. He is one phone call away from greatness, and won't do it. He lives, we die.
Since the year 2000, when I watched in horror as Al Gore took the dive and played dead in Florida (the theft was exposed three months before the fact by Greg Palast writing for The Observer in the UK, he subsequently published The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization, and High-Finance Fraudsters), I have been working with Jock Gill (D), Michael Cudahy (R), Jim Turner (N) and a few others to create a concept for the ideal Coalition Cabinet able to create and implement non-partisan evidence-driven policies and budgets. That spilled over into Electoral Reform.
Today I am sharing the full text of a one page, nine point Electoral Reform proposal that has been ten years in the making, building on the pioneering work of Ralph Nader and Christina Tobin among many others. This is as close as I can get to a straight-forward answer to the question, What is wrong with America and how do we fix it?
QUOTE (32): What has taken place over the last generation is a highly complicated merger of crime and policy, of stealing and government. Far from taking care of the rest of us, the financial leaders of America and their political servants have seemingly reached the cynical conclusion that our society is not work saving and have taken on a new mission that involved not creating wealth for us all, but simply absconding with whatever wealth remains in our hollowed out economy. They don’t feed us, we feed them.
The good news is that we can restore the Republic with non-violent Collective Intelligence. We can impose our Conscious Evolution on the government that was meant to serve We the People. Below is just one example of the powerful array of sources & methods at our disposal.
This book is the “hub” for a much larger emerging literature that celebrates the ability of any human to learn whatever they need to know without being burdened by the time-energy or financial cost of “credentialing.” This book is therefore central to the related memes of “Cognitive Surplus” (Clay Shirky), “Wealth of Networks (Yochai Benkler), and “Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” (C. K. Prahalad).
I pray that Huffington Post will become a center for sanity, but we need more than sanity. We need structured deliberative dialog such as is advocated and taught by the National Council on Dialog and Deliberation (NCDD). We need citizen intelligence minutemen who can learn from Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog, and do their homework on the issues, contributing to our Collective Intelligence. Finally, we need to take a stand and demand Electoral Reform in time for 2012.
I earnestly believe that if the public makes it clear to President Barack Obama that a second term is contingent on his passing Electoral Reform in 2011, and makes it clear to all the partisan political pimps that have sold out to Wall Street and mega-corporations that a vote against Electoral Reform is the end of their political career, that we can do this.
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by putting integrity back into our electoral, governance, intelligence, and national security constructs — four reforms, electoral is first.
Let's fix that–together, non-violently, with sanity, civility, and public intelligence in the public interest.
Semper Fidelis,
Robert Steele, Major USMC (Ret)
Open Ballot Access. Proposed, that ballot access requirements should be the same for every candidate, irrespective of party affiliation. This helps end Two-Party Tyranny. See Free & Equal.
Holiday Voting. Proposed, that to avoid undue hardship to the hardest workers in America, the working poor, national and state elections shall only be held over a week-end or on a holiday. If held on a Saturday, Orthodox Jews should have the option of voting in person on Sunday or by ballot in person the week prior, to be opened and counted on Election Day. Unconstrained Early Voting should be universal.
Honest Open Debates. Proposed, that to end the current monopoly of the debates by the bifurcated two-party alliance against independent and third parties, that the League of Women Voters be restored to their role as the managers of honest open debates, to include third, fourth, and fifth parties.
Expanded Debates. Proposed, that to end the charade of one individual being up to the task of managing America, that the debates be expanded to include a minimum of three Cabinet officials to be announced in advance, and generally to include the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of State. Should the League of Women Voters desire, the Transpartisan Policy Institute would undertake the scheduling of substantive policy debates engaging all announced candidates for specific Cabinet positions, and shall provide, on the basis of open source intelligence from the Earth Intelligence Network, and budgetary costs and implications from the Public Budget Office, a range of viable policy options for debate and deliberation.
Instant Run-Off. Proposed, that to ensure the election of a winner elected by a majority, that the instant run-off concept be adopted for all national and state elections.
Phase II
Full and Balanced Representation. Proposed, that to achieve a properly representative balance in the House of Representatives for each state, that Open Registration be provided and that all parties having at least 10% of the voters registering a preference for their political philosophy, shall be eligible for assigned districts proportional to their number, and also to a proportional share of leadership positions in legislative bodies at all levels from local to national (the latter cumulative across the States). Tightly-Drawn Districts. Proposed, that we end the corrupt practice of gerrymandering, replacing it with compact computer drawn districts similar to the kind used in Iowa. See Fight Gerrymandering.
Full Public Funding of Diverse Candidates. Proposed, to eliminate all federal and corporate financing of campaigns, and all political action committees, that we institute a Campaign Contribution Tax Credit up to $100 per candidate (pending the elimination of the personal income tax and enactment of the Automated Payment Transaction Tax (APT)), while creating a public Big Bat for longer term.
No Legislation Without Consultation. Proposed, to eliminate special interest dominance of the legislative process, and to end the practice of passing legislation such as the Patriot Act without its actually being read, and to end all earmarks, that all legislation without exception be published on line in Wiki format, with an easy to understand one-page summary, one week prior to its coming to a vote, to include explicit geospatial pointers for all “earmarks” each of which must be publicly announced and offered for amendment to the voters in the relevant district at least one week prior to the passage of national, state, or county legislation affecting them. Similarly, no public privileges should be granted to any corporation or other entity without full public consultation and public polling or balloting.
Created by Robert Steele and Jim Turner based on long-standing proposals by Ralph Nader, with direct inputs by Theresa Amato, Michael Cudahy, Jock Gill, and Christina Tobin. Further inspired by Tom Atlee, Stewart Brand, Susan Cannon, Carol Dumaine, Emanuel Goldstein (Hackers on Planet Earth), Rop Gonggreijp (Hac-Tic), William Greider, Vaclav Havel, Peggy Holman, Sheri Herndon, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jon Lebkowsky, Harrison Owen, Howard Rheingold, Jon Ramer, Mitch Ratcliff, Jim Rough, Bruce Sterling, Glenn Tenney (Hackers Conference), Mark Tovey, Howard Zinn, and so many others whose Collective Intelligence — combined with Open Everything — is now ready to create a prosperous world at peace.
E Veritate Potens — With and From Truth, We the People Are Made Powerful
WASHINGTON — With critical decisions ahead on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is about to receive an unusual opportunity to reshape the Pentagon’s leadership, naming a new defense secretary as well as several top generals and admirals in the next several months.
It is a rare confluence of tenure calendars and personal calculations, coming midway through Mr. Obama’s first term and on the heels of an election that challenged his domestic policies. His choices could have lasting consequences for his national security agenda, perhaps strengthening his hand over a military with which he has often clashed, and are likely to have an effect beyond the next election, whether he wins or loses.
That is all the more reason that Mr. Obama’s choices are certain to face scrutiny in a narrowly divided Senate, whose Republican leadership has declared itself intent on defeating him.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said he plans to retire next year, while the terms of four members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are scheduled to end: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman; Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman; Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief; and Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations.
Phi Beta Iota: The current and prospective leaders being discussed and considered are all inter-changeable. They share the same paradigmatic views, the same commitment to the military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC), and therefore, to suggest that changing out the guard is in any way an option, is to demonstrate profound naivete or a gift for deception. President Obama is truly at a historic fork in the road: he can go on with business as usual, bailing out Wall Street and carrying on with a global military cmapaign that is both ineffective and unaffordable–or he can reach deep down and come up with one startling insight and two serious options.
Startling insight: integrity matters. Doing the right thing is more important than continuing to do the wrong thing righter.
Option A: Make Electoral Reform (1 Page, 9 Points) the issue. That will burn down the two-party tyranny and restore the Republic WHILE EARNING HIM A SECOND TERM.
Option B: Hold an Open Space Technology event on the future of the USA in all its forms, in the Washington Convention Center, a no-notice open public event, with Harrison Owen as the facilitator.
Sadly, we are quite certain neither the startling insight nor either of the two options will be considered. The Titanic is sinking and the President is being asked to re-arrange the name cards…..thus does the Republic flail in the tar pit of history.
We predict, with a depth of despair, that Obama will choose to go along and eventually be as wealthy as Bill Bradley and Al Gore. He is one phone call away from greatness, and won't do it. He lives, we die.
When Nokia announced yesterday that it was reabsorbing the Symbian operating system it had spun out as an open source effort 18 months ago, I thought, “Why bother? I thought MeeGo was your mobile OS future anyhow?” — especially given the lack of attention to the last major release of Symbian (Symbian 3) in September.
Phi Beta Iota: Both Microsoft and Nokia are at a fork in the road. The above review, vastly more critical than the fluff found elsewhere, is bleeding edge truth. Absent new management and a compelling vision–ideally one that united both companies to favor a very simple low cost cellular “key” combined with a vast global grid meshing humans with call centers and back office cloud processing, both companies appear destined for further decline.
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink…..
NAIROBI, 9 November 2010 (IRIN) – Fighting between two sub-clans over grazing pasture and water has left 20 dead and thousands of families displaced from several villages in central Somalia, say locals.
“In my own town of Galinsor, about 1,300 families [7,800 people] have been displaced, out of a total population of 5,500 families,” Osman Abdi, an
elder, told IRIN on 9 November. “Many of the families have fled to surrounding villages and are living in the open or sheltering under trees.”
An aid worker in the region told IRIN many of the displaced were nomads who were forced to flee their water sources. “They are now in areas where there are no water points,” he said.
Grazing airy electron opinion, the firing of Denny Blair — especially him of most High Court title — is surely a blog-seduction most likely to touch-off tremulous surface fanning and gasps, whetting unfettered gossip: All fluttering to those inmost whisperings and intimate doings in the sacred precincts of our Imperial Court.
Well what I get is all Imperial Court. I feel like I am channeling Constantinople in 1043 dealing with Irini Doukaina (Cafavy, here). Oh, you did not know how much power women marshaled in 11th and 12th century Byzantium? Perhaps you might want to consider how advanced a “medieval” civilization could be.
Yet they were dealt a bad hand. The Latin West (our ancestors!) seeded such infamous defamation of everything Byzantine that Byzantine reputation still has not recovered. Truth is that Romaioi (what Byzantines called themselves) were an amazingly compassionate and complex civilization compared to every other place on earth. They invented the hospital, social welfare, equal judicial rights for all … and the fork! And only in Constantinople could a woman be emperor. Really.
What I am trying to say is that we begin to look a lot like late modern Byzantines.
In this sense:
We are also compassionate and complex, sophisticated and advanced, and yet we are also plagued by what above all plagued Byzantines: Court politics. Vicious and divisive politics in the 11th century imperial court so undercut the ability of Constantinople to meet non-state threats that the Empire almost fell.
But we are worse than Byzantines. The politics of America's Imperial Court makes the world of Constantinople look prudent, modest, and restrained.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the) (Cambridge)
Date: 12/13/2010 to 12/17/2010
Language: English
Type: Training Course or Seminar
Keywords: Early Warning
Training Description
The course focuses on analysis in a multi-functional context, including NGOs, peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, security and emergency management. We focus on three elements crucial to successful analysis: an appreciation of knowledge production in complex environments; techniques to construct quality analysis within the Open Source environment; and producing a variety of analytic products in a multifunctional context.
Training Cost
£1950
Intended Audience
Humanitarian security officers, UN political officers, UN security and political analysts, peacekeeping officers, UN agency security staff, investigative officers in special tribunals
