Public Intelligence Blog – Page 3890 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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Best of Intentions (and Marketing), Light Reading, June 5, 2009

Chesa Boudin

I bought this book at the same time that I bought Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent–the latter the book Hugo Chavez is reported to have given to Barack Obama.

It has been brilliantly marketed, and I applaud the initiative and the integrity of the self-made author, but in the larger scheme of things this is very light reading, in no way comparable to any of the works of Robert Kaplan or Robert Young Pelton, to take the two who are best in class in this particular writing domain. I list books I recommend instead of this one at the end of the review.

A few details that stayed with me:

Of the ten chapters, three are on Venezuela, with one each on Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Equador, and Guatemala. He visited but has left for another book Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Hugo Chavez certainly comes out of this book looking very well, and I wonder somewhat unkindly if the Cuban intelligence service had anything to do with the crafting of the book. They are wonderfully subtle, as is this book. I do, however, share the author's views on Venezuela and Chavez and the need for an alternative model for Latin America, so I endorse and praise his take on the situation, including:

+ Chavez is now ten years in power, early on he slammed those who wrote about the end of history, the triumph of neoliberalism, and the Washington Consensus. See Confessions of an Economic Hit Man for more substance.

+ Media is in and out of Venezuela, they get it wrong and communicate a false picture of Venezuela.

+ Winning the election is only the beginning, then there is a very long fight to change the “system” that is deeply entrenched.

He corssed 25 borders and spent over 150 hours on bus rides.

In Colombia he found human rights being trampled by global economic imperatives, with massive internal displaced persons (see the genocide chapter in The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

He is by nature an anti-imperialist progressive, and speak of shame in seeing the impact of US policies and CIA interventions up close, but in the single most valuable sentence that I found in the entire book, he observes that indigenous corruption at the local level is what really hurts those at the bottom of the pyramid, they do not see or even feel the direct effects from CIA interventions or predatory capitalism at the national level. I share Lawrence Lessig's view that corruption is the scourge of all, and I also beleive that the sooner We the People can follow ALL of the money and reveal all “true costs,” the sooner we can demand and receive honest government at all levels.

This is a very fast read, especially if you have lived in Latin America, this is a wonderful book for those who wish to read lightly about the fine combination of a young man making a great deal of himself from very austere beginnings, and one person's perceptions on Latin America over the same period, but at root, this is a travelogue, not an analysis.

Other books to consider:
Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Robert Young Pelton the World's Most Dangerous Places)
The Hunter, The Hammer, and Heaven: Journeys to Three Worlds Gone Mad
The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia–A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy
The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War
Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility–Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change

2009/07/032012/12/03

Review: Open Veins of Latin America–Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

5 Star, America (Anti-America), Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback

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Brilliantly Translated, Poetry of Pathos, Compelling, June 5, 2009

Eduardo Galeano

Kudos to Hugo Chavez for putting this book in the eye of the emerging consciousness of the US public–Obama will not read this book because he already knows the story, he is the front end of the Borg–the system, and so similar in policies to Bush as to possibly wake up the naive.

The book begins with one of the finest Forewords I have ever read, by Isabel Allende, and I offer just one quote from her spectacular introduction of the book:

“His work is a mixture of meticulous detail, political conviction, poetic flair, and good storytelling.”

The translation by Bobbye Ortiz merits special note. This book sings in English, and the translator has done justice to the original.

A major recurring theme throughout the book is that of capital squandered by the few while the many actually producing the capital dies of hunger or disease.

I list ten other recommended books at the end of this review. Early on the author makes these points:

1. The indigenous bourgeoisie are the ones who have sold out their countries to the multinational corporations. Toward the end of the book re repeats this with a chapter on the guards that opened the gates.

2. “The human murder by poverty in Latin America is secret–every year, [the equivalent of] three Hiroshima bombs.”

3. Quoting Lyndon Johnson: $5 invested in population control is equal to $100 in economic growth. This in the context of the author making the case that Latin America is under-populated in relation to Europe.

4. Imperialism and what I call predatory capitalism depends on, imposed, inequality and growing disparity on the countries rich in raw materials.

His early account of the European invasion by steel and horse and disease was unique in its time; see 1491 below for a broader more recent treatment. The indigenous population by this account dropped from 70 million to 3.5 million.

Among my notes:

1. The historical record is lie–laws were indeed passed protecting the indigenous natives, but never enforced, something history does not document as well.

2. “Ideological justifications were never in short supply.”

3. Spanish dressed up the natives in Andalucian costumes, some of the clothing we think of today as traditional was actually imposed on the natives.

4. Spanish and others moved drugs (coca) from strictly ceremonial use to the general population and then into massive export.

The history of Latin America is a history of sequential pillaging. First gold, then sugar, then rubber followed by chocolate, cotton, and coffee, then the banana–the tree of hell under United Fruit. And then Chilean nitrates, Bolivian tin, and finally the “black curse” of petroleum.

Sugar in particularly devoured both the soil and humanity, first in Brazil then in the Caribbean.

The ready use of slavery, both of indigenous natives and of imported Africans, created the economic bottleneck that survives to this day, where those actually extracting the raw materials are virtual slaves and do not derive the fruits of their labor.

The author contrasts the manner in which the US used the Homestead Act to grant land to individuals who were incentivized to develop the West, and the latifundo oligarchy that imposes perpetual poverty on generations of indigenous individual families.

Myself being a survivor of the Central American wars, and the duty officer the night land reformer Mark Pearlman was executed in El Salvador by an extreme right death squad, I read with interest about the recurring attempts to achieve agrarian reform, only to have push-back from the 14-500 families that “own” the land.

I am fascinated by the corporate war between Shell (Paraguay) and Standard Oil (Bolivia) in which the armies of those countries, and the poor of those countries, were the pawns in the “great game” of wealth confiscation.

The book is a catalog of all the dictators supported by the USA and enriched by US and European multinational corporations.

The second half of the book yields the following notes:

1. Industrial infanticide has been imposed on Latin America by protectionism and free trade (as opposed to fair trade)

2. Loans and railroads (with attendant land rights and obligations) deformed Latin America.

3. The International Monetary Fund (IMB) is the knife that slits the belly of each country to let in the maggots of immoral capitalism.

4. The Ministries of Labor in each Latin American country are the new slave traders.

5. “International charity does not exist.” The role of US aid is to help the US domestically. As of the book being written, only 38% of aid was actually targeted aid, all the rest existed to bring greater benefits back to the “giving” country.

6. What Latin America has been lacking all this time is a sense of economic community within its own continent.

7. The book was banned in Chile and Uruguay.

I end this summative review with two quotes–cliff notes for the President, if he has anyone active on Amazon:

Page 261. The task lies in the hands of the dispossessed, the humiliated, the accursed. The Latin Ameerican cause is above all a social cause: the rebirth of Latin America must start with the overthrow of its masters, country by country. We are entering times of rebellion and change.

Page 285. “The system would like to be confused with the country.” and “In these lands we are not experiencing the primitive infancy of capitalism buts its vicious senility.”

Notes and index complete the work. A solid four hour read without interruptions. A great book for anyone desiring to know why the USA is being pushed back while China and Iran are displacing the West in the southern hemisphere.

Other books I recommend (you have to look for my summary reviews now, Amazon buries serious reviews with a few negative votes).
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
The Trial of Henry Kissinger
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy

AA Mind the Gap — Vote and/or Comment on Review

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review: Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 1

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad)

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Helpful Panorama, Many Nuggets, June 6, 2009

Sramana Mitra

I generally throw unsolicited books right into the post office's paper waste bin (hint to publishers: ASK first), but this one was close enough to my interests and offers a favorable first impression, so I held on to it and finally read it today.

It is a series of vignettes, one third context, one third financing, and one third nuggets, and for the nuggets alone (many summarized below) it is assuredly worthy of purchase and reflection.

As a long-time fan of Peter Drucker's, and especially his focus on work as a calling and capitalism as doing well financially by doing good for the customer, I have an early note, “in the Drucker tradition.” That is *very* high praise.

My flyleaf notes:

+ In author's words that resonate with me, “captures tribal knowledge.”

+ Bootstrapping avoids VC micro-management and allows patience

+ Ego objections from earlier generations of engineers are common.

+ Chinese push hundreds of PhD students into any strategic technology area of interest to the government, fiber optics was one

+ Self-manufacture protects intellectual property

+ Malaysia costs for clean rooms, skilled labor, etc one tenth of costs in Silicon Valley or California generally

+ “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I loved this. I am both a strategists and a cultural creative, and it drives me bonkers to see our government so stupid on both fronts (and most corporations as well)

+ Bright kids without degrees can be rapidly trained to do specified engineering tasks at much lower costs with much higher consistency than college and advanced degree graduates.

+ In examining a company, compare marketing versus engineering investment (dollars, number of people) for a read on the core values

+ Web 3.0 is here now, leveraging bots in context to tailor delivery

+ Google does have vulnerabilities and vertical search is one of them.

+ Old media (e.g. Washington Post) not leveraging Internet and not leveraging their legacy human networks.

+ Enterprise computing has been displaced by extended enterprise and cloud computing. Microsoft Office in a virtual nosedive (finally!)

+ Security and distributed collaborative networks are totally entwined (or should be).

+ Sucking chest wound for progress right now, world-wide and especially in Third World, is absence of ubiquitous broadband access.

+ Latin America is ready to become the next India (especially Brazil, Argentina, Chile).

+ Planet-scale solutions are emerging–am blown away by Energy Recovery PX that has dropped cost of desalinating a cubic meter of water from $10 to $0.46.

+ Being there personally (Malaysia, India, wherever) is vastly superior to remote contact via telephone, video, etcetera.

+ New stuff such as solar lighting can leverage existing rural area capabilities such as electricians servicing the small middle class, who can extend solar lighting units into the lower class households.

+ HUGE HUGE HUGE: Obopay and a calling card rather than the cell phone may be the next big leap for the five billion poor. Although I still believe in free low-cost cell phones as the national bootstrap method, this one hit me with the force of a 2 x 4 wood stud wielded by a seriously pissed-off gorilla.

+ Every company in here is interesting, but Indded.com, SimplyHired, HotChalk, MercadoLibre, and PX as well as Obopay were for me truly worthy introductions.

On a personal note, the financial crash cost me the sale of my for-profit as well as my flagship contract, and SimplyHired in one hour was better for me in job hunting than all the other sites including LinkedIn. Still seeking global-impact employment, personal details at OSS.Net, non-profit details at Earth Intelligence Network.

This is one of those rare books that inspire me to suggest to Amazon that a future alert feature is needed, I am interested in anything this author puts together in the future.

I will end with some other books I recommend (I have summary reviews for all of them, but Amazon buries my reviews now because of the 20% negatives that come with controversial non-fiction books–you have to select me as an “Interesting Person” first, then my reviews “pop up”. See the comment for a URL to an annotated bibliography with direct links to my reviews of over 500 non-fiction books pertinent to our shared future.

One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution
Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review: Anthropologists in the Public Sphere–Speaking Out on War, Peace, and American Power

5 Star, Information Operations, Insurgency & Revolution, Intelligence (Public), Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration, War & Face of Battle

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Publisher Lazy, Content Shines, June 6, 2009

Roberto J. Gonzalez

It infuriates me to run across mediocre publishers who refuse to use the simple tools that Amazon provides for loading a proper description of the book, providing the table of contents, or even offering “look inside the book” where an index can sell a book faster than the table of contents.

Minus one star for a rotten lazy publisher. Here is the table of contents. Buy the book, along with Anthropological Intelligence: The Deployment and Neglect of American Anthropology in the Second World War this is fundamental reading that calls into question both the sanity of how we engage with foreign publics, and the incompetence combined with mendaciousness with which we seek to abuse the profession of anthropology for wrong ways and wrong ends.

The highest praise I can give to this book is that it forced me to think and it inspired new work–my forthcoming article on Human Intelligence: All Humans, All Minds, All the Time (see comment for URL) was directly inspired by this book and the huge mess the U.S. Army is making of the Human Terrain Teams (HTT), code for abused pretend anthropologists without a clue. I have the fly-leaf note: our HUMINT is at war with itself.

The kindest thing I can do for the brilliantly selected and organized contributors to this volume is respect their work by providing the table of contents, which has reminded me better than my own notes of how diverse and valuable this collection is.

Part I: War, Peace, and Social Responsibility
01 Franz Boas, “Scientists as Spies” (1919)
02 Margaret Mead, “Warfare is Only an Invention–Not a Biological Necessity” (1940)
03 Marshall Sahlins, “Once You've Broken Him Down…” (1965)
04 Gerald Berreman, “Contemporary Anthropology and Moral Accountability” (1973)
05 Laura Nader, “Two Plus Two Equals Zero–War and Peace Reconsidered”
06 Beatriz Manz, “Dollars that Forge the Guatemalan Chains”
07 David Price, “Anthropologists as Spies” (2000)
08 Pierre Bourdieu, “Abuse of Power by the Advocates of Reason” (1998)

Part II: Prescient Anthropology: Diagnosing Crises Abroad
09 Robert Hayden, “West Must Correct Its Mistakes in Yugoslavia” (1992)
10 Robert Hayden, “NATO Fuels the Balkan Fire” (1999)
11 Anna Simons, “No Exit From Somalia” (1991)
12 Anna Simons, “Our Abysmal Ignorance About Somalia” (1992)
13 Anna Simons, “The Somalia Trap” (1993)
14 Winifred Tate, “Increased Military Aid to Colombia Won't Curb Drug Trafficking” (1999)
15 Winifred Tate, “Colombia” Rules of the Game”, 2001
16 Lesley Gill, “Unveiling US Policy in Colombia” (2002)
17 Marc Edelman, “The Price of Free Trade: Famine” (2002)
18 Ali Qleibo, “How Two Truths Make One Tragedy” (2000)
19 Jeff Halper, “The Matrix of Control” (2201)
20 Jeff Halper, “After the Invasion: Now What” (2002)
21 Hugh Gusterson, “If U.S. Dumps Test Ban Treaty, China Will Rejoice” (2001)

Part III: Prelude to September 11
22 Ashraf Ghani, “Cut Off the Arms Flow and Let Afghans Unite” (1989)
23 James Merryman, “US Can Strengthen African Ties in Wake of Terrorism with Aid, Clear Policies” (1998)
24 Robert Fernea, “Egyptians Don't Like Saddam, But….” (1991)
25 Barbara Nimri Aziz, “Gravesites–Environmental Ruin in Iraq” (1997)
26 Fadwa El Guindo, “UN Should Act to Protect Muslim Women” (1998)
27 Zieba Shorish-Shamley, Interviewed, “Women Under the Taliban” (2001)
28 William Beeman, “Follow the Oil Trail–Mess in Afghanistan Partly Our Government's Fault” (1998)

Part IV: Anthropological Interpretations of September 11
29 Catherine Lutz, “Our Legacy of War” (2001)
30 David Harvey etal, “Local Horror, Global Response” (2001)
31 William Beeman, “A War Our Great-Grandchildren Will Be Fighting–Understanding Osama Bin Laden” (2001)
32 Janet McIntosh, “What Have 9/11 Investigators Overlooked?” (2002)

Part V: On Afghanistan, Central Aisa, and the Middle East
34 Robert Canfield, “Nation is Home to Afghans, Mujahedeen, Taliban, Afghan-Atabs, to Name a Few” (2001)
35 Ashraf Ghani, “The Follow of Quick Action in Afghanistan” (2001)
36 Nazif Sharrani, “Afghanistan Can Learn From Its Past” (2001)
37 Zieba Shorish-Shamley Interviewed, “Women in the New Afghanistan” (2001)
38 David Edwards and Shahmahmood Miakhel, “Enlisting Afghan Aid” (2001)
39 Kamran Asdar Ali, “Pakistan's Dilemma” (2001)
40 Francesca Mereu etal, “War Destroyed Chechnya's Clan Structure” (2002)

Part VI: Examining Militarism and the “War on Terror”
41 William Beeman, “U.S. Anti-Terrorist Message Won't Fly in Islamic World” (2001)
42 David Price, “Terror and Indigenous Peoples–War without End”
43 John Burdick, “Afghan War Could be Recruiting Tools for Terrorists” (2001)
44 Dale Eickelman, “First Know the Enemy, Then Act” (2001)
45 John Burdick, “Sept 11 Exposes Futile Search for `Perfect' Missile Defense” (2001)
46 Roberto Gonzalez, “Ignorance Is Not Bliss,” (2202)
47 Mahmood Mamdani, “Turn Off Your Tunnel Vision” (2002)
48 Thomas McKenna Interviewed, “The Roots of Muslim Separatism in the Philippines” (2002)

Part VII Academic Freedom and Civil Liberties
49 Roberto Gonzalez, “Lynn Cheney-Joe Lieberman Group Puts Out a Blacklist” (2001)
50 David Price, “Academia under Attack: Sketches for a New Blacklist” (2001)
51 Hugh Gusterson, Interviewed, “Lynn Cheney's Free Speech Blacklist” (2002)
52 Laura Nader, Harmony Coerced Is Freedom Denied” (2001)

Epilogue: Unconventional Anthropology: Challenging the Myths of Continuous War

I was pleased to see several CounterPunch contributions. I respectfully encourage Amazon readers to seek out my CounterPunch short piece on “Intelligence for the President–AND Everyone Else.” Obama is a front for the Borg, he is not getting proper decision-support, and neither is any other element of the government. We need to get back into being the sovereign people.

In addition to the book cited above, I recommend:
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam
Who the Hell Are We Fighting?: The Story of Sam Adams and the Vietnam Intelligence Wars
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence and the Will of the People
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review:DVD: Behind Every Terrorist There Is a Bush

5 Star, Impeachment & Treason, Reviews (DVD Only)

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Superior Intellect, Comedy, Probing, Provocative, Fun, June 6, 2009

Ken Jenkins

This DVD costs $20 at PeaceProject.com, and less if you buy more copies, which I recommend. This is a superior fun consciousness raising device and a wonderful gift. It can also be used to provoke the mentally challenged.

I received my copy from Carol Brouillet when we were together at an event, and watched it this morning. It is a mix of comedy, poetry, and serious presentations, e.g. by Webster Tarpley, Ian Woods, and others, the latter presenting 27 9/11 anomalies, this bit ALONE is worth the price of the DVD.

I cannot emphasize too greatly the importance and seriousness of this DVD. Everyone associated with it is intelligent, non-violent, and attentive. This is a call to arms–pots and pans and voices, not guns–throughout this DVD, the truth is recognized as the moral force that it is.

PLEASE buy this DVD and share it with others. Taking responsibility for what we have allowed to be done “in our name” and with our complicit silence in the streets is the only way we can partially overcome the shame, the dishonor, of letting a nakedly amoral vice president and a village idiot lead the world to trillion dollar chaos.

For those attracted to this line of inquiry, I have created an annotated bibliography with hot links to over 500 non-fictions books and some DVDs that more or less are a citizen's primer on what is wrong with our out of control federal government, and what need to know to fix it. See the comment for the URL.

2009/07/032016/09/12

Review: Grand Illusion–The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny

5 Star, Politics

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Final Detailed Review: Our Bunker Hill, June 8, 2009

Theresa Amato

Edit of 29 Jun 09 to correct 25% of the black population, thanks Mikey.

Edit of 18 Jun 09 to add two books by others and downgrade own books to unlinked mention.

Do not be surprised if your vote “disappears”. Amazon has the idea that anyone who votes for more than one of my reviews is a “fan” and should not count. We are all at the mercy of their control of the system.

I am giving this book five stars instead of four because it is the de facto “Bunker Hill” of our 21st Century Nation, doing for politics what Silent Spring did for the environment.

The book needs to be re-issued immediately in paperback with four additions that should themselves be offered free online: an annotated bibliography that properly embraces those who have gone before; an annotated legal list of cases; a list of the worst of the 527's; and a Presidential Decision Memorandum that itemizes the Electoral Reform Act of 2009.

The book does not acknowledge work by many including William Greider, e.g. Who Will Tell The People? : The Betrayal Of American Democracy or Greg Palast, e.g. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. The latter bears on the author's being unwitting about Al Gore being bought off in Florida (today he is worth $100 million), with Warren Christopher carrying the offer from Wall Street.

That having been said, this is a SENSATIONAL BOOK not least because for the first time it has gotten Ron Paul to endorse a book and to talk to Ralph Nader in constructive terms–I pray this means that Ralph Nader is now ready to play well with others, including Cynthia McKinney and Jackie Salit.

I have goosebumps as I write this and a huge smile. This book is the first shot at our Bunker Hill and the government Of, By, and For the Banks (see the image I have loaded) is on the run, Goldman Sachs is finishing up its looting of the US Treasury, and I for one am appalled at the lack of integrity across the Senate–John McCain included–in failing to stop this under Bush and now under Obama–what better evidence do we need that this book by this author is “on target”? See Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders; The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy); Obama: The Postmodern Coup – Making of a Manchurian Candidate; and Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency among many others.

Here are my fly-leaf notes, followed by an itemization of the book's concluding thoughts and other recommended reading.

For me the gem of gems in this book is on page 253, and I quote the author directly: “Whether you can vote–and whether your vote counts–depends primarily on where you live.”

In many states such as Florida, 25% of the male black population has been convicted of a felony, served its time, and is still not allowed to vote. I agree this needs to change. [See Intro note 3 for citation].

Across the entire book, using the two Nader campaigns as a source of actual experience–this is non-fiction at its very best–non-fiction of great consequence I might add–the author documents the degree to which state documentation requirements and voting procedures vary “wildly” and can also be intimidating.

Citing Steven Hill and his book Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics PB, the author quotes Hill: “Winner take all is horse & buggy technology.”

The Libertarian Party is mentioned six times, but not recognized by the author as a “main” third party, something I hope Ron Paul's endorsement of this book will change. I URGE THE PUBLISHER TO PAY ATTENTION: this book needs to be issued in paperback immediately, with the four additions detailed above.

I learn an enormous amount in this book, which is certain to be an academic, business, and political classic for years to come.

Terry McAuliffe is an unethical pig. Democratic Party under McAuliffe destroyed Nader's prospects, to include libeling him and creating massive published misrepresentation. I learn from the author that “You can get away with libel if you put it in a lawsuit.”

“Campaigns are simultaneously over-regulated, under-regulated, and ineffectively regulated.” The entire book documents this assertion.

$250,000 a day is what needs to be raised to be a Presidential candidate.

527s are not only out of control and use the federal complaints progress as well as state by state law suits to put third party campaigns into grid-lock.

3rd parties are not offered Secret Service protection (and in my view need it the most)

Press is a trivializing factor to point that 45% of the public now ignores the press (but I would add, still has no solid “truth teller” to rely upon).

Good chapter on the Presidential Debate Commission which is an unethical and unofficial fraud created to exclude Third Parties, and which uses the police to block third party candidates from even being in attendance.

Over 6 million “lost votes” across the Nation. Diebold is trash (I already knew that, but the book does a fine job of documenting Diebold's criminal insecurity.

Observers are blocked from vote counting by being called “threats to security.” I have a note, “Insanity prevails.”

I learn there is a National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) which is important, since it was this position that stole the election for Bush in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

The concluding review covers:
Electoral College
Vote Counting
Voter ID
Absentee & early Voting
Military & Overseas Votes
Write-In Votes
Provisional Votes
Recounts

The recommendations for reform are comprehensive:
Eliminate Electoral College
Add Affirmative Right to Vote
Federalize Federal elections
Federal Administration (24 specifics)
State-Level Reforms (25 specifics)
Judiciary Integrity

For a shorter eight-point version, search for <Electoral Reform Act oss.net>. The book ends with thoughts on the consequences of doing nothing. I urge one and all to demand of Obama an Electoral Reform Act of 2009, which itself should be defined by a nation-wide virtual summit among all interested voters.

Three other books of note:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life
The People's Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy

I have offered up free online all of the books from Earth Intelligence Network, at oss.net/BOOKS (add the www), and especially recommend the annotated bibliography at oss.net/PIG, as it is a virtual “Citizen's Reader” and my summaries of 500+ books across a range of topics relevant to restoring the goodness of America at home and abroad can be helpful in arming those who mean to government themselves with the power of knowledge. The three best books here at Amazon (out of links) are:
ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig
NEW CRAFT OF INTELLIGENCE: Personal, Public, & Political
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

Resist the Borg. Do not be assimilated. Demand Electoral Reform NOW.

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review: Dignity for All–How to Create a World Without Rankism

5 Star, Democracy

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Excellent Off-Site, Gift, or Personal Improvement Book,June 9, 2009

Robert W. Fuller

I had previously read and reviewed All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover)) and as much as I liked that first book, this is the one I recommend as a broad use item. It is ideal for any company or organizational off-set as a pre-arrival required reading, as a gift (including as an anonymous gift to the rankism-challenged, and as a personal easy to read book.

I myself have been terribly guilty of rankism, primarily in the customer service arena, where mediocre service has roused my fury and I have been less than stellar at realizing that it's not the person, it's the system, and so many others are responsible for the mediocrity that I am a fool for taking it out on the one person I can see.

Where this book renders a very useful service is in the naming of the anti-thesis to dignity, i.e. rankism. This is not a book about dignity, but rather about rankism in all its forms and how that robs all of us of dignity, but especially those least able to handle the inequalities including (new term for me) micro-inequalities–the subtle pecking to death by ducks, e.g. being interrupted constantly, not noticed, etc.

I have been focusing on integrity recently, on truth, and I confess that I have not given enough thought to the tact side of the equation. This book is persuasive in saying that truth by itself is not enough, truth must be accompanied by tact, or as I have it in my notes, “Integrity plus dignity = informed democracy.”

There are 24 sidebars, each a little gem, the key points are summarized at the end of each chapter, and I believe this book finally meets the need for a Citizen 101 Guide.

Among my fly-leaf notes:

1. Lack of dignity is a driver toward violence and unreason. This joins a mantra from elsewhere, that anger and violence generally stem from a feeling of being treated unfairly.

2. Dignity should be the first human right.

3. Costs of not providing dignity are enormous. The following is quoted from pages 3-4:

“The consequences of violating others' dignity are evident in widespread social problems such as high rates of school dropout, prison incarceration, violent crime, depression, suicide, divorce, and despair; in the business world in reduced creativity, lower productivity, or disloyalty to the organization. Even health and longevity areaffected.”

While the above is grossly simplistic, it is important and merits note.

4. Rnakism is the “root” “ism” e.g. for sexism, racism, etc, the one that fosters all other isms by artificially elevating one person over another.

5. Dignitarian intervention breaks the rankism cycle. John Steiner intervened with me one time in Denver, and I have to say that without having read this book, I did not quite see his point. Those intervening should anticipate not being understood the first several times.

6. HUMILITY in leaders signifies an open mind willing to listen to everybody. I have just finished giving up on the leaders of the U.S. intelligence community as they live in “closed circles” and are like Henry Kissinger when David Elsberg counseled him, becoming like morons in that they rely too much on narrow secrets and allow their “closed circle” to shut out all those who actually have ground truth real world experience. See my review of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

7. The vignettes are not to be skipped. As impatient a reader as I am, I realized after a few of them that they comprise in the aggregate a 360 degree repetition of the basic lesson in many more naunced ways.

8. Secrecy and silencing are part of the Borg as I have tekn to calling it, the “establishment” in which neither Bush nor Obama really controls anything, the “system” goes on with its Wall Street ubber alles and two parties doing the bidding of special interests. Snobbery (think Council on Foreign Relations), bullying (think clearances removed from whistle-blowers) and blackballing (think CIA never hiring anyone critical of their nonsense) are all part of the Borg.

9. The book ends with comments on truth and reconciliation, of which I am a huge fan, believing the USA needs at least two–one for what has been done to We the People including our Native Americans and people of color, another for what has been done around the world “in our name” and at our expenses. Appreciative inquiry is discussed, as well as shared governances and shared evaluation.

Bottom line: this may well be the one book and the one idea that We the People cannot do without.

I also recommend:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The New Golden Rule: Community And Morality In A Democratic Society
Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life
Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace
We the Purple: Faith, Politics, and the Independent Voter
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace