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 10 Jul 2007 @ 00:38, by Unknown. Government, Public Sector
The view of Michael Copps, like FCC fellow commissioner, Jonathan Adelstein, is that "Democracy is premised on giving people sufficient depth and breadth of information that they'll generally make intelligent decisions" for their own good or "for the good of the country."
"We are skating perilously close to denying folks that kind of information, in no small degree because of media consolidation," Copps says. More >
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5 Jun 2007 @ 21:40, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
Guidelines for Ethical OSINT Contracting
Recent experience has shown us that unethical practices on the part of vendors, and inattention on the part of government, are leading to a corruption of the emerging OSINT contracting environment. Here are a few guidelines intended to help the government get the best possible OSINT services as the lowest possible cost. Resurfaced for the benefit of those who are evidently not paying attention to the ethics of OSINT contracting (nor proper price to localized access ratios).
1. Government should not meet vendors privately for lunch, nor accept any offered capabilities briefing, without first doing a Request for Comments via FedBiz, and affording the same courtesy to all respondents. The same applies to White Pqpers. If the government chooses to accept a proferred White Paper, it should immediately do a Request for Comments inviting others to submit White Papers on the desired topic.
2. Government should consider hosting two industry days, one now, to provide a broad outline of its planned direction, a second one in 90 days after its plans take firmer shape.
3. Government should not use Statements of Work, especially complex Statements of Work, provided by the vendor. These will contain buried "hooks" (for example, a specific mix of web engineers, or a specific mix of Ambassadors and PhDs) that the unethical vendor can use to protest an award to a better company offering a better deal. In the worst case, the government will end up paying both the unethical company for a settlement, and the winning company for the desired service.
4. Government should write its own Statements of Work, and keep them simple. They should focus on desired outputs, not inputs. They should define the generic results desired, not how to solve the problem. In general the government is spending too much on cleared US citizens with poor language and knowledge skills, too much on proprietary information technologies, and not enough on indigenous foreign access and generic web-based access. Proprietary solutions should be avoided--the era of application-oriented network systems is here to stay. Open source software, open source information, open spectrum, and Open Access copyright approaches will yield the greatest long-term value and also the best inter-agency collaboration and information sharing results.
5. Government can and should consider expanding its existing contracts with beltway bandits that it has a close working relationship with, but it should demand that they employ qualified sub-contractors and specified key personnel and methods, rather than redirecting poorly qualified in-house personnel. In a worst case example, we have seen a major beltway bandit send unqualified people to the Library of Congress, with the direction "get what you can, don't spend any money." More >
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 26 Apr 2007 @ 16:37, by celestial. Government, Public Sector
President George Bush hanged by the neck till dead.
Former President Bill Clinton commits suicide. More >
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23 Apr 2007 @ 05:20, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
FUNNY MONEY
Americans are living in what is called the richest nation on earth, yet they seem to always
be short of money. Wives are working in unprecedented numbers, husbands hope for overtime
hours to earn more, or take part-time jobs evenings and weekends, and children look for odd
jobs for spending money. The family debt climbs ever higher and many Americans live from
paycheck to paycheck or live only by borrowing on credit cards. Psychologists say one of the
biggest causes of family quarrels and breakups is caused by 'arguments over money.' Much of
this trouble can be traced to our present "debt-money' system. We have all seen the
devastaion done by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The primary reason that the death toll
was over 1000 is because those people did not even have enough money to get bus
transportation out of the city to save their lives. The state and federal government also
failed to help them so they just literally "drowned in debt."
ALL of our money has been created and issued by an illegal method that will eventually
destroy the United States if it is not changed. Prior to 1913, America was a prosperous,
powerful, and growing nation, at peace with its neighbors and the envy of the world. But, in
December of 1913, Congress, with many members away for the Christmas holidays, passed what
has since been known as the FEDERAL RESERVE ACT. Omitting the gruesome details, it simply
authorized the establishment of a Federal Reserve Corporation, with a Board of Directors
(The Federal Reserve Board) to run it, and the United States was divided into 12 Federal
Reserve "Districts."
This simple, but terrible, law completely removed from Congress the right to "create" money
or to have any control over its "creation," and gave that function to the Federal Reserve
Corporation. This was done with appropriate fanfare and propaganda that this would "remove
money from politics" (they didn't say "and therefore from the people's control") and prevent
"Boom and Bust" from hurting our citizens. The people were not told then, and most still
do not know today, that the Federal Reserve Corporation is a private corporation controlled
by bankers and therefore is operated for the financial gain of the bankers over the people
rather than for the good of the people. The word "Federal" was used only to deceive the
people.
Since that "day of infamy," more disastrous to us than Pearl Harbor, the small group of
"privileged" people who lend us "our' money have accrued to themselves all of the profits of
printing our money -- and more! Since 1913 they have "created" tens of billions of dollars
in money and credit, which, as their own personal property, they then lend to our government
and our people with high interest. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" had become
the secret policy of our National Government.
This section of the Outlaws website will show you the process of "money creation" and then
its conversion into the people's "debt". The knowledge you obtain here will help you to keep
your head above water.
[link]
Excerpted:
These money-lenders, the Rosthchilds, for example, say to themselves: If we lend a hundred millions sterling to the queen and parliament of England, it will enable them to murder twenty, fifty, or a hundred thousand people in England, Ireland, or India; and the terror inspired by such wholesale slaughter, will enable them to keep the whole people of those countries in subjection for twenty, or perhaps fifty, years to come; to control all their trade and industry; and to extort from them large amounts of money, under the name of taxes; and from the wealth thus extorted from them, they (the queen and parliament) can afford to pay us a higher rate of interest for our money than we can get in any other way. Or, if we lend this sum to the emperor of Austria, it will enable him to murder so many of his people as to strike terror into the rest, and thus enable him to keep them in subjection, and extort money from them, for twenty or fifty years to come. And they say the same in regard to the emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, the emperor of France, or any other ruler, so called, who, in their judgment, will be able, by murdering a reasonable portion of his people, to keep the rest in subjection, and extort money from them, for a long time to come, to pay the interest and the principal of the money lent him.
This business of lending blood-money is one of the most thoroughly sordid, cold-blooded, and criminal that was ever carried on, to any considerable extent, amongst human beings. It is like lending money to slave traders, or to common robbers and pirates, to be repaid out of their plunder. And the men who loan money to governments, so called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and murder their people, are among the greatest villains that the world has ever seen. And they as much deserve to be hunted and killed (if they cannot otherwise be got rid of) as any slave traders, robbers, or pirates that ever lived.
In addition to paying the interest on their bonds, they perhaps grant to the holders of them great monopolies in banking, like the Banks of England, of France, and of Vienna; with the agreement that these banks shall furnish money whenever, in sudden emergencies, it may be necessary to shoot down more of their people. Perhaps also, by means of tariffs on competing imports, they give great monopolies to certain branches of industry, in which these lenders of blood-money are engaged. They also, by unequal taxation, exempt wholly or partially the property of these loan-mongers, and throw corresponding burdens upon those who are too poor and weak to resist.
Thus it is evident that all these men, who call themselves by the high-sounding names of Emperors, Kings, Sovereigns, Monarchs, Most Christian Majesties, Most Catholic Majesties, High Mightinesses, Most Serene and Potent Princes, and the like, and who claim to rule "by the grace of God," by "Divine Right" -- that is, by special authority from Heaven -- are intrinsically not only the merest miscreants and wretches, engaged solely in plundering, enslaving, and murdering their fellow men, but that they are also the merest hangers on, the servile, obsequious, fawning dependents and tools of these blood-money loan-mongers, on whom they rely for the means to carry on their crimes. These loan-mongers, like the Rothschilds, laugh in their sleeves, and say to themselves: These despicable creatures, who call themselves emperors, and kings, and majesties, and most serene and potent princes; who profess to wear crowns, and sit on thrones; who deck themselves with ribbons, and feathers, and jewels; and surround themselves with hired flatterers and lickspittles; and whom we suffer to strut around, and palm themselves off, upon fools and slaves, as sovereigns and lawgivers specially appointed by Almighty God; and to hold themselves out as the sole fountains of honors, and dignities, and wealth, and power -- all these miscreants and imposters know that we make them, and use them; that in us they live, move, and have their being; that we require them (as the price of their positions) to take upon themselves all the labor, all the danger, and all the odium of all the crimes they commit for our profit; and that we will unmake them, strip them of their gewgaws, and send them out into the world as beggars, or give them over to the vengeance of the people they have enslaved, the moment they refuse to commit any crime we require of them, or to pay over to us such share of the proceeds of their robberies as we see fit to demand.
APPENDIX.
Inasmuch as the Constitution was never signed, nor agreed to, by anybody, as a contract, and therefore never bound anybody, and is now binding upon nobody; and is, moreover, such an one as no people can ever hereafter be expected to consent to, except as they may be forced to do so at the point of the bayonet, it is perhaps of no importance what its true legal meaning, as a contract, is. Nevertheless, the writer thinks it proper to say that, in his opinion, the Constitution is no such instrument as it has generally been assumed to be; but that by false interpretations, and naked usurpations, the government has been made in practice a very widely, and almost wholly, different thing from what the Constitution itself purports to authorize. He has heretofore written much, and could write much more, to prove that such is the truth. But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain -- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
[link] More >
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 7 Apr 2007 @ 11:05, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.
---Sogyal Rinpoche
Tu Fu comes from a saner, older, more secular culture than Homer, and it is not a new discovery with him that the gods, the abstractions, the forces of nature, are frivolous, lewd, vicious, quarrelsome, and cruel, and only men's steadfastness, love, magnanimity, calmness, and compassion redeem the night-bound world.
---Kenneth Rexroth
The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.
---Walker Percy
Photo: [link]
I first became aware of the chief weapon of the new conservative around 1960. The weapon is mockery and it was used effectively against my friends and me at Bates College. The school had a requirement to attend chapel a few times a week for programs of a non-religious character---but it was a chapel of vaguely Christian architecture. You also had to take a couple religion courses and fees were collected from all students to support the Christian Association. The CA had a locked bulletin board, to which I had a key and where I used to post rather leftist material.
The emerging leaders of culture war attacked all of this. Their models and mentors appeared to be Ayn Rand and William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley particularly was on television all the time debating liberals. His method of discourse always was a sneering dismantling of the bleeding heart of concern for the downtrodden. If you are lazy and stupid you should expect to be trod upon in this life. I remember 2 hours of excruciating embarrassment as Buckley mocked out James Baldwin for his passion on civil rights. I recall Buckley concluded one of his "Firing Lines" by warning the audience America is being watched on all sides by greedy eyes in faces "upon which there are no smiles." Mockery was established firmly upon a foundation of fear.
When questions arose surrounding the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the phrase "conspiracy theorists" showed up. We learn there always will be unanswerable questions about such events carried out by lone nutcases, and if you won't accept that reality you will be mocked. Questions about 9/11 and the Twin Towers? Same deal. We don't have time for this stuff: we must put it behind us and move forward. Weapons of mass destruction. A mushroom cloud could result if we delay our preemptive war. The Christian right delivered Shock And Awe, and there was talk of Judgment Day in the Cradle of Civilization. (At this time of year, one wonders why Jesus didn't move preemptively against Judas.) More >
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11 Jul 2006 @ 19:20, by swanny. Government, Public Sector
July 11, 2006
Canada
Hi all...
at the lib...
well we've spoke of leadership before...
and heart or conscience is a fair good leader
as Martin Luther was bent to....
but then there is the evolution of democracy
which some still say is only majority rules
but in truth or intent was the greatest good
for the greatest number....
and yet how do we determine greatest good?
Which makes the question on the ballot a 2 parter
so Natural global leadership is needed to balance the
long term aspirations and needs with the short term
and restore some honesty and honor to the equation
and institutions.... so
forming a Natural global Democracy....
tough job....
a take on the United Democracies of Earth but
still what is the greatest good....
and then still what is the greatest good for the greatest
number
well these things I have been pondering
but we have achieved this....
look around.... still a bit rocky and sucky
but this is somewhat more sustainable than before
though a little taken for granted but
look around , we have achieved "this"....
and for that we should give thanks
ed More >
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 10 Jul 2006 @ 08:53, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
I fell in love with the wings of birds
The light of spring on them!
---Chora
In the light of flowers
I travel
Just for the sake of traveling.
---Soen Nakagawa
The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it.
---Sri Nisargadatta
The author in Providence last weekend among friends and a couple of generations too.
Some replies received to the post I put out yesterday, which was sort of about global warming but involved a sense of futility as well, have motivated me to get my act together. I didn't start out writing on the Internet about political things, but somehow or other during these Bush years, when concerns about the "mainstream media" in this country come from all sides, I started sending stuff to friends and contacts that I hoped would be helpful in keeping discussion going. I think that media problem may motivate much of the blogging revolution for people. Where do you find out what's really going on in the world? Ordinarily I sprinkle links and footnotes all over such pieces, which is how I learned to do research for social studies papers and debating. I'm not going to do that this time because I need to speak from my own history and experience. I see no other way to address those replies.
I know a couple guys online I've never met face-to-face who like to keep things jumping with really basic questions. I hesitate to summarize what they stand for...and they are very different people...but they share a sort of warrior mentality. They live in the US---I think---and seem ready to survive, if necessary, with a knife and some matches...or with nothing if those luxuries are not available. So whenever I post about a political solution to something, one or the other or both generally jump in with both feet.
One of the guys grew up in the inner city but now lives in the Arizona desert, very close to the recent fires. His nickname is Bushman, for a couple of reasons probably...but I think he is available to do landscape work and tend your bushes. He wrote back the following: "It's all right here. Cleansed by fire, again." And he included a link to some Hopi prophecies. He means he's ready to ride it out with things as they are, rather than muck about with government agencies trying to regulate everything.
The other fellow changes his nickname about once a month and currently is going by Darklander. Here's what he has to say: "Fear is a good tactic that all hierarchs love to use to keep the sheeple in line. Stop voting for these dingbats (sure doesn't do you any good!), disband the military, stop sending your sons and daughters to Moloch, quit the 501 3C 'Corporate' churches, find out who you really are... be free from the lot of the rot. Nah, easier to blame it on, ah, global warming..."
Now I like both these guys a great deal. For one thing, they have great wit and keep me laughing. Nothing is better in the midst of argument and struggle. I have a friend here in Athens something like Bushman and Darklander, who just retired from 3 decades of teaching industrial tech and intends to move into a cave and become a cannibal. What do I say to people like this...and why does it matter? More >
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26 Jun 2006 @ 01:09, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
I hear -- is dead. Yet... the beat goes on. Darfur, Somalia, and a dozen other 'hot spots' outside the immediate 'middle east.' Who invented all this consternation anyway? More >
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21 Jun 2006 @ 21:50, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
As the Corporate Fictions (color of law) of Amerika destroy our world under the tutelage of the international bankers I must rethink my position again and again and again.
I grew up in this nation (a ''legal fiction") and from the earliest I can remember all it did, parents, peers, etc., was make me ashamed and sick that I was being labelled an American, too, one of them.
I don't consider my self anything close to what this polyglot nation stands for. Murder, tyranny, death and genocide on a scale never dreamt of by the world societies' worst dictators.
I have no illusions that this will change. I have no illusions about there being any kind of freedom and/or justice in this sad country for anyone other than the most hardened plutocrat.
Nor do I feel that there is really anything that we can do about it. Maybe praying to some 'Cosmotyrannocrat-god' might help some... if you know the real meaning of the word 'pray.'
Revolting, hardcore, against the tyranny with any or all of their petty instruments of war, paper or otherwise, is to play into the hands of what I now consider to be worse than any insane and ravenous 'beast.'
The obvious answer, a real soul-u-tion, would be for the people (who the **** are they?) to wrest the power away from the scum in the Whitehouse that are prevailing in their deceit, lies and perfidy, but that won't change things one iota!
The ''people (human?)" that are there aren't in control at all. They are lackeys who jump at command regardless of all their pretense at championing fictions like 'demo-cracy!'
Ask the man or woman in the street about things like the difference between a re-public and a demo-cracy and you'll, nine out of ten times, get a blank stare (stare decisis?) and a mumble or two about... well, ah, I dunno or...
I'm totally fed up with all the charades, the pretense at being other than the criminals that the unwashed masses really are for supporting such mind games and charades.
A republic is a system of guidance based on the rule of law. A democracy is based on 'votes.' As anyone with an ounce of perception can see...
the so called 'vote' is fixed, always has been, in this country; as all the behind the scenes "players" buy up this and that Media mogel and or politico that their venemous and deceitful messages might be memetically printed on the minds and very spirits of the fools whom they portend to 'lead!' We the People (copyrighted by fedcorps)? Ha!
Is it any different elsewhere? Sure, more death, murder, enslavement, theft, carnage, of human beings (chattel), for profit. The fiends behind the facade are well known... their names are known! Why, then, is'nt anything concrete being done about them?
The following is an article I hope will be of interest to any and all who want a better way... knowing that it will have to be created from within each and everyone of us who see through the sham scam illusion these wretches are peddling...
Be they frothy mouthed Demon-crat or mealy mouthed Republiscum... or a newly elected E-pis-co-pal-ian Bishopress who just happens to be a woe unto you man...
I guess the liars feel that they had better get the 'happy ones' on their side now to fill up their empty pews. P U! As if that will help them.
"Forgive them, El Elion, for they know not what they do?"--- A dupe
Baloney! For...
They know perfectly well what they do! The final solution? Maybe we should employ a few of their own on them? More >
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 20 Feb 2006 @ 08:21, by i2i. Government, Public Sector
Of the people, by the people, and for the people.
More >
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