Keeping Up Appearances - Media Presentation
Saturday, 15. August 2009, 00:11:49
WORLD PROUT ASSEMBLY
Torturing Children: Bush's Legacy and Democracy's Failure
The torture and abuse of the child detainee, Mohammed Jawad, continues up to on or about June 2, 2008 when he was "beaten, kicked, and pepper-sprayed while he was on the ground with his feet and hands in shackles, for allegedly not comply with guards' instructions. Fifteen days later, there were still visible marks consistent with physical abuse on his body, including his arms, knees, shoulder, forehead, and ribs."(24) How the Obama administration can possibly defend building a criminal case against Mohammed Jawad, given that he was under 18 years-old at the time of his arrest and has endured endless years of torture and abuse at the hands of the U.S. government, raises serious questions about ethical and political integrity of this government and its alleged commitment for human rights. The case against this young man is so weak that Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle has not only recently accused the government of "dragging [the case] out for no good reason," but also expressed alarm at how weak the government's case was, stating in a refusal to give them an extension to amass new evidence against Jawad, "You'd better go consult real quick with the powers that be, because this is a case that's been screaming at everybody for years. This case is an outrage to me.... I am not going to sit up here and wait for you to come up with new evidence at this late hour.... This case is in shambles."(25) On July 30, 2009, Judge Huvelle ordered the Obama administration to release Jawad by late August. She stated "After this horrible, long, tortured history, I hope the government will succeed in getting him back home.... Enough has been imposed on this young man to date."(26) - Henry Giroux
Sodomized to Protect Our Freedoms
What's so sick about it is that the sexual nature of the torture seems so unnecessary. I mean, even if we were going to torture them, we could have stuck to waterboarding, pulling some fingernails or just beating the shit out of them. But menstrual blood smeared on their faces? Ass rape? What kind of people do that? What possible purpose does that serve that outweighs becoming known as the country that ass-rapes people? We couldn't get enough answers, or false confessions, or whatever we were looking for, from regular brutality? We had to go all BDSM on these people? The upshot is this: America is the country that rapes its prisoners. We're sex criminals. That's our thing now. And Obama's refusal to "look back," i.e. prosecute these incredibly serious crimes, ensures that it's our permanent legacy. No national reputation can survive this simply by shrugging it off. We used to be seen as a bastion of freedom and decency around the world. That shit is over, folks. We're like the Soviet Union with better movies now. When we talk about human rights, we are an international joke. - ALLAN UTHMAN
Adivasis' Atruggle Against Displacement In Jharkhand
Finally, one should understand that the displacement is not just shifting people from one place to another but it is destruction of their livelihood resources, culture and identity which they develop by nourishing for the ages. The life cycle of the Adivasis is based on the natural resources therefore their co-existence with the nature can not be questioned. Hence, it is need of the hour to rethink on the present development model. The unjust development process can not be carried on as the Adivasis also have similar rights to life with dignity, freedom and equality guaranteed by the constitution of India. The Adivasis have lost their faith in the state machinery, constitutional authorities and judiciary therefore they have firmly decided not to allow laying down the foundation of corporate development model over their graves. - Gladson Dungdung
MTEF is The Bayesian Heresy
Idiots Guide to the US Budget System - Monday, May 11, 2009
The Budget System and Concepts
Budget Reform Proposals
If the financial crisis has taught us anything,” says Michael Taylor, “it is that too much conventional wisdom can be dangerous.”
Informed Comment : Global Affairs
SURYANARAYANAN : INDIA : CLIMATE DIPLOMACY
As the countdown to the Copenhagen UN Climate Summit begins, India’s role in building a framework for the new global climate change regime becomes pertinent for two reasons. First, India is the fourth largest carbon dioxide emitter after United States, China and Russia. Hence, with rising global temperatures, the pressure is mounting on India to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Any binding emission reduction measures will have a significant impact on India’s economy given the strong linkages between energy consumption, economic growth and environmental pollution. Second, the impact of climate change will be detrimental on the livelihoods of people and on food security. Given this conundrum, what are India’s options to effectively mitigate greenhouse gases and at what costs to the economy?
............More than 80 per cent of all generated power comes from coal and it accounts for one-third of India’s annual carbon dioxide emissions.
It is clear that the climate change process cannot be halted and mitigation strategies will only reduce or postpone future vulnerabilities. Also, the incentive to adopt mitigation strategies is low in the absence of external financial assistance. For India, the effects of climate change on agriculture and livelihood is going to be significant. Sea level rise and increased occurrences of extreme weather events can cause displacement of millions of people. Given this, will adaptation to the adverse affects of climate change be a better development strategy for India in the short term?
..............India has taken voluntary policy initiatives to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. However, it cannot implement its mitigation and adaptation strategies on a large scale since it will have an overbearing impact on its balance of payments.
Call it G.W.O.T. or J.I.H.A.D., Obama is waging Bush's war
. With the exception of Guantanamo, which the president has declared he'll close but six months later has not yet provided a program to achieve, the program sounds remarkably like Bush administration practices. Defeat al Qaeda, check. Hold Afghanistan, check. Partnership with Pakistan, check. Sharing intelligence and training militaries in East Africa, check. Going after terrorist financing, check. Disrupting terrorist operations, check. Prevent terrorists from getting nuclear weapons, check. Ensure our military has the troops and the tools it needs, check. Strengthen the intelligence community, check. Defend the homeland, check.
.in the doubling down on troops in Afghanistan without a political or economic or justice or drug strategy to bring a "whole of government approach" to the problem actually out-Bushes the Bush administration. Former Vice President Cheney would have much more damagingly rebuked Obama's approach to national security by pointing out it is no different from Bush's.
Foreign policy is about incentives, the rest is commentary
Policy should be informed by a careful assessment of the range of incentives influencing allies, enemies, and those in between, and decisions made in order to alter those incentives to produce the outcomes we desire.
U.S. to Resume Training Georgian Troops
The United States is resuming a combat training mission in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to prepare its army for counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, despite the risks of angering Russia, senior Defense Department officials said Thursday.
The training effort is intended to prepare Georgian troops to fight at NATO standards alongside American and allied forces in Afghanistan, the Pentagon officials said.
Russian officials have been informed, American officials said. The training should not worry the Kremlin, they said, because it would not involve skills that would be useful against a large conventional force like Russia’s.
( Foreign Policy objectives are slippery things. Since the U.S. has already deployed guerillas in Afghanistan to break the government, you can imagine Russia being - ah - UNDERjoyed at U.S. trained and supplied troops playing in the same backyard they have in years past. The difference this time, of course, is that many conventional troops are already in the area - getting whupped. Solidarity with NATO fighting a war they have no perceivable interest in promoting - and some European countries should actually be against! - is interesting. Canada, of course, doesn't have a foreign policy. The rules still apply - somewhat renamed. We will fight to the last Canadian.
Bless the Yanks. They do have Empire down pat when it comes to Raising Hell. It's just the calling murder 'peacekeeping' that gets my ire. I realize it's true, of course; at least in the sense that graveyards do not make for noisy neighbours - once the job is done. )
Will Syria fold ?
Why U.S. efforts to get Syria to give up its bad behavior might come to naught.
...During the last eight years, U.S. engagement with Syria fluctuated considerably as the Bush administration initially tried to convince the Syrian government to play a positive role in the Middle East and then, once Syrian actions to the contrary became quite clear, implemented a robust slate of sanctions against the regime.
( Everything is a matter of perspective, isn't it? This piece must seem hilarious to anyone pushing 'My country, is Right [ there is no Wrong] Everywhere'. Meanwhile Syria notes the neighbourhood being chewn away and destroyed by the U.S. military on one side and Israel - and the U.S. military - on the other.
I never thought about how playing around with environmental awareness and habitat destruction would reveal the customary employment of depriving people of necessities of life in an organized fashion covering all facets of society : but especially agriculture...and water.
Time was a blockade - sanctions - were recognized as hostile acts; i.e. warfare.
The only worry here is whether or not Syria has had a 'bloody enough nose' to respond when the whistle comes. Answer? : still afraid to! The neighbours will disapprove...and cooperating with the U.S. is a game with negative rewards.)
Why a Jailed Dissident Is Palestine's Best Hope
There is a growing acknowledgement among Israelis and Palestinians that Barghouti's broad appeal and reformist streak offer the best prospects for peace. Politicians in Israel see him as the best hope for strengthening the nationalist camp against Hamas -- ironically, due to his close ties with the opposition party and thus his ability to influence them.
Grand Stream Dreams blog
Focus on Forensics Linkfest
* forensic it chain of custody document – docstoc – search page for related documents of that theme. There were quite a number of good looking forms. I didn’t have time to try to figure out the download process, but even then, I was able to view them and get a better sense of what I was looking for.
* Forensic Bibliography – E-Evidence Information Center – great resource page with lots of direct links to PDF and other documents related to evidence collection worksheets, search-warrant templates, and chain-of-custody tracking. I snagged more than a few forms from this site.
*NHTCU Good Practices Guide for Computer based Electronic Evidence - (PDF) – Useful whitepaper that discusses issues and processes needed around electronic evidence collection.
* Sample chain of custody form – United States Department of the Navy.
* USSS Best Practices Guide to Seizing Electronic Evidence v3 – United States Secret Service “pocket-guide”. Update: it has been noted and observed in the post comments that information in this guide seems dated (internal pdf properties give a document year of 2006). And as commenter Erik notes the guide mentions pulling network connectivity and powering system off. Yet as incident responders know; obtaining network traffic captures (at least for a period) as well as running system memory dump/image, and process/port/endpoint mappings could provide additional clues and information that will be irrevocably lost if the system is simply powered off almost immediately upon seizure. -cv.
* Authors for Hacking Exposed Computer Forensics – WaybackMachine Internet Archive – The original site of this book appears gone, but some of the links back to forensic checklists, kit suggestions, and forms still live on. Found a few more goodies here.
* Technology Pathways Resource Center – Technology Pathways – Simply one of the best collections of updated and current forensic documentation, whitepapers, tool downloads, and general subject material there is out there; period. A must-bookmark page. I only wish it had an RSS feed to monitor for updates.
August Posts
* Focus on Forensics Linkfest
* Blog reboot – version 4.0
* Around the (MS) Office pool
* Drop-Dead-Quick Blue Screen of Death Diagnosis Uti...
* Windows Linkfest Mowdown
* Browser Linkfest Blowout
* Mounting VHD files in Windows for fun and explorat...
* Virtual PC and XP Mode Linkage
Torturing Children: Bush's Legacy and Democracy's Failure
The torture and abuse of the child detainee, Mohammed Jawad, continues up to on or about June 2, 2008 when he was "beaten, kicked, and pepper-sprayed while he was on the ground with his feet and hands in shackles, for allegedly not comply with guards' instructions. Fifteen days later, there were still visible marks consistent with physical abuse on his body, including his arms, knees, shoulder, forehead, and ribs."(24) How the Obama administration can possibly defend building a criminal case against Mohammed Jawad, given that he was under 18 years-old at the time of his arrest and has endured endless years of torture and abuse at the hands of the U.S. government, raises serious questions about ethical and political integrity of this government and its alleged commitment for human rights. The case against this young man is so weak that Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle has not only recently accused the government of "dragging [the case] out for no good reason," but also expressed alarm at how weak the government's case was, stating in a refusal to give them an extension to amass new evidence against Jawad, "You'd better go consult real quick with the powers that be, because this is a case that's been screaming at everybody for years. This case is an outrage to me.... I am not going to sit up here and wait for you to come up with new evidence at this late hour.... This case is in shambles."(25) On July 30, 2009, Judge Huvelle ordered the Obama administration to release Jawad by late August. She stated "After this horrible, long, tortured history, I hope the government will succeed in getting him back home.... Enough has been imposed on this young man to date."(26) - Henry Giroux
Sodomized to Protect Our Freedoms
What's so sick about it is that the sexual nature of the torture seems so unnecessary. I mean, even if we were going to torture them, we could have stuck to waterboarding, pulling some fingernails or just beating the shit out of them. But menstrual blood smeared on their faces? Ass rape? What kind of people do that? What possible purpose does that serve that outweighs becoming known as the country that ass-rapes people? We couldn't get enough answers, or false confessions, or whatever we were looking for, from regular brutality? We had to go all BDSM on these people? The upshot is this: America is the country that rapes its prisoners. We're sex criminals. That's our thing now. And Obama's refusal to "look back," i.e. prosecute these incredibly serious crimes, ensures that it's our permanent legacy. No national reputation can survive this simply by shrugging it off. We used to be seen as a bastion of freedom and decency around the world. That shit is over, folks. We're like the Soviet Union with better movies now. When we talk about human rights, we are an international joke. - ALLAN UTHMAN
Adivasis' Atruggle Against Displacement In Jharkhand
Finally, one should understand that the displacement is not just shifting people from one place to another but it is destruction of their livelihood resources, culture and identity which they develop by nourishing for the ages. The life cycle of the Adivasis is based on the natural resources therefore their co-existence with the nature can not be questioned. Hence, it is need of the hour to rethink on the present development model. The unjust development process can not be carried on as the Adivasis also have similar rights to life with dignity, freedom and equality guaranteed by the constitution of India. The Adivasis have lost their faith in the state machinery, constitutional authorities and judiciary therefore they have firmly decided not to allow laying down the foundation of corporate development model over their graves. - Gladson Dungdung
MTEF is The Bayesian Heresy
Idiots Guide to the US Budget System - Monday, May 11, 2009
The Budget System and Concepts
Budget Reform Proposals
If the financial crisis has taught us anything,” says Michael Taylor, “it is that too much conventional wisdom can be dangerous.”
Informed Comment : Global Affairs
SURYANARAYANAN : INDIA : CLIMATE DIPLOMACY
As the countdown to the Copenhagen UN Climate Summit begins, India’s role in building a framework for the new global climate change regime becomes pertinent for two reasons. First, India is the fourth largest carbon dioxide emitter after United States, China and Russia. Hence, with rising global temperatures, the pressure is mounting on India to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Any binding emission reduction measures will have a significant impact on India’s economy given the strong linkages between energy consumption, economic growth and environmental pollution. Second, the impact of climate change will be detrimental on the livelihoods of people and on food security. Given this conundrum, what are India’s options to effectively mitigate greenhouse gases and at what costs to the economy?
............More than 80 per cent of all generated power comes from coal and it accounts for one-third of India’s annual carbon dioxide emissions.
It is clear that the climate change process cannot be halted and mitigation strategies will only reduce or postpone future vulnerabilities. Also, the incentive to adopt mitigation strategies is low in the absence of external financial assistance. For India, the effects of climate change on agriculture and livelihood is going to be significant. Sea level rise and increased occurrences of extreme weather events can cause displacement of millions of people. Given this, will adaptation to the adverse affects of climate change be a better development strategy for India in the short term?
..............India has taken voluntary policy initiatives to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. However, it cannot implement its mitigation and adaptation strategies on a large scale since it will have an overbearing impact on its balance of payments.
Call it G.W.O.T. or J.I.H.A.D., Obama is waging Bush's war
. With the exception of Guantanamo, which the president has declared he'll close but six months later has not yet provided a program to achieve, the program sounds remarkably like Bush administration practices. Defeat al Qaeda, check. Hold Afghanistan, check. Partnership with Pakistan, check. Sharing intelligence and training militaries in East Africa, check. Going after terrorist financing, check. Disrupting terrorist operations, check. Prevent terrorists from getting nuclear weapons, check. Ensure our military has the troops and the tools it needs, check. Strengthen the intelligence community, check. Defend the homeland, check.
.in the doubling down on troops in Afghanistan without a political or economic or justice or drug strategy to bring a "whole of government approach" to the problem actually out-Bushes the Bush administration. Former Vice President Cheney would have much more damagingly rebuked Obama's approach to national security by pointing out it is no different from Bush's.
Foreign policy is about incentives, the rest is commentary
Policy should be informed by a careful assessment of the range of incentives influencing allies, enemies, and those in between, and decisions made in order to alter those incentives to produce the outcomes we desire.
U.S. to Resume Training Georgian Troops
The United States is resuming a combat training mission in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to prepare its army for counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, despite the risks of angering Russia, senior Defense Department officials said Thursday.
The training effort is intended to prepare Georgian troops to fight at NATO standards alongside American and allied forces in Afghanistan, the Pentagon officials said.
Russian officials have been informed, American officials said. The training should not worry the Kremlin, they said, because it would not involve skills that would be useful against a large conventional force like Russia’s.
( Foreign Policy objectives are slippery things. Since the U.S. has already deployed guerillas in Afghanistan to break the government, you can imagine Russia being - ah - UNDERjoyed at U.S. trained and supplied troops playing in the same backyard they have in years past. The difference this time, of course, is that many conventional troops are already in the area - getting whupped. Solidarity with NATO fighting a war they have no perceivable interest in promoting - and some European countries should actually be against! - is interesting. Canada, of course, doesn't have a foreign policy. The rules still apply - somewhat renamed. We will fight to the last Canadian.
Bless the Yanks. They do have Empire down pat when it comes to Raising Hell. It's just the calling murder 'peacekeeping' that gets my ire. I realize it's true, of course; at least in the sense that graveyards do not make for noisy neighbours - once the job is done. )
Will Syria fold ?
Why U.S. efforts to get Syria to give up its bad behavior might come to naught.
...During the last eight years, U.S. engagement with Syria fluctuated considerably as the Bush administration initially tried to convince the Syrian government to play a positive role in the Middle East and then, once Syrian actions to the contrary became quite clear, implemented a robust slate of sanctions against the regime.
( Everything is a matter of perspective, isn't it? This piece must seem hilarious to anyone pushing 'My country, is Right [ there is no Wrong] Everywhere'. Meanwhile Syria notes the neighbourhood being chewn away and destroyed by the U.S. military on one side and Israel - and the U.S. military - on the other.
I never thought about how playing around with environmental awareness and habitat destruction would reveal the customary employment of depriving people of necessities of life in an organized fashion covering all facets of society : but especially agriculture...and water.
Time was a blockade - sanctions - were recognized as hostile acts; i.e. warfare.
The only worry here is whether or not Syria has had a 'bloody enough nose' to respond when the whistle comes. Answer? : still afraid to! The neighbours will disapprove...and cooperating with the U.S. is a game with negative rewards.)
Why a Jailed Dissident Is Palestine's Best Hope
There is a growing acknowledgement among Israelis and Palestinians that Barghouti's broad appeal and reformist streak offer the best prospects for peace. Politicians in Israel see him as the best hope for strengthening the nationalist camp against Hamas -- ironically, due to his close ties with the opposition party and thus his ability to influence them.
Grand Stream Dreams blog
Focus on Forensics Linkfest
* forensic it chain of custody document – docstoc – search page for related documents of that theme. There were quite a number of good looking forms. I didn’t have time to try to figure out the download process, but even then, I was able to view them and get a better sense of what I was looking for.
* Forensic Bibliography – E-Evidence Information Center – great resource page with lots of direct links to PDF and other documents related to evidence collection worksheets, search-warrant templates, and chain-of-custody tracking. I snagged more than a few forms from this site.
*NHTCU Good Practices Guide for Computer based Electronic Evidence - (PDF) – Useful whitepaper that discusses issues and processes needed around electronic evidence collection.
* Sample chain of custody form – United States Department of the Navy.
* USSS Best Practices Guide to Seizing Electronic Evidence v3 – United States Secret Service “pocket-guide”. Update: it has been noted and observed in the post comments that information in this guide seems dated (internal pdf properties give a document year of 2006). And as commenter Erik notes the guide mentions pulling network connectivity and powering system off. Yet as incident responders know; obtaining network traffic captures (at least for a period) as well as running system memory dump/image, and process/port/endpoint mappings could provide additional clues and information that will be irrevocably lost if the system is simply powered off almost immediately upon seizure. -cv.
* Authors for Hacking Exposed Computer Forensics – WaybackMachine Internet Archive – The original site of this book appears gone, but some of the links back to forensic checklists, kit suggestions, and forms still live on. Found a few more goodies here.
* Technology Pathways Resource Center – Technology Pathways – Simply one of the best collections of updated and current forensic documentation, whitepapers, tool downloads, and general subject material there is out there; period. A must-bookmark page. I only wish it had an RSS feed to monitor for updates.
August Posts
* Focus on Forensics Linkfest
* Blog reboot – version 4.0
* Around the (MS) Office pool
* Drop-Dead-Quick Blue Screen of Death Diagnosis Uti...
* Windows Linkfest Mowdown
* Browser Linkfest Blowout
* Mounting VHD files in Windows for fun and explorat...
* Virtual PC and XP Mode Linkage
WIDGETIZE
nepmak2000 # 18. August 2009, 08:30
oldephartte # 18. August 2009, 14:07
nepmak2000 # 18. August 2009, 15:44
oldephartte # 19. August 2009, 03:58
I think the best discussion into the insanity has been from Dad2059's SF blog at WordPress...but the really weird goes from anything like Religious indoctrination, secret histories, and much more.
For instance, Sarah Palin is interesting because she is a religious icon of the Dominionists. The Bush family have been tied in with Skull and Bones at Harvard plus Satanism...there's the old history of American nazis - Bush and General Motors both involved -funding the 3rd Reich...and so on.
The wildest had to be of a species running humanity in the style of Spielberg's 'Home' or future humanity(?) responsible in the style of Whitley Streiber's 'Communion'. I even bookmarked - and kept private - a site going on about invisible/camouflaged 'dragons' in charge of events for millenia : rather like Gods, demons, or the symbiotic g'aould of Stargate SG-1.
But Prison Planet and Endgame don't seem so wild to one tracking the concurrent policies which seem likely to serve up extinction as humanity's fate. For that you need to look into the posts listed under 'Water-Wealth and Power' : basically a coordinated strategy which sets up destruction of human necessities of life.
Doesn't really matter if aliens are involved or not : we've got problems which are truly cataclysmic.
nepmak2000 # 19. August 2009, 06:39
oldephartte # 19. August 2009, 12:45
But certainly the current rulers of this planet have effectively sabotaged its life systems so they are in a terminal condition. Fertilizer is a construct of I.G. Farben for instance. Water pollution is something I haven't been able to communicate for whatever reason : it is why 'Water-Wealth and Power' and most especially 'End of an Era' sits on my 'Links' page. Nor does it borrow from mythic tradition.
Again, from Care 2, a retired Ohio farmer and a fellow Albertan outraged by the disease-spreading basis of spreading sludge and dysfunctional 'regulation' of farming raise merry Hell :
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2009/08/environment-sickening-practices.html
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2009/08/green-acres-food-and-junk-food-post.html
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2009/08/uranium-mining-and-depleted.html
oldephartte # 19. August 2009, 13:02
oldephartte # 19. August 2009, 13:20
Dad2059 SF blog on WordPress is where I find my usual small collection of eclectic thinkers.
I haven't checked in with David Brin for a while. Certainly he has scientific and political interests : but the underlying geopolitical reality doesn't seem to intrude on him.
nepmak2000 # 19. August 2009, 15:02
oldephartte # 19. August 2009, 15:54
nepmak2000 # 19. August 2009, 22:50