Obama Admin.: A mix of Wall St. and Marx?

So true progressives and liberals are howling at yet another Wall-Street fattened, pro-business, DLC darling joining Obama's administration, William Daley. For example, Larry Summers and Rahm Emanuel, both gone, were also Wall St. alumni and vocally disdainful of "f-ing retarded" liberals who retardedly elected Obama in Nov. '08 and who retardedly stayed at home in Nov.'10 after he let them down, leading to Democrats' pummeling.

Meanwhile, the kook right continues to howl about all the Marxists, socialists and unelected, shadowy "czars" (definition: any presidential advisor or unelected bureaucrat) who have infiltrated the federal government thanks to Obama.

Obviously, these two points of view are incompatible.

Obama hires Wall Street welfare father as chief adviser

By Sam Smith
January 6, 2011 | Undernews

URL: http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2011/01/obama-hires-wall-street-welfare-father.html

Uncle Sam needs a cyber militia?

I thought this story was kind of cool. I'm glad tiny Estonia, a David to its belligerent Russian Goliath, has found a way to defend itself against hackers and cyber attackers.

The U.S. so far is fighting cyber warfare the Big Gubument way (albeit often through private contractors), whereas small Estonia is fighting cyber war the militia (you might even say, guerrilla) way, with volunteers (although they are considering instituting a conscript service). The U.S. could do it both ways, why not? As one commenter on this story asked online, why hasn't the U.S. Government simply asked them for help, instead of assuming that all private IT experts are "distrustful" and "standoffish?"

I don't think it's just that; I think it's partly the USG's over reliance on secret clearances, and the cumbersome process of granting them. As the NYT's Nicholas Kristof recently noted, there are more U.S. citizens with "top secret" clearance than there are residents of Washington, DC.


Volunteer Cyber Army Emerges In Estonia
By Tom Gjelten
January 4, 2010 | Morning Edition on NPR

URL: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/04/132634099/in-estonia-volunteer-cyber-army-defends-nation

War Nerd: The Pashtun's glorious Thug Life

Gary is back! -- with more unique insight:

"[The Pashtun have] got nothing coming from the whole Thomas Friedman world, and they'd be fools to think they do. They've got a better business plan: the Stay-Thug Plan. There's a lot of money in being dangerous these days."

The War Nerd: Market Lessons from the Pashtun
By Gary Brecher
December 30, 2010 The eXiled

URL: http://exiledonline.com/the-war-nerd-market-lessons-from-the-pashtun/

U.S. youth too fat & dumb to get hit by IEDs in Afghan. & Iraq

They're supposed to be crippled and brain damaged after their term of service, not before.


Nearly 1 in 4 fails military exam
December 22, 2010 | AP

URL: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jmflKFlGubkYUuLnntRO-rOuuNRw?docId=c90a31f788054427ab6f7176f6c1d4c9

'Unregulated' internet: Per-service, per-page fees

Yeah, the problem with the Internet is that it's too free.  We need to find a way to chop it up into parcels and price-tier it like real estate, which can be leased out to Web surfers.  That will make the 'Net more efficient and free-markety like.  FCC -- bad!  :-(   Free enterprise -- good!   :-)

 

 

Your Rights Online: Look Forward To Per-Service, Per-Page Fees

By timothy

December 18, 2010 | Slashdot

 

URL:  http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/18/1428230/Look-Forward-To-Per-Service-Per-Page-Fees