Negotiation in the New Strategic Environment: Lessons from Iraq
With thousands of negotiations being conducted by U.S. soldiers in Iraq “from junior to senior leaders” the aggregate effect of successful or failed negotiations has an impact on the ability of the U.S. military to accomplish its mission there as well as meet American strategic goals. The author argues that the military’s strategic success in the future may increasingly depend on an expanded range of training that includes negotiation skills and practice. By analyzing the negotiating experience of U.S. Army and Marine Corps officers in Iraq, he offers recommendations to improve negotiating effectiveness and predeployment negotiation training.
Published August 2007, Authored by Mr. David M Tressler
At:
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=792
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Olbermann named Fox’s Gibson “Worst Person” for claiming Clinton “makes a deal with Al Qaeda”
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann named Fox News host John Gibson the “winner” of his “Worst Person in the World” segment for claiming that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made “a deal with Al Qaeda” to “go easier” on terrorists if elected president.
Read more
http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708290006?src=other
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The Coalition of the Bribed: Army turns to National Guard for recruiting help
Aug 28 2007
The U.S. Army is turning to the National Guard for help recruiting would-be soldiers in hometowns across America. Army leaders, struggling to meet recruitment goals in the midst of a long and unpopular war in Iraq, are quietly working out final details of a program that would give ‘bonuses’ of $2,000 per recruit to any National Guard soldier who brings somebody into the active duty Army.
At:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-08-28-army-recruiting_N.htm
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REPUBLICAN LOBBY FIRM BGR UNDERCUTS IRAQI LEADER AL-MALIKI
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6377
Allawi and Bush in 2004″Republican lobbyists with close ties to the Bush administration are aiding and supporting the efforts of an Iraqi opposition leader who is calling for the ouster of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki,” reports IraqSlogger. On behalf of former prime minister Ayad Allawi, the firm Barbour, Griffith and Rogers purchased the website domain Allawi-for-Iraq.com and sent “hundreds of email messages in Allawi’s name” to Congressional staffers and others in Washington. The emails included copies of a Washington Post op/ed by Allawi in which he wrote “there will be no lasting political reconcilitation under Maliki’s sectarian regime” and “Maliki has squandered Iraq’s credibility in Arab politics, and he cannot restore it.” The firm’s international president, Robert Blackwill, was Bush’s Presidential Envoy to Iraq in 2004, when Allawi was in power. Barbour Griffith, and Rogers also works for the Kurdistan Regional Government.
SOURCE: IraqSlogger, August 23, 2007
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Katrina, Two Years Later: Where’s the Progress?
CHRIS KROMM, chris@southernstudies.org , http://www.southernstudies.org
Kromm is the executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies and author or co-author of several reports on the post-Katrina recovery, including “The Mardi Gras Index,” “One Year after Katrina,” and the Institute’s new report, “Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action.” He said today: “On September 15, 2005, President Bush declared that the federal government would ‘do what it takes, and stay as long as it takes,’ to rebuild the Gulf Coast. Instead, Washington has turned its back on those who lost so much after Katrina. Our research shows that, by most measures, the recovery is failing. Over 80,000 people are still in ‘temporary’ FEMA trailers; schools and hospitals are shuttered; people can’t find good jobs. The only thing that can turn this around is a bold, new federal commitment to making the region whole again. Drawing on the ground-level insights of over 40 Gulf Coast leaders, our report shows not only what’s gone wrong, but what — with the right political will — could be done to create a more vibrant, safe and just future for all in the Gulf South.”
From: Institute for Public Accuracy
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NEOLIBERALISM DISMANTLES SERVICES TO MAKE ELITES EVEN RICHER
By George Monbiot, Comment Is Free
Neoliberalism demands minimal taxes, the dismantling of public services and social security and union busting to make the elite even richer, while leaving everyone else to sink or swim.
At:
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/61002/
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TWO YEARS AFTER KATRINA, BILLIONS IN RELIEF FUNDS ARE MISSING
By Jeffrey Buchanan, Chris Kromm, AlterNet
The federal government has promised more than $116 billion in recovery aid, but residents of the still-devastated Gulf Coast wonder whether the check bounced.
At:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/60494/
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Seismic readings at Utah mine do not point to quake
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-28-mine-collapse-quake_N.htm?csp=34
William M. Welch, USA Today
August 29, 2007
Scientists studying the collapse of a Utah mine that trapped six miners said Tuesday that “all of the evidence” from reviews of seismic readings overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the collapse was caused by the mine and not an earthquake.
DOUGLAS DREGER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF GEOPHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, said comparisons of the Aug. 6 collapse with a blowout of the mine walls Aug. 16 that killed three rescue miners has buttressed the conclusion that the mine collapsed on its own.
Mining officials, among them Crandall Canyon Mine co-owner Robert Murray, have said the disaster was probably caused by an earthquake. Murray did not respond to a request for comment placed with his personal assistant.
Dreger said data from the blowout, or “bump” as it is known in mining parlance, showed the initial motion of the earth was the same, though smaller in force, to the initial collapse. He said that analysis confirmed that the mine collapse was triggered by shifting of rock in response to activity in the mine and not other seismic forces….
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Borowitz Report – To Catch a Senator Shocker
NBC Launches ‘To Catch a Senator’
Chris Hansen to Stake Out Airport Bathrooms
“Dateline,” the NBC newsmagazine which has scored big ratings for its “To Catch a Predator” investigations, announced today that it would introduce a new investigative series this fall, entitled “To Catch a Senator.”
At a press conference in New York, NBC News president Steve Capus said that “To Catch a Senator” would focus the “Dateline” investigation team’s energies on “the number one menace in America today: pervy Republican senators.”
While he indicated that plans for the program are still being developed, Mr. Capus said that “To Catch a Senator” would use an airport bathroom as the nerve center for its sting operation.
Specifically, he said that the program would deploy “Predator” host Chris Hansen as a decoy to lure depraved senators into lewd contact.
“Chris will be waiting in one of the bathroom stalls, and when the senator taps on the wall, Chris will kind of pop out of the stall and start grilling him,” Mr. Capus said. “We’ll nail that bastard faster than he can say ‘I’m not gay.’”
But even as NBC trumpeted its latest “Dateline” spin-off, industry insiders wondered whether there would be an adequate supply of sex-crazed senators to keep the program going for more than a few episodes.
For his part, Mr. Capus brushed off such concerns, telling reporters, “As long as there are Republican senators out there who oppose gay marriage, there will always be plenty of pervs.”
Elsewhere, President Bush praised Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf for agreeing to stand for election, saying, “If free and fair elections work in Pakistan, we may eventually try them here.”
Andy in Seattle – Labor Day Weekend!
Andy brings “Next Week’s News” to Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival for three performances over Labor Day weekend. See Andy at the Charlotte Martin Theater, 201 Thomas Street, at 4:30 PM on September 1, 2, and 3. Tickets available at www.bumbershoot.org .
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
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three thousand words
Jeff Danziger: Jenna Bush Marries, Henry Hager
http://danzigercartoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/dancart3348.jpg
Jack Ohman: katrina anniversary week… start swimming
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tmjoh//2007/tmjoh070827.gif
Ed Gamble: new rule of law
An editorial cartoon by Ed Gamble caused a nationwide controversy last week. The cartoon, which appeared in the Florida Times Union on Friday, Aug. 17, dealt with the “Don’t Snitch” culture prevalent in many inner-city neighborhoods
“Expressions of outrage came quickly, including from the local president of the NAACP,” wrote Wayne Ezell, the reader advocate for the Times-Union. Within days, the Jacksonville Leadership Coalition called for Gamble to be fired, and the Rev. Al Sharpton had gotten involved in the public argument over the cartoon.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/GamblE/2007/GamblE20070817_low.jpg
