All Life Is Problem Solving

Joe Firestone’s Blog on Knowledge and Knowledge Management

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Entries from July 2010

Which Would You Rather Cut: Social Security, or Interest for Foreign Governments and Rich Bondholders?

July 13th, 2010 · Comments Off on Which Would You Rather Cut: Social Security, or Interest for Foreign Governments and Rich Bondholders?

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the Co-Chairs of “the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,” would have us believe that a deficit and debt crisis threatening the fiscal future of the United States is upon us, that “This debt is like a cancer,” and that unless we begin to make across the board cuts […]

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Tags: Politics

The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Seven (Conclusion)

July 12th, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Seven (Conclusion)

In my last post, I continued my analysis of the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, focusing on Step Five in the decision process used in the meeting. In that post I presented the specific option choice frameworks AmericaSpeaks presented to participants in the categories of Non-Defense and Defense […]

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Tags: Politics

The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Six

July 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment

In Part 5, I continued my analysis of the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, focusing on Step Five in the decision process used in the meeting. In that post the specific option choice frameworks AmericaSpeaks presented to participants in the categories of Health Care and Social Security spending, […]

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Tags: Politics

The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Five

July 7th, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Five

In my last post I continued my analysis of the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, focusing on Step Five in the decision process used in the meeting. In that post I was critical of the overall bias in the general orientation toward the options workbook and the choices […]

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Tags: Politics

The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Four

July 7th, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Four

In my previous three posts analyzing the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, I presented the steps in the decision process used for the event, and discussed the pre-conference phase and the first four steps. These reflect a strong and consistent bias toward socializing participants into the idea that […]

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Tags: Politics

The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Three

July 2nd, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Three

In my first two posts analyzing the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, I presented the steps in the decision process used for the event and discussed the pre=conference phase and the first two steps. As we saw, these steps reflected a strong bias toward socializing participants into the […]

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Tags: Politics

Why the Fiscal Commission Does Not Serve the American People

July 1st, 2010 · Comments Off on Why the Fiscal Commission Does Not Serve the American People

By James K. Galbraith Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0. President Obama and his economic team face a daunting challenge: how to deliver economic growth they know can only come from deficit spending, while deferring into the future the “fiscal consolidation” which is being pressed on them by practically everyone, from Peter G. Peterson to Angela […]

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Tags: Politics

The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Two

July 1st, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part Two

In my first post analyzing the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, I presented the steps in the decision process used for the event and then began a discussion of the steps. I broke off my account in the middle of my narrative of Step Two. Primary Facilitator states […]

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Tags: Politics

The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part One

July 1st, 2010 · Comments Off on The Procrustean Democracy of AmericaSpeaks: Part One

On June 26th, AmericaSpeaks, an organization claiming unbiased neutrality on deficit issues, but funded by the Peter G. Peterson and other Foundations who share the Peterson view that US deficits and the National Debt are something to worry about, convened some 19 Town Meetings, and more than 40 smaller “community conversations,” all tied together through […]

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Tags: Politics