BMBS

UK Prime Minister David has actually said it and ordered it be done:

“Everyone watching these horrific actions [rioting and looting] will be struck by how they were organized via social media. … Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. And when people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them.”

In an emergency session of Parliament today, Cameron announced that officials were working with the intelligence services and police to look at how and whether to “stop people communicating via these Web sites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”

Our moral authority to demand openness in other society erodes.

While the West generally celebrates how Twitter and other “social media” are enabling protests against authoritarians, it’s odd when politicians in a great democracy say those tools are undermining peace in their midst.

With riots in London gaining momentum, David Lammy, a Member of the UK Parliament, called for the suspension of Blackberry Messenger.  He tweeted:  “BBM … helping rioters outfox Police.  Suspend it.”

Where’s the line?

A 101-year-old woman in Richmond was shot and wounded as she tried to break up a fight between two grandsons last week.  The bullet hit her in the neck.  She survived.

The incident occurred just a couple miles from the office of Virginia Commonwealth Attorney General Cuccinelli, who’s pushed relentlessly for people’s rights to carry guns wherever they wish, including churches, bars, and presumably homes in which grandmothers foolishly try to break up fights.

Fox News called it an “accidental” shooting.

Speaking in the regal first-person plural pronoun, the governor of Texas said at a prayer meeting with 20,000 of people of similar political faith:  “Our heart breaks for America.  We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government.”

Who does he think is promoting the discord and anger?

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains in plain English why the current Obama-Republican tack will lead to failure:

He recently wrote:  “The Fed has proven that almost-zero interest rates, even coupled with ‘quantitative easing,’ has little effect. … Big corporations already have all the capital they need, as does Wall Street, and wealthy individuals. Smaller businesses and average people can’t get capital because banks are reluctant to lend. So monetary policy won’t and can’t work. What’s left? Fiscal policy. President Obama and the Democrats have to go to the nation with the truth — that we need a large fiscal boost this year and next.”

UNESCO has reported the following numbers of students pursuing advanced degrees abroad:

China:  441,000  (1.7% of student population)
South Korea:  113,000  (3.5%)
Brazil:  currently about 30,000; planned 100,000 (1%)
USA:  51,000 (0.3%)
Mexico:  26,000 (1%)

As the world “globalizes,” we turn inward?

Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair won’t get credit — because he didn’t always play by Washington’s go-along to get-along rules — but he knew what intelligence was and how to prioritize efforts.

In the Aspen conference last week, according to the Washington Post, he “offered a sobering bit of intelligence budget math. Given the swollen state of intelligence spending, and the relatively small membership of al-Qaeda and other groups, Blair said the United States is spending $20 billion a year to go after an enemy that has about 4,000 people in its ranks.”

And that’s not counting all of the important issues that have been ignored since Bush/Cheney set the priorities.

As the Sun-Gazette has reported, “The staff at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel is no doubt flush with excitement, as the hotel has been named a finalist in the 2011 “Best Restroom” competition, sponsored by Cintas Corp.”

The finalist citation says:  “The use of light reflects the evidence of motion throughout this elegant restroom.  Walls ablaze with sunset tones of orange and gold, and silhouettes of birds in mid-flight.”

Public voting runs through Sept. 19.  A photographic tour of the nominees can be found at that website.

The Washington Post has documented the appropriation of the term “feminist” by evangelical Christians. According to “Belief Watch” commentator (and former WSJ reporter) Lisa Miller, these people say “a ‘feminist’ is a fiscally conservative, pro-life butt-kicker in public, a cooperative helpmate at home, and a Christian wife and mother, above all.”

Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and others say that their relentless attacks on “big government” as consistent with their brand of feminism.

Unless other women speak up, these voices will prevail.

Virginia Governor McDonnell has been crowing about the state’s budget “surplus” for the past two years.  The facts aren’t quite so simple, unfortunately.

According to the Washington Post, Virginia has made massive spending cuts since the recession started during the Bush Administration, slashing billions of dollars in outlays to schools, colleges and universities, and virtually every social service the state provides.  The impact of those cuts was cushioned by the federal stimulus, which added hundreds of millions of dollars to cover health care for the poor through Medicaid, among other needs.

McDonnell achieved his “surplus” last year by postponing $620 million in payments owed to the state pension system.  (He said the money would be repaid starting in 2013 — when his term ends.)  This year he achieved a “surplus” by postponing another round of payments of $135 million to the state pension fund.

If the state were paying its debts, it would have a deficit.