FREEDOM IS NOT FREE - A DEPARTURE

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Dear Readers:

Click on http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/2009/01/freedom-is-not-free.html. Happy Chinese New Year.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. We'll return to our regularly-scheduled program soon.








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KEYWORDS, TERMS AND ORGANIZATIONS:

globalism, CFR, NGO, UN, WTO, IMF, central bank, outsourcing, offshoring, capital markets, import, export, international trade, strategic alliances, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, social networking, banking, finance, trade, ventures, business, securities, stock exchanges, indexes, futurism, trends, citizen ambassadorship, enterprise, capitalism, international politics, commodities, prime rate, LIBOR, foreign currencies, foreign exchange, blogs, blogging, bloggers, aol, google, yahoo, msn, AP, news, media alerts, world government, world governments, international affairs, treaties, tariffs, trade restrictions, marketing, advertising, business development, arbitrage, obtaining capital, promotion, publicity, EU, NATO, military affairs, government regulation, trade restrictions, liquidity crisis, business opportunities, web-based businesses, communication, communications, technology, intelligence, embassies, consulates, business resources, Douglas Castle,The Internationalist Page, The Global Futurist, international politics, elections, time management, cyberspace, AI, energy, industry, productivity, Mixx, Digg, Technorati, Sphere, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, advertising, economics, strategy, management, cooperation, widgets, blidgets, links, incoterms, CCH, UCC, freight forwarding, custom house brokers, diversity, employment, culture, micro-loans, technological convergence, trends, financial planning, FOREX, futures, stock index, inflation, recession, sub-contracting, Department of Commerce, the next generation, amnesty, humanitarianism, foreign aid, philanthropy, charity, cooperation, peaceful cooexistence, a world without walls...

A CRITICAL SHIFT - FROM THE SWORD TO THE PEN

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Dear Readers:

Newly-inaugurated U.S. President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Order to abolish the secret prisons, detention centers and other "hold, interrogate and torture" facilities for suspected terrorists or enemy combatants that had been an arrogant obsession with former president Bush. This is indeed a pivotal event, and for several reasons:

1. It ends an internationally-perceived hypocrisy in American politics where we spoke loudly of freedom, respect for the law and Human Rights, while obstreperously engaging in many of the tactics associated by the people we so often called terrorists. People neither like nor trust hypocrites. Nations and leaders who are seen to be hypocrites undermine their credibility, and engender contempt from the International Community.

2. It shows that a politician can actually honor a promise made to his own people, and to his own country. It flies in the face of the notion of the stereotypical "corrupt politician." It elevates his status from that of a politician to that of a statesman. It rekindles faith in the idea that power can be used to achieve good ends, instead of the standard menu of Actonian avarice, partisan patronage, domination and destruction.

3. It sends a powerful message to those countries which have distanced themselves from the United States because of our unwillingness to hear them or to deal fairly with them, because of our unaccountability and inaccessibility to them, because of our inflexible and bullying nature toward any object sitting between us and our agenda, that we can be reasoned with. This is truly a breakthrough. The United States, after a long period of narrow-mindedness, xenophobia, shameless militancy and unapproachability might once again be a viable trading partner and a member of the Global Society.

These are good things for every American citizen as well as for every advocate of Internationalism.

Good work, Mr. Obama. Good work so far.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. Read about this in an article published in the NEW YORK TIMES by clicking on:

Obama Orders Secret Prisons and Detention Camps Closed

KEYWORDS, TERMS AND ORGANIZATIONS:

globalism, CFR, NGO, UN, WTO, IMF, central bank, outsourcing, offshoring, capital markets, import, export, international trade, strategic alliances, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, social networking, banking, finance, trade, ventures, business, securities, stock exchanges, indexes, futurism, trends, citizen ambassadorship, enterprise, capitalism, international politics, commodities, prime rate, LIBOR, foreign currencies, foreign exchange, blogs, blogging, bloggers, aol, google, yahoo, msn, AP, news, media alerts, world government, world governments, international affairs, treaties, tariffs, trade restrictions, marketing, advertising, business development, arbitrage, obtaining capital, promotion, publicity, EU, NATO, military affairs, government regulation, trade restrictions, liquidity crisis, business opportunities, web-based businesses, communication, communications, technology, intelligence, embassies, consulates, business resources, Douglas Castle,The Internationalist Page, The Global Futurist, international politics, elections, time management, cyberspace, AI, energy, industry, productivity, Mixx, Digg, Technorati, Sphere, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, advertising, economics, strategy, management, cooperation, widgets, blidgets, links, incoterms, CCH, UCC, freight forwarding, custom house brokers, diversity, employment, culture, micro-loans, technological convergence, trends, financial planning, FOREX, futures, stock index, inflation, recession, sub-contracting, Department of Commerce, the next generation, amnesty, humanitarianism, foreign aid, philanthropy, charity, cooperation, peaceful cooexistence, a world without walls...

AN ETHICAL OBLIGATION CANNOT BE DENIED IN THE INTEREST OF POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY

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Dear Friends:

In constitutional theory, no person is above the law. We are all servants of the laws that we are sworn to uphold and protect. And, of course, any law which is capriciously or "selectively" applied is far worse than no law at all.

Regardless of how anyone feels about the outbound Bush administration, or about former president George W. Bush, his office was egregious in its disregard for court orders, constitutional rights, civil liberties, the doctrine of equal protection under the laws -- and the truth. While I am certain that Mr. Bush invoked "executive privilege, "national security" and "we are going to appeal that court decision," just as his staffers destroyed documents and computer hard drives for a number of reasons, a wanton regard for the law and a persistent relectance to provide information (i.e., evidence) does not instill faith amongst those who are observing you, or those who are counting on you to set an international example.

Incoming president Barack Obama has a decision to make -- will he uphold the constitution and honor his obligation to defend it, which involves investigating and possibly punishing those of his predecessors who might have violated it in all of its sanctity? Or he simply "forgive and forget" because it might be politically expedient to do so. If he yields to political expediency, he is repeating one of the worst traits of the outbound administration. The United States will be judged very harshly by the international community if we are perceived as inherently lawless where lawlessness is convenient. Violating laws, violating treaties, dishonoring obligations...these are things that have made the United states so unpopular in international circles. Part of the blowback associated with the previous administration's policies is our wrecked domestic economy.

I believe that bad laws should be changed, and that bad treaties should be amended or terminated. But I also believe that these things have to be done with due process, and with suitable explanations and the comfort of transparency.

Yes, I am an Internationalist. But this does not mean I am either disrespectful of the law, or that I can afford to have other people believe that I am too "morally flexible" as this suits my purposes.

The article which follows was originally printed in THE NEW YORK TIMES yesterday. It does apply to Mr. Obama, or Mr. Bush, or to the United States. It applies to each and every one of us in terms of how we conduct ourselves, and how we will be perceived.

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January 16, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Forgive and Forget?
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.

Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.

At the Justice Department, for example, political appointees illegally reserved nonpolitical positions for “right-thinking Americans” — their term, not mine — and there’s strong evidence that officials used their positions both to undermine the protection of minority voting rights and to persecute Democratic politicians.

The hiring process at Justice echoed the hiring process during the occupation of Iraq — an occupation whose success was supposedly essential to national security — in which applicants were judged by their politics, their personal loyalty to President Bush and, according to some reports, by their views on Roe v. Wade, rather than by their ability to do the job.

Speaking of Iraq, let’s also not forget that country’s failed reconstruction: the Bush administration handed billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to politically connected companies, companies that then failed to deliver. And why should they have bothered to do their jobs? Any government official who tried to enforce accountability on, say, Halliburton quickly found his or her career derailed.

There’s much, much more. By my count, at least six important government agencies experienced major scandals over the past eight years — in most cases, scandals that were never properly investigated. And then there was the biggest scandal of all: Does anyone seriously doubt that the Bush administration deliberately misled the nation into invading Iraq?
Why, then, shouldn’t we have an official inquiry into abuses during the Bush years?

One answer you hear is that pursuing the truth would be divisive, that it would exacerbate partisanship. But if partisanship is so terrible, shouldn’t there be some penalty for the Bush administration’s politicization of every aspect of government?

Alternatively, we’re told that we don’t have to dwell on past abuses, because we won’t repeat them. But no important figure in the Bush administration, or among that administration’s political allies, has expressed remorse for breaking the law. What makes anyone think that they or their political heirs won’t do it all over again, given the chance?

In fact, we’ve already seen this movie. During the Reagan years, the Iran-contra conspirators violated the Constitution in the name of national security. But the first President Bush pardoned the major malefactors, and when the White House finally changed hands the political and media establishment gave Bill Clinton the same advice it’s giving Mr. Obama: let sleeping scandals lie.

Sure enough, the second Bush administration picked up right where the Iran-contra conspirators left off — which isn’t too surprising when you bear in mind that Mr. Bush actually hired some of those conspirators.

Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.

Meanwhile, about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.
And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.
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Faithfully,

Douglas Castle







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KEYWORDS, TERMS AND ORGANIZATIONS:

globalism, CFR, NGO, UN, WTO, IMF, central bank, outsourcing, offshoring, capital markets, import, export, international trade, strategic alliances, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, social networking, banking, finance, trade, ventures, business, securities, stock exchanges, indexes, futurism, trends, citizen ambassadorship, enterprise, capitalism, international politics, commodities, prime rate, LIBOR, foreign currencies, foreign exchange, blogs, blogging, bloggers, aol, google, yahoo, msn, AP, news, media alerts, world government, world governments, international affairs, treaties, tariffs, trade restrictions, marketing, advertising, business development, arbitrage, obtaining capital, promotion, publicity, EU, NATO, military affairs, government regulation, trade restrictions, liquidity crisis, business opportunities, web-based businesses, communication, communications, technology, intelligence, embassies, consulates, business resources, Douglas Castle,The Internationalist Page, The Global Futurist, international politics, elections, time management, cyberspace, AI, energy, industry, productivity, Mixx, Digg, Technorati, Sphere, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, advertising, economics, strategy, management, cooperation, widgets, blidgets, links, incoterms, CCH, UCC, freight forwarding, custom house brokers, diversity, employment, culture, micro-loans, technological convergence, trends, financial planning, FOREX, futures, stock index, inflation, recession, sub-contracting, Department of Commerce, the next generation, amnesty, humanitarianism, foreign aid, philanthropy, charity, cooperation, peaceful cooexistence, a world without walls...

DOUGLAS CASTLE GETS REJECTED

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Dear Readers:

Please read about my latest rejection. You'll enjoy it -- I promise.

http://humanitasmaximus.blogspot.com/2009/01/wonderful-rejection.html

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

BLOGGING AS THE PREMIER PROMOTION MEDIUM

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Dear Friends:

The world of cyberspace is jammed full of information, from websites, to mass e-mails to VoIP (i.e., Skype), but most of it seems to be just unfocused, self-serving noise. I have touted blogging as the most responsible and well-regarding informational medium of all. Whereas most other e-media are created and launched with profits in mind, bloggers tend to provide sources of expert technical information, unique points of view, and valuable advice. They are universally regarding as having more credibility than any other i-media.

My business colleague, Bruce Newman, Vice President of THE PRODUCTIVITY INSTITUTE, LLC (a highly ingenius enterprise which finds, rates and provides pre-qualified consultants to businesses of all sizes which cannot afford the burden of full-time staffers, with their benefits and high salaries, but which still need specific projects and functions to be handled -- I envy Bruce his market niche as his clients are both companies in need of expert consultants, and consultants who wish to be retained by companies who require their special skills). In fact, the more that employers downsize, the more they need the services of an organization like The Productivity Institute. Bruce's specific alchemy is helping companies convert fixed costs to lower, variable costs. Add bnewman@prodinst.com to your address book, and bookmark this article, as well.

Bruce, who is a voracious reader, recently forwarded an article to my attention which I thought would be of interest to all of us, as Internationalists working to getting our messages across. I offer it here for your information and enjoyment:

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Study: Blogs Influence Purchases More Than Social Sites
By Enid Burns, ClickZ, Oct 28, 2008

Blogs can have more impact on purchase decisions than social networks, a new study finds. Blogs create a conversation and trusted resource that influences purchase decision.

The study, "Harnessing the Power of Blogs," sponsored research by Buzz Logic and conducted by Jupiter Research, a Forrester Research company, looks at the evolving influence from the reader's perspective. "What we wanted to do was look at the reader's side of the coin, look at reader patterns and how people are reading blogs...and drill down into the content impacting other media platforms," said Valerie Combs, VP of corporate communications at Buzz Logic.

Readership of blogs is on the rise. Jupiter Research noted a 300 percent growth in monthly blog readership in the past four years. Readers look to links and multiple blog sources to extend the conversation: 49 percent of blog readers, defined as someone who reads at least one blog a month, and 71 percent of frequent readers all read more than one blog per session. Multiple blog sources offer more opportunities for consumers to see blog ads.

A quarter of readers say they trust ads on a blog, compared to 19 percent who trust ads on social networking sites.

Advertisements on blogs are an opportunity for marketers to reach consumers. The findings said 40 percent of people reading blogs have taken action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog; and 50 percent of frequent blog readers say they have taken action. Of those actions: 17 percent have read product reviews online; 16 percent have sought out more information on a product or service; and 16 percent have visited a manufacturer or retailer Web site.

"More and more publishers are become extremely savvy understanding the game and becoming better at monetizing, which is great for the advertiser as well," said Combs.

The survey also finds consumers are influenced by blogs at the moment of purchase decision. The channel plays a greater role than social networks, likely because bloggers establish themselves as an authority on a topic, particularly in niche areas, and create a relationship with the consumer.

"One of the things that's so great about them is the personal, specific information," said Combs. "Thorough, useful, honest creation, create a level of trust with the reader."

BuzzLogic is a marketing influence company that measures word-of-mouth interaction online, runs online ad campaigns, and hosts the Conversation Ad Network, an ad network built for social media and bloggers to help monetize niche topic Web sites.

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To view this article in its entirety, click on http://www.clickz.com/3631303 .

Blogging, as I have contended before, is one of the most powerful forms of media ever created. If you have a website, you might wish to compliment it with a blog site, as well. If I may be of service to you in this regard, please find my contact information at http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/ , or ring me at (toll free) 888.317.6498.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. If you would like to speak directly with Bruce Newman at THE PRODUCTIVITY INSTITUTE, LLC. either visit his website at http://www.prodinst.com/ , email him at bnewman@prodinst.com, or telephone the company's offices at 845.228.1301. Incidentally, TPI has a blog and a newsletter which might well be worth receiving -- it is free, but filled with valuable information. Please email Bruce at bnewman@prodinst.com and send him a brief message requesting your free Newsletter, and he will send it to you. simply provide your name and email address. Every downsizing company, and every consultant with technical, vertical expertise should initiate a conversation with this fellow. having his company's services at the ready can literally save your business.

KEYWORDS, TERMS AND ORGANIZATIONS:

globalism, CFR, NGO, UN, WTO, IMF, central bank, outsourcing, offshoring, capital markets, import, export, international trade, strategic alliances, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, social networking, banking, finance, trade, ventures, business, securities, stock exchanges, indexes, futurism, trends, citizen ambassadorship, enterprise, capitalism, international politics, commodities, prime rate, LIBOR, foreign currencies, foreign exchange, blogs, blogging, bloggers, aol, google, yahoo, msn, AP, news, media alerts, world government, world governments, international affairs, treaties, tariffs, trade restrictions, marketing, advertising, business development, arbitrage, obtaining capital, promotion, publicity, EU, NATO, military affairs, government regulation, trade restrictions, liquidity crisis, business opportunities, web-based businesses, communication, communications, technology, intelligence, embassies, consulates, business resources, Douglas Castle,The Internationalist Page, The Global Futurist, international politics, elections, time management, cyberspace, AI, energy, industry, productivity, Mixx, Digg, Technorati, Sphere, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, advertising, economics, strategy, management, cooperation, widgets, blidgets, links, incoterms, CCH, UCC, freight forwarding, custom house brokers, diversity, employment, culture, micro-loans, technological convergence, trends, financial planning, FOREX, futures, stock index, inflation, recession, sub-contracting, Department of Commerce, the next generation, amnesty, humanitarianism, foreign aid, philanthropy, charity, cooperation, peaceful cooexistence, a world without walls...