My suggestion to the Netgain site, NOTA

Democratic participation can skyrocket when all elections include the option of "None Of The Above."

Voters often confront elections with failed options. After the “None Of The Above” option becomes a universal choice in all ballot questions, citizens can circumvent a bogus ballot process.

When making a statement at the ballot box becomes worthless, frustrations mount and street violence ensues. Many don't vote.

Uncontested elections evaporate with NOTA. Incumbents must beat NOTA. When the wire-pullers and powerful put up straw candidates or token placeholders, they'd still need to deal with the affordable, always handy choice of "None of the Above." Let's terminate the option between "Bad" and "Terrible." If the choice for voters is among "Bad," "Terrible" and "None Of The Above," then there is hope.

Everyone wins as victors out tally both second place and NOTA. With NOTA, voters demand a fresh do over. New candidates are advanced as a new election is scheduled.

Democracy fixture, Netgain Challenge

http://bit.ly/netgainchallenge

They are engaging the wider community on the agenda-setting side.

They ask for example:

    How can technology make democracies more participatory and responsive?

Topics:

• ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE
• BIG DATA
• CENSORSHIP
• DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION
• ENVIRONMENTALISM
• GOVERNANCE
• INEQUALITY
• NETWORKS
• ORGANIZING
• PRIVACY
• PROPAGANDA
• PUBLIC INTEREST TECHNOLOGY
• SECURE COMMUNICATIONS
• SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• SURVEILLANCE

Fwd: Vietnam: Some Real History

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andy Piascik <andypiascik@yahoo.com>

Friends,

 

I wrote this in reply to an op-ed in the Connecticut Post by John Mihalec, former speechwriter for Gerald Ford, which you can view here: http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Mihalec-50-years-ago-the-start-to-Vietnam-war-6067086.php.

 

Here's the link to mine: http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Piascik-Vietnam-a-longer-view-6071550.php.

 

Peace and Solidarity,

 

Andy

 

                                                                           Vietnam: Some Real History

                                                                                                                            by Andy Piascik

 

            John Mihalec's recent column (50 Years Ago: The Start to Vietnam War, February 7) is good for laughs but is seriously lacking as history. Here's some history that was conveniently left out of his fanciful account.

            Pinpointing where US aggression in Vietnam began depends on how one determines how a war starts. It's silly in the extreme, however, to claim it began in 1965, as tens of thousands of Vietnamese were already dead at US hands by that point. Better to trace the origins to 1945 when the United States refused to recognize the new government established by Vietnamese independence forces. Japan had invaded Vietnam some years earlier and the French colonialists  ran away and ceded the country to the Japanese.

That left it to the Vietnamese to do all the heavy lifting and they performed as heroically during the Second World War as any people anywhere. When in 1945 the French colonialists finished sipping cognac in Paris and decided to re-invade Vietnam, the US backed them to the hilt with weapons, financing and diplomatic cover. The Vietnamese, not surprisingly, were not so enthusiastic and resisted just as they had resisted other occupiers for centuries.

            As the French inflicted horrific violence in their failed attempt at re-conquest, the US bore more and more of the war's burden until, in 1954, the Vietnamese had again seemingly achieved independence. It was not to be, though, as the US destroyed that possibility by undermining elections that Washington knew Ho Chi Minh would win in a landslide. As in dozens of other cases over the past 100+ years, the US opposed democracy in favor of aggression. Elections are all well and good but only if the right people win; if the wrong people win, then out come the machine guns.

            So the US flew Ngo Dinh Diem in from New Jersey and installed him as dictator. Eventually the Kennedy administration found Diem too unreliable and had him whacked, a mere three weeks before Kennedy himself was similarly assassinated. This was not, however, before Kennedy began ongoing saturation bombing of South Vietnam, ordered the use of napalm and other chemical weapons of mass destruction, introduced ground troops and organized strategic hamlets. Such a great phrase, strategic hamlets; kinda like calling Auschwitz a country getaway.

            Lyndon Johnson's fabrication of the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 was another turning point. Within six months, the Peace Candidate who had startled the world with a campaign ad attacking Barry Goldwater as a warmonger (5…4…3…2…1) extended the invasion  and the bombing to the whole of Vietnam. So it remained until the Super Rich grew antsy about the financial costs of the war, the US's growing international embarrassment, unprecedented domestic upheaval, and the stark realization that there was no way the Vietnamese could lose militarily. I recall reading years ago something a Vietnamese elder who had probably seen as much death and destruction as anyone who ever lived said (I'm paraphrasing): We can settle this now or we can settle it a thousand years from now. It's up to the Americans.                 

It's impossible to calculate with precision the Vietnamese death toll. Whatever Vietnam has said has been dismissed by the powerful here as anti-American propaganda and US elites have never bothered with a reckoning. Their attitude was captured perfectly by a general speaking of a more recent conflagration: "We don't do body counts." Not, anyway, when the dead bodies are victims of US violence. 

Three million Vietnamese deaths is a popular figure but undoubtedly far too low. Also completely ignored here is the Vietnamese experience of Agent Orange and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for example. Take the terrible suffering of US soldiers and multiply their numbers ten thousand fold or more and we get a sense of the damage to the Vietnamese. Additionally, Vietnam and the rest of Indochina (it's often conveniently forgotten that the US also waged war against Laos and Cambodia) are full of unexploded ordinances that regularly cause death and injuries, to this day. There's also the starvation deaths of hundreds of thousands throughout Indochina immediately after the war. A countryside ravaged by bombing, combined with the curtailment of airlifts, doomed those hundreds of thousands once the US imposed an ironclad embargo. That's an unpleasant truth, though; so much easier to blame everything on the Vietnamese Communists and the despotic Khmer Rouge.

Discussions of Vietnam are hardly academic exercises; the US is on a global rampage and falsifying history has paved the way to the US-caused deaths of three million Iraqis since the first invasion in 1991, to cite just one of many recent examples. We remain in the grips of people who worship wealth and are in love with death so any truth and reckoning about Vietnam and the role we play in the world will have to come from us.

 

Andy Piascik is a long-time activist and award-winning author who writes for Z, Counterpunch  and many other publications and websites. He can be reached at andypiascik@yahoo.com.

--

--
Ta.
 
 
Mark Rauterkus       Mark.Rauterkus@gmail.com    
PPS Summer Dreamers' Swim and Water Polo Camp Head Coach

Varsity Boys Swim Coach, Pittsburgh Obama Academy

Head Water Polo Coach, Carnegie Mellon University Women's Club Team
Pittsburgh Combined Water Polo Team

http://Rauterkus.blogspot.com
http://FixPA.wikia.com
http://CLOH.wikia.com
412 298 3432 = cell

Fwd: Lecture: "Practicing Mindfulness for Health, Wellbeing and Habit Change"

Lecture: "Practicing Mindfulness for Health, Wellbeing and Habit Change" 

By:  Richard King, Ph.D.

When:   Noon to 1pm, Tuesday February 12th

Where:  Dowd Room, 2nd Floor of the Cohon University Center, CMU

"Mindfulness for Health, Wellbeing and Habit Change" 

Mindfulness is typically applied for stress reduction, health, and behavior change. This presentation weaves together an overview of what mindfulness training is, does, and how to do 5 mindfulness exercises. Mindfulness practice benefits health, wellbeing and cognitive control.   Mindfulness practice is increasingly relevant for balancing our busy lives as the pace of popular culture advances.  This talk will highlight the basis for some of the benefits and applications, as well as the promise mindfulness training may hold for epidemiological impacts on health, mental health, and promotion of healthy communities.   Those interested in practicing mindfulness will have a sense of what a personal mindfulness practice may look like as well as a set of 5 ways for beginning mindfulness training.  A small portion of the talk will address mindfulness for peak performance training which is sometimes associated with elite athletes such as Olympians and Navy SEALs.  Some benefits of mindfulness training are often not appreciated at the front end.  These include increased self awareness, enhanced attentional stability and opportunities for improved quality of relationships.

--

--
Ta.
 
 
Mark Rauterkus       Mark.Rauterkus@gmail.com    
PPS Summer Dreamers' Swim and Water Polo Camp Head Coach

Varsity Boys Swim Coach, Pittsburgh Obama Academy

Head Water Polo Coach, Carnegie Mellon University Women's Club Team
Pittsburgh Combined Water Polo Team

http://Rauterkus.blogspot.com
http://FixPA.wikia.com
http://CLOH.wikia.com
412 298 3432 = cell

Fwd: Event Announcement: Community Forum on Air Pollution in the City, February 11, 2015

Upcoming event information:
Community Forum on Air Pollution in the City First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh

Community Forum on Air Pollution in the City 

I wanted to let you know that we're going to be hosting an event that members of the Consensus Group might be interested in attending to learn more about the air pollution issue from the experts. We're hosting a community forum that will include a research professor from CMU presenting maps of how bad the pollution in the area is down to the neighborhood level and an asthma specialist from Allegheny General Hospital to talk more about the local health impacts of that  pollution. That forum will be on: 

Wednesday Feb. 11th @ 7pm 

First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh in

 Shadyside (605 Morewood Ave).

Please come out learn more about air pollution in the city and how we can work to fix it.

Here is the link for our online RSVP page: http://bit.ly/1x79R48

Stephen Riccardi

W. PA Field Associate

PennEnvironment

More information: Community Forum on Air Pollution in the City

Anti Vaccinations

Nice tutorial.

Launching The GovLab Academy Coaching Programs

On the web from:
bit.ly/*govlabcoaching*

From: The Govlab Academy
Date: Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 4:54 PM
Subject: Launching The GovLab Academy Coaching Programs
To: Steven



Thanks to the generous support of the Knight
Foundation
,
this term the Governance Lab Academy – a training program designed to
promote civic engagement and innovation – is launching a series of coaching
programs.

Geared to the teams and individuals inside and outside of government
planning to undertake a new project or trying to figure out how to make an
existing project even more effective and scalable, these programs are
designed to help participants working in civic engagement and innovation
develop effective projects from idea to implementation.

Convened by leading experts in their fields, coaching programs meet
exclusively online once a week for four weeks or every other week for eight
weeks. They include frequent and constructive feedback, customized and
original learning materials, peer-to-peer support, mentoring by topic
experts and individualized coaching from those with policy, technology, and
domain expertise.

There is no charge to participants but each program is limited to 8-10
project teams or individuals.

You can see the current state of programs below and check out the web site

for
more information and to sign up.

-

Citizen Science on the Web
,
convened by Francois Grey

(Citizen Cyberscience Centre, Geneva). Program begins the week of February
16, 2015.
-

Civic Tech for Local Legislatures and Legislators
,
co-convened by Benjamin Kallos

(New York City Council Member and Chair of the Committee on Governmental
Operations of the New York City Council) and Arnaud Sahuguet

(Chief Technology Officer of The GovLab). Program begins the week of March
2, 2015.
-

Freedom of Information and FOIA Project Coaching: Breaking Down the
Walls and Opening Up Communications
,
convened by Miriam Nisbet

(Former Director of the Office of Government Information Services). Program
begins the week of March 2, 2015.
-

Citizen Engagement Projects
,
co- convened by Beth Noveck

(Founder of The GovLab) and Tiago Peixoto

(Open Government Specialist at The World Bank). Program begins the week of
March 2, 2015.
-

Tech Procurement Projects: Making the Supply Chain Work
,
convened by Clay Johnson

(CEO of The Department for Better Technology and Former Presidential
Innovation Fellow). Program begins the week of March 16, 2015.
-

Leveraging Crowds in the Public Sector
,
convened by Karim Lakhani

(Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard
Business School). Program begins the week of March 23, 2015.
-

Open Source Technology Practices For Civic Engagement Projects
,
convened by Brian Behlendorf

(Managing Director at Mithril Capital Management and Co-Founder Apache).
Program begins the week of April 6, 2015.
-

Humanitarian Innovation Project Collaborative
,
co-convened by Brian Forde

(Senior Former Advisor to the U.S. CTO, White House Office of Science
Technology and Policy) and Alexandra Clare

(Founder of Iraq Re:Coded). Program begins the week of April 6, 2015.
-

Lab Design: Bringing Agility and Empiricism to Public Problems
,
co-convened by Geoff Mulgan

(Chief Executive of NESTA), and Joeri van den Steenhoven

(Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of MaRS Solutions
Lab). Program begins the week of April 6, 2015.
-

Open Data Data-Driven Decisions for All
,
co-convened by Arnaud Sahuguet

(Chief Technology Officer of The GovLab) and Stefaan Verhulst

(Co-founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of The GovLab).
Program begins the week of April 6, 2015.


*Our mailing address is:*
The GovLab
295 Lafayette St
New York, NY 10012

Fwd: If you listen to only one talk of mine this year, let it be this one

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Tom Woods" <woods@mises.org>

February 3, 2015 View this email in your browser LATEST NEWS If You Listen to Only One Thing From Me This Year, Let It Be This The Mises Institute held a special event on secession in late January. Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, and I, among others, were slated to speak. Here's where things get interesting. A Washington Post reporter was in attendance. We all knew the angle: tsk, tsk, Ron Paul! Your son is trying to be respectable, and here you are with awful people saying forbidden things about secession. So I pretty much directed my own speech entirely at this reporter. I think my remarks take on a whole new dimension when you realize that the hatchet man is sitting right there, forced to listen to me for half an hour. I have a feeling you'll enjoy this. And if you do, please share it! Secession: The Reasonable Option Everyone Resists | Tom Woods 225 ratings 4,798 views Here's How to Get My Free eBook, in EPUB, PDF, and Kindle! Remember, my free eBook 14 Hard Questions for Libertarians -- Answered is now available. I think there was a problem for Android devices last time with the Kindle link, so here's what I'll do: click here to go to a page on my site where you can find the Kindle, PDF, and now EPUB versions. Enjoy! Great Opportunity for Students Be a summer fellow at the Mises Institute! If you're a graduate student doing work in the Austrian tradition, this is a wonderful opportunity to be mentored by great economists, to have access to an outstanding library, and to get helpful feedback on your work from your peers. When I was a resident scholar at the Mises Institute (2006-2010), I looked forward every year to the new batch of summer fellows. It's a fantastic experience. Click here to find out more. I'm Coming Back to Houston Bob Murphy and I are doing an event with Liberty on the Rocks Houston on February 18, starting at 6pm. Bob and I will speak, and then (what else?) it's karaoke. It's taking place at Hefley's Bar and Grill, 138 W. Gray Street. See you there! And do RSVP on the Facebook event page. February 18, 2015 Liberty on the Rocks Houston Houston, TX April 9, 2015 American University Washington, DC April 25, 2015 Event in the works! Montreal, Canada May 22, 2015 Event in the works! Dublin, Ireland The Peacekeeper App: Protect Your Home and Community Cody Drummond's free Peacekeeper App decentralizes the process of emergency services, and gives families and communities more control over their own lives. Iran War Threatened Again? Looks like the neocons are trying to drum up support for war with Iran again. Scott McConnell of The American Conservative restores some sanity to the discussion. Peter Schiff on Investing, and What to Expect in 2015 Peter Schiff returns to the Tom Woods Show to answer listener questions about investing, the economy, and what 2015 holds for all of us. Nullify! The Agenda for 2015 With about 200 bills involving some form of state-level resistance to the federal government bending before legislatures around the country, Michael Boldin joins us for an overview of what's about to unfold. Don't miss it! Are Corporations Un-Libertarian? Are corporations creatures of the state, or would they have emerged on the market? Stephan Kinsella joins me to settle this controversy among libertarians. The Real North Korea Interview North Korea is a living example of the totalitarian phenomenon. We get an inside look with Michael Malice, plus the surprising weakness that could bring down the regime. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the Tom Woods Show on iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode. I release a new episode every weekday! Thanks for reading,

Western Pennsylvania LiveCodeUser Group, new open source support group forming

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Marc Siskin" <msiskin@edvista.com>
Date: Jan 31, 2015 10:38 AM
Subject: Western Pennsylvania LiveCodeUser Group
To: "MARK RAUTERKUS" <MARK@rauterkus.com>
Cc: "Claire Siskin" <csiskin@edvista.com>

Mark,

Here is what I sent to the Livecode lists.

Western Pennsylvania LiveCode User Group is calling its first meeting for 6 pm on Tuesday, February 24, 2015, at Carnegie Mellon University's Modern Language Resource Center, Room 225c Baker Porter Hall. All those in and around Pittsburgh with experiences or an interest in the multi-platform, open source, software LiveCode (http://www.LiveCode.com) are invited to attend the organizational meeting. Our meet and greet starts with pizza and includes a 20-to-30 minute presentation and demo from Marc Siskin of CMU on how he converts his LiveCode content into mobile apps that run on both iOS and Android devices. 

If you have any interest in the group, attend the meeting or else email msiskin@edvista.com or call 412-401-5623 as monthly meetings are expected.

This Girl Can. A wonderful PSA video

Open Data Event makes a call for papers

A big international open data event is coming, and I hope you can take part!



The 3rd International Open Data Conference (IODC) will be held in Ottawa,
Canada, from May 28-29, 2015. This conference, sponsored by Canada's
International Development Research Centre, the Government of Canada, and
the World Bank, will bring together experts and advocates from around the
world to take stock of the rapid evolution of the global open data
community and help chart its future.



The first two International Open Data conferences drew over 400
participants from Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, Chile, Italy, Argentina, and many others. We want to surpass the
previous conferences, and to do this we will need to have a strong program
agenda.



To accomplish this we are holding a global Open Call for program content.



The Open Call is underway right now and will run until February 20th.
Details can be found at *OpenDataCon.org*. You can also visit the site to
register for the conference. I am pleased to be able to say there will be
no registration fees for the conference and, if you need help with travel,
the IDRC and the World Bank will have a limit number of travel bursaries
available.



We want to make the IODC a truly global conference with a program
representative of where the open data community is at today, and where we
believe it could be tomorrow.



I would appreciate if you could help us spread the word, and of course if
you could come and join us in Ottawa in May!



Sincerely,



Erik Waddell

Chair, IODC Steering Committee

Fwd: Invitation for Pittsburgh Artists: City Council Discussion on Public Art Law

From: Hill District Consensus Group <hdcg@wildapricot.org>

Invitation for Pittsburgh Artists: City Council Discussion on Public Art Law Post Agenda Discussion: Pittsburgh Public Art Law Thursday, Feb 12 @ 1:30pm Council Chambers, 5th Floor, City-County Building 414 Grant Street, PGH, PA 15219     Facebook   Twitter     Public Money for Public Art PGH4ART and Councilman Corey O'Connor invite you to a Post Agenda on Pittsburgh Public Art. Please join us in council chambers Thursday, February 12 at 1:30 p.m.  The revitalization of the city's 1977 Percent for Art law will be central to the conversation. The Post Agenda will feature Pittsburgh artists who make public art.    Speakers include:     • Carolyn Speranza, artist and Team Leader for the PGH4ART Campaign     • James Simon, public artist     • Diane Samuels, artist and co-founder of City of Asylum     • Renee Piechocki, Director, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Office of Public Art      • Morton Brown, Public Art Manager in the Department of City Planning  PGH4ART is lobbying elected officials to rewrite and enforce existing Percent for Art laws. Laws on the books in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County call for 1% and 2% of the budgets of development projects constructed with public financing to be dedicated to public art. If enforced, these programs will translate into government contracts for artists, architects—and the people who will be doing the construction work. Many cities across the country have vital Percent for Art programs, and Pittsburgh could have one too! CONTACT Email: PGH4ART@gmail.com Twitter: @PGH4ART Instagram: http://instagram.com/pgh4art and  Curt Conrad Acting Chief of Staff Office of Councilman Corey O'Connor Phone: (412) 255-8965   Fax: (412) 255-0820 Email: curt.conrad@pittsburghpa.gov http://pittsburghpa.gov/district5/ It's not too late to sign the Pittsburgh Percent for Art petition and share it with your friends: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/enforce-pittsburghs-and About the Post Agenda Post Agendas are informational sessions that give members of Pittsburgh City Council the opportunity to hear expert testimony that centers around one specific issue. Often, a Post Agenda is a prelude to introducing new, or expanding existing legislation. In preparing for this Post Agenda, Councilman O'Connor said, "All plans for public art should be presented early in the development process to make sure that the design and space allocation is realistically incorporated and all pieces under consideration should go through the Department of City Planning and the Art Commission." City Council Post Agendas are open to the public, and Pittsburgh residents are especially invited to attend.    About PGH4ART Called the "Percent 4 Art Movement" by Pittsburgh City Paper, PGH4ART is a grassroots campaign launched in early 2013. The campaign has received support and endorsements from Fight Back Pittsburgh, The Hill District Consensus Group, Pittsburgh Student Government Council, Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts High School, United Rays Corvette Club of Pittsburgh and Nakturnal Guerrilla Marketing. Nationally we have been recognized by MoveOn.org with a campaign grant and "Animating Democracy," a program of Americans for the Arts. The Art Newspaper featured the campaign in its investigation of public art programs across the United States, "Percent for Art schemes fail to deliver." Copyright © 2012 Hill District Consensus Group. All rights reserved. Contact email: info@hdcg.org You are receiving this message because you opted in at http://www.hdcg.org/