Was ist in einem Namen?

Noting that, within its collection of "Component Agencies" to "protect the homeland," the Department of Homeland Security includes "The Directorate for National Protection and Programs," "The Directorate for Science and Technology" and "The Directorate for Management," you wonder if the agency's minions are tone-deaf or if someone, perhaps in the Directorate of Nomenclature, who was reading Orwell and Huxley at the moment of the agency's christening, has a terrific sense of humor.

Not The Onion: Hundreds of common words that could get you in trouble

The Daily Mail reports that federal thought police have compiled an "intriguing" list of words and phrases to be used to "monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S." The list includes "obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'."

The Dept. of Homeland Security was forced to release the list by a privacy watchdog group that filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Although DHS claims it only employs the list to detect legitimate security risks, "[t]he words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder'* used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'."

Note that the avoidance of many of these words would make public discussion of security and military issues -- to say nothing of the weather -- impossible. But note also that your continued insistence on discussing such matters may attract the security state's interest.

Of course, you could decide to mess with them by putting references to "pork," "snow," "bridge," "tremor," "Tucson," "worm" and "metro" in all your communications.

The rest of the story: Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you by Daniel Miller (Mail Online 2012-05-26).

*Even "redacted," 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' makes for interesting reading.

Too controversial for TED: "The rich should pay more in taxes"

“Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Some, not so much.

If you need more evidence of how difficult it is for ideas that challenge the reigning political Weltanschauung to gain traction in mainstream media, take a look at this video of a presentation at TED, the conference that GOOD business editor Tim Fernholz describes as "for creative techies and do-gooding hipsters that vaulted the 18-minute lecture into an art form."

Like fish trying to make sense of water, it is impossible for most of us to comprehend how much misinformation we take for granted swimming as we do in the ocean of propaganda -- American exceptionalism, the greatest nation in history, fortress of democracy, Christian state, yadda yadda -- that envelops us.

At TED, Fernholz writes, "you’ll find speakers discussing everything from 'Sculpting Waves in Wood and Time' to 'Building U.S.-China relations … by Banjo.' What you won’t find is a recent TED talk by Nick Hanauer, a wealthy venture capitalist, that argues income inequality is a problem that threatens the economy, and that higher taxes on the wealthy are part of the solution."

"So here's an idea worth spreading," concludes Hanauer:

In a capitalist economy, the true job creators are consumers, the middle class. And taxing the rich to make investments that grow the middle class, is the single smartest thing we can do for the middle class, the poor and the rich.

A transcript of Hanauer's speech is available here.

See, also: Too Hot for TED: Income Inequality by Jim Tankersley (National Journal 2012-05-22).
TED's Taboo: What's Too Controversial for the Hipster Confab? by Tim Fernholz (GOOD 2012-05-17)

In response to the brouhaha over his website's suppression of Hanauer's talk, TED "curator" Chris Anderson posted the video to Youtube himself, with a link to an apologia: TED and inequality: The real story (TEDChris: The untweetable 2012-05-17). However, Anderson's claim that the talk was rejected because it "framed the issue in a way that was explicitly partisan" is contradicted by the fact that TED has posted other "partisan" presentations, such as scoldings by Al Gore on the need to fight climate change or the Gates Foundation's Melinda Gates call for handing out contraceptives across the globe. These challenges to the status quo are apparently less bothersome to the wealthy attendees at TED than the simple idea that they should pay their fare share of taxes.

The economy: Professor Robert Reich Explains It All for You

Got a couple of minutes? Want to understand what's up with the economy? Here you go:

Militarism: Americans are tiring of The Long War

Even as they enmesh the U.S. in other senseless, costly military adventures in Yemen, Honduras, West Africa, and the Philippines, to name but a few, Obama administration warriors are taking time off this weekend to try to persuade their erstwhile NATO allies that the war in Afghanistan has been worth the effort. "I can't let this be a war without end," the president is alleged to have said, "and I can't lose the whole Democratic Party."

Too late. Not only has the invasion lost support of the whole Democratic Party, but, as Robert Naiman wrote yesterday on his HuffPost blog (On Afghanistan, the Pentagon Has Lost the American People 2012-05-18), "a substantial part of the Republican Party as well; the majority of Republican voters, for example." Luckily for the president, his domestic allies are the GOP leaders, so the AfPak debacle probably won't be much of a factor in the fall election. Still, Obama seems to be anxious to control the narrative in Chicago.

Whatever the outcomes in Chicago this weekend and in Kabul some weekend in the future, the enthusiasm of security staters for the Long War will not diminish, whether Barack Obama continues in office or Mitt Romney becomes commander in chief. With access to oil and other resources the motivation and the failed "War on Drugs" the excuse, and no matter the harm that is being done at home, America's political elite will continue to bog the nation down in unwinnable conflicts big and small.

America's Pacific Century: The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action by Hillary Clinton (Foreign Policy 2011-10-11)
The National Security State Wins (Again): Why the Real Victor in Campaign 2012 Won’t Be Obama or Romney by William J. Astore (Tom Dispatch 2012-05-15)
Out of Africa: An expat witnesses the end of halcyon days in Mali by Jennifer Swift-Mogan (ForeignPolicy 2012-04-13)
Unmanned and Dangerous: Why NATO's expanding use of drones is a disturbing trend by Louis Arbour (Foreign Policy 2012-05-18)
The Long War: Year Ten  Lost in the Desert with the GPS on the Fritz  by Andrew J. Bacevich (Tom Dispatch 2010-10-01)
Fact Sheet: History of U.S. Military Involvement in Africa  (AfriCom/Congressional Research Service 2008-06-12)
U.S. Africa Command (AfriCom) History, Background and Fact Sheets

Here are some articles analyzing and debunking the "War on Terror," from a reading list on New Democracy:

• The Lockerbie Fraud Again by Dave Stratman
• Did 9/11 justify the war in Afghanistan? by David Ray Griffin
• PTSD, infertility, and other consequences of war by Bob Nichols
• Assassination by Government: An Exchange by Dave Stratman
• Whom Should We Support in Iran? by John Spritzler
• Obama's Afghanistan War: Morally Wrong, or Incompetently Waged?, by John Spritzler
• No War But the Class War
• Unethical Media Coverage of UK Events, by Elias Davidsson
• Concealing the Real Goals of War by John Spritzler
• Bosses and Workers,  a poem by Dennis Serdel
• My Country & The Railroad Tracks: two poems by Dennis Serdel, Vietnam '67-68 purple heart
• Important link:  911 Video, "Loose Change, 2nd edition, recut
• The true significance of Bush's no-warrant domestic eavesdropping by John Spritzler
• The Antiwar Movement Isn’t Where You Think It Is by Dave Stratman
• The London Bombings and the Class War by Dave Stratman
• "What Bush's 'Freedom & Democracy' Means for Iraqi Farmers" by John Spritzler (March 17, 2005)
• "The Witchhunts Continue: Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism" by M. Junaid Alam
• "Collateral Damage"  a poem by Gary Corseri (February 2005)
• "The Triumph of Liberalism" by Dave Stratman (November 12, 2004)
• "Circles"  and "BREAKING THE LAW TO WIN"  poems by Dennis Serdel (September 28, 2004)
• "This Land Is Our Land" by John Spritzler (August 31, 2004)
• "Talking to the Wrong People: Lessons of the DNC" by Dave Stratman (August 26, 2004)
• Interview of Dave Stratman (focusing on his article Inventing the Enemy) on WING TV (August 18, 2004)
• "Inventing the Enemy" by Dave Stratman (July 26, 2004)
• "The 'Good War' Myth of World War II" by John Spritzler (July 22, 2004)
• "Beware the Liberal War on Terror" by Dave Stratman (July 5, 2004)
• "Abu Ghraib: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is NOT Us" by John Spritzler (June 2, 2004)
• "Abu Ghraib Prison Torture: a Few Bad Apples or Long Standing Policy?" by John Spritzler (May 12, 2004).
• "The Antiwar Movement Is Not Progressive -- And That's A Good Thing"by Dave Stratman. (March 18, 2004).
• "George Bush, The Anti-Family President" by Bill Kauffman. (October 27, 2003).
• "BULLETDUCKERS" -- poetry by Dennis Serdel. (November, 2003).
• Book Review: "The War On Freedom" by John Spritzler (October 5, 2003)
• "Bush and the 'Good War'" by John Spritzler (September 30, 2003)
• "No To Politics, Yes To Mass Refusal" by Dave Stratman. (September 26, 2003).
• "Making Connections: the War, the Budget, and the Crisis in Social Values" -- remarks by David Stratman at the Community Church of Boston (April 6, 2003).
• "Conspiracy Theory" by Floyd Rudmin. (April, 2003).
• "Free Asan Akbar And Put The System On Trial?" by Steve Hesske (April, 2003).
• "Rethinking Anti-War Strategy" by Jim Luken (April, 2003).
• "They Dare Not Speak Its Name" by Steve Hesske (March 25, 2003).
• "The Death March" by Al McKinnis (March, 2003).
• The Call of Workers for Peace  (January, 2003).  Workers for Peace -- Chinese translation. Workers for Peace -- German translation.
• "Stop The Endless War: Boycott The Volunteer Army" by Doug Fuda. (January 23, 2003).
• "Elite Spokesman Alarmed by Magnitude of Opposition to Iraq War" by John Spritzler (January 9, 2003).
• "Palestine & Iraq: Any Signs of Hope? The lessons we have learned" by Henry Lowi (November 10, 2002).
• "What Is War With Iraq Really About?" -- A New Democracy Flyer. (Fall 2002).
• "A War To Make Iraq Democratic?" by John Spritzler. (Oct '02).
• "The U.S. As Fourth Reich" by David Stratman. (September 2, 2002).
• "Useful Enemies" by Dave Stratman. (NDN* Nov. '01-Feb. '02).
• "Is It Really A 'War Against Terrorism?'" (NDN* Nov. '01-Feb. '02).
• "What Else Could He Have Done?" (NDN* Nov. '01-Feb. '02).
• "Why Is The US Bombing Yugoslavia?" by Dave Stratman. (NDN* May-June 1999).
• * "NDN" indicates that the article is from the New Democracy Newsletter.

quote unquote: Could it have been Will Rogers?

"If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it.

-- attributed variously to Emma Goldman, Ken Livingston, Mark Twain, Philip Berrigan and an anonymous anarchist.

Or was this the first: "If voting could change anything it would be made illegal!" (The Lowell Sun, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1976/09/24)?