Fallujah falls to al-Qaeda, Obama goes golfing

http://www.examiner.com/article/fallujah-falls-to-al-qaeda-obama-goes-golfing

Obama clips NSA's wings but bulk data collection to continue

President Barack Obama curtailed the reach of massive US National Security Agency (NSA) phone surveillance sweeps on Friday.

   But he said bulk data collection must go on to protect America from terrorists.

   In a long-awaited speech designed to quell a furore over the programmes exposed by Mr Edward Snowden, Mr Obama also said he had halted spy taps on friendly world leaders and proposed new shields for foreigners caught in US data sweeps.

   Mr Obama said at the US Justice Department: "Given the unique power of the state, it is not enough for leaders to say: Trust us, we won't abuse the data we collect."

   The proposals represented a search for common ground between the intelligence community's resistance to reform and civil liberties advocates who view phone and Internet data trawling as a mass invasion of privacy.

   But after charting new guidelines, the president left many of the details of proposed reforms either with Congress, top officials or the NSA itself.

   "The power of new technologies means that there are fewer and fewer technical constraints on what we can do. That places a special obligation on us to ask tough questions about what we should do."

   In the most significant reform, the president committed to ending the NSA's hoarding of telephone "metadata" detailing the duration and destination of the calls but not their content.

   He did not believe that abuses had ocurred or that US spies had been "cavalier" about civil liberties. - AFP.

More evidence that the lapdog establishment media will do whatever it can to protect the ruling regime. Absolutely disgusting.

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-regime-benghazi-media-cover-up

I think people oft attack spirituality, confusing it with religion, which is the institutionalization of spirituality. Spirituality is fine. When spiritualism is put into religion dogma (Science, Christianity, or Atheism)it becomes a socio-political issue that starts rifts. What do you guys think?

How to be a good public servant

By DAVID BROOKS

IF YOU are in politics or public life, you probably had some moment of spine-tingling transcendence. Maybe you read the Declaration of Independence or watched the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr's mountaintop sermon, or read Nelson Mandela's 1964 speech from the dock.

   Suddenly, your imagination was inflamed beyond its normal scope. You are enveloped by this epic sense that public life could be truly heroic. The people who issue these statements brought their lives to a glorious point, pledging their sacred honour, offering to sacrifice their lives for some public mission.

   You got into public life inspired by something like that. But how do you execute that sort of vision? How do you translate the poetry of high aspiration into the prose of effective governance? This is the common problem today. Most people go into public life for the right reasons, but government doesn't work. The quality of the people is high, but the quality of leadership is low.

   I'd suggest three responses.

   First, apprentice yourself to a master craftsman. Find yourself a modern version of Ted Kennedy cobbling together a Senate majority. Find yourself some silent backstage official who knows how to slide ideas through the bureaucracy. Glue yourself to that person in order to learn the craft of governance.

   Schools are good at transmitting what the philosopher Michael Oakeshott called technical knowledge. That is the sort of knowledge that can be expressed in rules and put down in books - like the recipes in a cookbook. But craftsmen possess and transmit practical knowledge. This sort of knowledge, Oakeshott says, exists only in use. It cannot be taught, only imparted by imitation and experience. It's knowing when to depart from the cookbook; how much, when running a meeting, to let the conversation flow and how much to rein it in.

   Practical knowledge is hard to see, but it is embedded in traditions of behaviour. It is embedded in the lives of older legislators and public servants, and it is passed down by imitation to the younger ones. This craft of governing well has been forsaken and disrespected, but you will not be effective in public life unless you find a wise old person who will teach you the tricks of the trade, hour after hour, side by side.

   Second, take a reality bath. Go off and become a stranger in a strange land. Go off to some alien part of this country or the world. Immerse yourself in the habits and daily patterns of that existence and stay there long enough to get acculturated. Stay there long enough so that you forget the herd mentality of our partisan culture.

   When you return home, you will look at your own place with foreign eyes. You'll see the contours of your own reality more clearly. When you return to native ground, you are more likely to possess the sort of perceptiveness that Isaiah Berlin says is the basis of political judgment.

   This sort of wisdom consists of "a special sensitiveness to the contours of the circumstances in which we happen to be placed; it is a capacity for living without falling foul of some permanent condition or factor which cannot be either altered, or even fully described".

   This wisdom is based on a tactile awareness of your country and its people - what they want, how they react. You don't think this awareness. You feel it. You experience a visceral oneness with culture and circumstance - the smell of the street, tinges of anger and hope and hope and aspiration. The irony is that you are more likely to come into union with your own home culture after you have been away from it. You have to walk away from the partisan tunnel vision to see how things really are.

   Finally. close off your options.

   People in public life live in a beckoning world. They have an array of opportunities. They naturally want to keep all their options open. The shrewd strategists tell them to make a series of tepid commitments to see what pans out. Hedge your bets. Play it smart.

   But the shrewd strategy leads to impotence. You spread yourself thin. You dissipate your energies and never put full force behind any cause. You make your own trivial career the object of your attention, not the vision that inspired you in the first place.

   The public official who does this leaves no mark. Only the masters of renunciation leave an imprint, only those who can say a hundred Nos for the sake of an overwhelming Yes. Only the person who has burned the ships and committed to one issue has the courage to cast aside the advice of the strategists and actually push through change.

   We live in a nation of good people and ineffective government.

   I don't know if these tactics will improve the quality of the nation's leadership, but something has to.

NEW YORK TIMES

http://www.dailydot.com/news/irs-public-resource-social-security-numbers-publish-database/
It turns out you can't even trust the Internal Revenue Service with your social security number. Some bungling IT staffer at every Americans' favorite government agency forgot to redact tens of thousands of SSNs when uploading a new online database on the $1.5 trillion nonprofit industry.

Speak without fear

Practise your presentation until you get it perfect.

DO YOU love the work you do, until it comes to having to speak and present in public? Whether your project, idea, proposal purchase or even budget will be approved or not will based on your ability to present with confidence and authority. The truth is, many people fear making presentations.

   Having conducted a variety of in-house and public presentation skills courses over the years, most participants have the same reasons for attending such courses.

   Learning new techniques, structuring content or where to stand and what to do with your hands are not the top priorities for the participants. What is more important for them is overcoming their fears and nervousness, and dealing with difficult questions.

   They want to learn how to build their confidence in front of an audience.

   Here are three things you can do to build your confidence before your next big presentation:

1. KNOW YOUR MATERIAL WELL

This is the key to making a good presentation. When you know the details well, your anxiety level decreases and your confidence level will increase.

   Most people do not bother to learn their material by heart because they think that all they have to do is read off the presentation deck. This not only makes for a disengaging presentation, but you may get thrown off when the boss asks for you to end the presentation prematurely as you will be unsure which information to cut and what to share.

   Know the content well and remember the important points you wish to convey.

2. ANTICIPATE QUESTIONS THAT MAY ARISE

No one likes to freeze in front of management and peers like a deer caught in the headlights. One of the best ways to prepare for the dreaded Q&A session is to actually think of potential questions in advance.

   Make a list of at least five to eight challenging questions and craft the appropriate responses. Practise the responses so they will flow effortlessly when you answer. The goal is to avoid stammering or stuttering. In addition to the difficult questions, you should also prepare responses to some easy questions.

   When it comes to responding to questions, follow these simple steps:

• Listen carefully to the question;

• Acknowledge the person who asked it; and

• Repeat or rephrase the question.

   This gives you the opportunity to ensure you have heard the question correctly and that you understand it fully. Maintain eye contact and pause before you respond. If you receive a hostile question, it helps to rephrase it before responding.

3. PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE

Once you have crafted your presentation, created your supporting documents or presentation slides, and listed your responses to potentially difficult questions, practise.

   For individuals looking to improve their presentation skills, practice is essential. In most of the courses conducted, most people admit to only practising their presentations twice, at the most.

   First, practise to hear what you sound like. In fact, you should record yourself. Are there any words you tend to trip over? Are you speaking clearly and finishing every word? What is your pace and tone of voice?

   Now, go through it again and take note of how long the presentation takes you. If you are given 30 minutes to present, aim to end in 25 minutes.

   Next, practise the presentation in front of a mirror to see if you make odd facial or hand gestures. Your hands are your visual aids; use them when you want to emphasise particular points.

   Lastly, keep in mind that every person has the potential to become a calm and confident presenter. Your nerves and fears may not fully subside, but they can be significantly reduced if you follow the tips above.

French president accused of affair

ALLEGED INFIDELITY: French magazine Closer said President Francois Hollande was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet

He threatens legal action against magazine over 'attack on his right to privacy'

A magazine reported yesterday that Mr Francois Hollande routinely rides a scooter to spend the night with an actress, an alleged affair that has created yet another headache for the unpopular French President.

The allegations were accompanied by photos reportedly showing the President entering the flat of French actress Juile Gayet.

   Mr Hollande, 59, who lives with his partner, Ms Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist, reacted furiously to the allegation, but did not deny it, and he threatened legal action over what he called an attack on his right to privacy.

   Closer's Friday edition carried a seven-page spread on the President's alleged infidelity under the headline, Francois Hollande And Julie Gayet - The President's Secret Love.

   "It's a real passion that has...turned their lives upside down and makes them take insane risks," the magazine wrote.

   To back up its claims, the magazine printed photos of Ms Gayet, 41, arriving at a flat in an upmarket part of Paris on Dec 30, not far from the Elysee palace where Mr Hollande lives.

   Half an hour later, a man whom they identifed as Mr Hollande's bodyguard inspects the hallway of the apartment block before the arrival of a scooter with two helmeted men on board, one of whom they say is Mr Hollande, although his face is never revealed.

   But the bodyguard does show his face and is identified as part of Mr Hollande's official security detail, AFP reported.

   The next morning, the bodyguard delivers croissants to the couple, Closer reported.

HELMETED MAN

Three hours later, a helmeted man is pictured mounting a chauffeur-driven scooter.

   In a statement to AFP, Mr Hollande slammed the report as an attack on the right to privacy, to which he "like every other citizen has a right".

   He said he was "looking into possible action, including legal action", against the weekly magazine.

   Rumours that Mr Hollande is having an affair with Ms Gayet have swirled for months. Ms Gayet, a mother of two, is separated from Argentinian film-maker Santiago Amigorena.

   Mr Hollande left his previous partner, and the mother of his four children, fellow Socialist politician Segolene Royal, in 2007 for Ms Trierweiler. Ms Trierweiler, whom Mr Hollande described as "the love of my life" in 2010, is referred to in the US media as "the first girlfriend".

   Ms Gayet, an established television and film actress, appeared in one of Mr Hollande's 2012 election campaign commercials, in which she described the then candidate as "marvellous" but also "humble and a really good listener".

   If confirmed, Mr Hollande's alleged affair would perpetuate a long French tradition of philandering presidents and senior politicians.

   Former president Jacques Chirac is believed to have had many extramarital conquests, as did his predecessor Francois Mitterrand, who even had a daughter with his mistress.

This bulletin textboard is being polluted by retarded stupidologist who posted lame questions or rather dumb gossips that are disguised as 'discussion' which is so funny that my toes are laughing.

Also when relevant government current affair development and analysis are contribute here, it is suspected that an NSA mole is trying to cover the truth and poison us with imaginary scene like The Matrix or Total Recall and some ugly supremacist which disliked Asians are trying to spread their nasty tyranny here, that why there is an attack on news should not be posted here so that more insanity can be seen here. The evidences are as below :

Why is anonymity important to you? : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1386887123

don't post news articles in /newpol/ : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1383607498

food for thought : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1386956965

21 Questions the Media Won't Ask Bush : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1191778610

Minimum wage idea : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1386157344

illuminati : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1189410529

Ted Kaczynski : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1387405038

Libertarianism vs corporate fascism : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1387183154

Don't get married : http://dis.4chan.org/read/newpol/1380592879

Let us make Newpol an better place instead of an madhouse by some nuts and let us heal the world by listening to this song from an great pop:

http://youtu.be/BWf-eARnf6U

big cheese is my life and soul