Reality Sandwich | Facing the Deindustrial Age – teaser: Since peak oil was predicted in 1956, the prospect of any constructive response has grown steadily more distant. Neither political reform nor withdrawing to mountain hideaways are viable responses to our predicament. Is it too late to
On Day One – Your Ideas For a Better World – Americans will soon elect new leadership and a new direction for the United States. Share your thoughts, upload videos and tell the next president what to do “on day one” of their administration to improve our standing in the world.
Change.org – Ideas for Change in America – President-Elect Obama says he wants to hear ideas from all Americans, so we’re taking him up on his offer. Submit your ideas for how to change America, discuss with others, and vote for your favorites.
you2gov.com – Home – You2Gov informs citizens news and enables action 2 government via community, groups, forum, chat involving voters in politics, election and political process.
Debatabase – World’s Largest Debate Database – Debate Topics and Debate Motions – Debatabase is the world’s most useful resource for student debaters. Inside you will find arguments for and against hundreds of debate topics, written by expert debaters, judges and coaches. Also included are background summaries, links to websites of interest and recommended books, example motions and user comments.
Rhetorica: Press-Politics Journal – The Rhetorica Network offers analysis and commentary about media ethics and the rhetoric, propaganda, biases, and spin of journalism. This site features the Media Ethics and Rhetoric Journal web log, comprehensive news media links, a rhetoric textbook, a primer of critical techniques, and information for citizens. The character of Rhetorica represents the purposes and canons of classical rhetoric.
Progressive Policy Institute: Defining the Third Way – The Progressive Policy Institute is a public policy institute shaping the Third Way agenda with progressive legislative solutions for environmental policy (second generation environmentalism), education policy (school choice, standards and accountability), work-based welfare reform, federal budget strategies, trade policy, health care reform, and New Economy policy.
Progressive Fix – The Place for Pragmatic Progressives – Progressive Fix is dedicated to one purpose — providing an online home for pragmatic progressives in American politics. This site champions a politics of progressive reform rooted in the classic liberalism of the American creed. Its policy analysis and commentary will focus on a clear agenda that we view as crucial to progressive efforts to govern successfully.
Security Sector Reform Resource Centre – The SSR Resource Centre will serve as a global, virtual hub for security sector reform practitioners, policymakers, analysts and observers to network and access innovative research and analysis.
Why deliberative democracy? – Google Books – The most widely debated conception of democracy in recent years is deliberative democracy–the idea that citizens or their representatives owe each other mutually acceptable reasons for the laws they enact. Two prominent voices in the ongoing discussion are Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson. InWhy Deliberative Democracy?, they move the debate forward beyond their influential book,Democracy and Disagreement. What exactly is deliberative democracy? Why is it more defensible than its rivals? By offering clear answers to these timely questions, Gutmann and Thompson illuminate the theory and practice of justifying public policies in contemporary democracies. They not only develop their theory of deliberative democracy in new directions but also apply it to new practical problems. They discuss bioethics, health care, truth commissions, educational policy, and decisions to declare war. In “What Deliberative Democracy Means,” which opens this collection of essays, they provide the most accessible exposition of deliberative democracy to date. They show how deliberative democracy should play an important role even in the debates about military intervention abroad. Why Deliberative Democracy?contributes to our understanding of how democratic citizens and their representatives can make justifiable decisions for their society in the face of the fundamental disagreements that are inevitable in diverse societies. Gutmann and Thompson provide a balanced and fair-minded approach that will benefit anyone intent on giving reason and reciprocity a more prominent place in politics than power and special interests.
Moral Conciousness and Communicative … – Google Books – This long-awaited book sets out the implications of Habermas’s theory of communicative action for moral theory. “Discourse ethics” attempts to reconstruct a moral point of view from which normative claims can be impartially judged. The theory of justice it develops replaces Kant’s categorical imperative with a procedure of justification based on reasoned agreement among participants in practical discourse.Habermas connects communicative ethics to the theory of social action via an examination of research in the social psychology of moral and interpersonal development. He aims to show that our basic moral intuitions spring from something deeper and more universal than contingent features of our tradition, namely from normative presuppositions of social interaction that belong to the repertoire of competent agents in any society. JA¼rgen Habermas is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt.
Gov 2.0 Webcast – O’Reilly Conferences – Join us on May 19th for a one-hour webcast focused on Cloud Computing and Security. Share your ideas, ask questions, and join in a conversation with our speaker and other participants who are using the web as a platform for leading the next generation of government security, efficiency, and citizen participation.
Jaspersoft Cloud Business Intelligence – The convergence of the Cloud and Open Source has brought a new world of possibilities to businesses. No longer are dedicated hardware and software required to meet ad hoc or unpredictable BI requirements. The combination of these technologies running in
Open Source Business Intelligence – Editions – Jaspersoft has two versions of the Jaspersoft open source Business Intelligence Suite: Jaspersoft Professional Edition and Jaspersoft Community Projects. Learn which one is right for you.
Sid Burgess (bentrem) on Twitter – I passionately help our communities become places our kids will be proud to live in. Father, Fmr Councilman, Medic/Iraq Vet.
Facebook | Sid Burgess – Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, post links and videos and learn more about the people they meet.
How to Grow a Community: Insights from Experts – If you’re developing a website, trying to attract customers or building a community, I hope the wisdom offered here helps you get where you’re trying to go just a little bit faster.
Trafficking and Transnational Crime – subtitle: Trafficking and Transnational Crime Dek: Drug cartels undermine the region’s democracies, weaken the media and corrupt our youth. How can we beat them? Department Text:
Cloud: Does ROI Matter? – Analytics – InformationWeek – InformationWeek writers blog on a range of business technology topics: digital life, personal tech, enterprise mobility, Windows/Microsoft, Google, outsourcing, security, IT careers, IT salaries, leadership/management strategy and more.