Interview: Author Robert Greene, Part 1
Robert Greene is the author of books like the best selling The 48 Laws of Power, The 33 Strategies of War and his excellent new book The 50th Law, which he collaborated on with rapper / entrepreneur 50 Cent.
Interview : Walter McKay from LEAP
Short interview with Walter McKay talking about where the drug war is really a WAR - Mexico.
Those Anonymous Leaks
cross posted on The Daily Dose
Steve Clemons from The Washington Note has a piece in the Daily Beast today called The Assassination of Greg Craig.
The article concerns the circumstances surrounding the recent ouster of White House counsel Greg Craig. The story makes it clear that the Craig exit was “the Obama team’s first assassination by leak.” As Steve writes,
Such intrigue and innuendo stand in sharp contrast to the internal vow of key stakeholders in Barack Obama’s campaign, as reported in David Plouffe’s insider account Audacity to Win—whom he says vowed not to allow “@#%holes” and leaks and the blame game to disrupt any aspect of their campaign. When problems arose or mistakes were made, the president and his team were forthright and dealt with each other directly and confessed their sins, when they committed them, to the public.
Steve’s article doesn’t mention health care reform, where debate has been shaped for months by anonymous leaks. Many Obama apologists spend a good deal of time attacking the these leaks as rumor but I’ve had the sense for a while that the White House was actually the source of many of them.
I wrote Steve Clemons and asked him, “There have been a ton of anonymous leaks on health care reform - have any of them had tacit White House approval?”
Here’s Steve’s response.
The health care leaks that have come from administration sources seem to have the approval of those at the helm of the political operation — particularly when it has come to the question of whether the public option should be in or out of a final package. But there have been leaks on other subjects as well. The reason that there seems to be tacit approval of some of these leaks is the disinterest the White House has shown in tracking leakers and plugging them up. Also, the leaks came at key moments in the debate designed to fight back against those who were distorting Obama’s health care plan intentions.
So, yes — leaking things out to the press seems to be a key part of the White House tool kit in shaping public opinion and wrestling with political opponents.
Listen To Fiddy
When I heard that rapper 50 Cent had a book coming out, I wasn’t really planning to read it. Don’t get me wrong – I love High All The Time and I’ve heard 50 interviewed and he was impressive
But this piece on the Huffington Post is an excerpt from his book and NOW I want to read it. The book is called The 50th Law and the law is – fear nothing. Check this bit out…
You came into this life with the only real possessions that ever matter — your body, the time that you have to live, your energy, the thoughts and ideas unique to you, and your autonomy. But over the years you tend to give all of this away. You spend years working for others — they own you during that period. You get needlessly caught up in people’s games and battles, wasting energy and time that you will never get back. You come to respect your own ideas less and less, listening to experts, conforming to conventional opinions. Without realizing it you squander your independence, everything that makes you a creative individual.
Before it is too late, you must reassess your entire concept of ownership. It is not about possessing things or money or titles. You can have all of that in abundance but if you are someone who still looks to others for help and guidance, if you depend on your money or resources, then you will eventually lose what you have when people let you down, adversity strikes, or you reach for some foolish scheme out of impatience. True ownership can only come from within. It comes from a disdain for anything or anybody that impinges upon your mobility, from a confidence in your own decisions, and from the use of your time in constant pursuit of education and improvement.
It’s downloading to my Kindle right now.
Interview : Jack Cole from LEAP
Our War on Drugs is a disaster - just ask law enforcement. Here’s my interview with Jack Cole - one of the founders of LEAP; Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
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