Free Republic

This weekend you'll spend time with the family. You'll sit around the familiar scene - it's the same every year, delicious turkey, favorite football, ahhhh the pie. Perhaps you'll have a big lull in the conversation. I ask you, please remember - it's a great time to tell everyone about the Small Business Think Tank ! We need people ! ----------> Marketing people - marketing, marketing ----------> All Business Backgrounds - People who can help with Startup of a new business ----------> Accountants, Lawyers, Business Owners --- anyone, really ----------> Kids will be home from college - See if anyone...

American Express has a Shop Small(R) campaing going on at the moment; you'll see ads all over. I just wanted to cite that as an example of the kind of advocacy the proposed think tank would do: a) a for-profit private sector initiative b) focus on general public awareness, not a particular product or business c) presents tons of possibilities in partners, goals, tie-ins, venues, media attention, etc. This is the type of advocacy program that the think tank would undertake.

At the end of this is the mission statement for the think tank, for those familiar: Can you take a minute to ping all your lists and anyone you think might be remotely interested ? Please ask them to ping all their lists as well. Over the next few weeks/months I'm looking for a handful of people who would like to participate as founding organizers. Please let me know if you want to be on my list. There will be private messages regarding initial organization. Here's the message "marketing article" for first-timers, others can skip to the first post to...

Iranian media say a U.S. think tank reports Tehran can strike the "Israeli nuclear complex at Dimona or the Israeli airbases without drawing the United States into a war." The state-controlled Fars News Agency reported Wednesday that “a group of U.S. presidential advisers at the Wilson Center warned that Iran could engage in at least token missile/rocket strikes against the attacker, targeting sites in Israel or U.S. facilities in the region.“ The advisers allegedly said that the Obama administration should avoid any military adventurism against Iran because it could backfire. "According to unclassified estimates, Iran probably has at least two...

As the unstoppable cyborg in "The Terminator," Arnold Schwarzenegger made "I'll be back" part of the national lexicon. Nearly two years after leaving California's highest elected office, he's making good on the promise in a big way. The former Republican governor, who just turned 65, told The Chronicle that he will head up the Schwarzenegger Institute for Public Policy at University of Southern California, a think tank designed to explore "post-partisan" politics and global challenges. Among the luminaries working alongside him are former Mexican President Vicente Fox, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros...

A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews. The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were...

Jewish Wisdom By Ari Bussel A journalist looks around and beyond reporting asks himself: What is it that I do not see? Who is not here who should be? Why is something done in a certain manner and not another? An analyst looks at commonalities, trends and correlations. Since forecasting is an art, and given that one usually fails in forecasts since one often bases them on past behavior, analysts restrict themselves to providing a set of scenarios, from the probable to the less likely. The choice between the different scenarios is left for decision makers. A history buff studies...

The paid services of former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum are apparently no longer required at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Frum made headlines earlier in the week with his criticism of Republican leaders who he said had brought their party its

Dear Arthur, This will memorialize our conversation at lunch today. Effective immediately, my position as a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute is terminated. I appreciate the consideration that delays my emptying of my office until after my return from travel next week. Premises will be vacated no later than April 9. I have had many fruitful years at the American Enterprise Institute, and I do regret this abrupt and unexpected conclusion of our relationship. Very truly yours, David Frum

See link below. Article has a doozy of a comment by a poly sci professor at SMU and many comments to article

A number of experts think the U.S. should abandon its “top down” strategy of building an Afghan national army and should switch to arming and paying local tribes to fight the Taliban. Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, appearing Thursday at a Capitol Hill conference sponsored by RAND, said he closely examined former Soviet counterinsurgencies in Poland and the Ukraine. In both cases, the Soviets successfully levered small, locally recruited militia forces to successfully battle numerically superior anti-regime insurgents. He warned of the perils of trying to police xenophobic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Pahstuns with an Afghan national army. A better...

A disturbing new report by the Centre for Social Cohesion, a British think tank, makes a strong case that Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) is not the "peaceful" Islamist group it purports to be. In a study published Monday, the center - quoting extensively from the statements and writings of HT leaders and party organs – shows that the group actually advocates hijacking planes and other forms of jihadist violence in order to annex all Muslim-majority nations and colonize non-Muslim-majority ones. Representatives of HT, which seeks to establish a global Islamic state (a Caliphate), have long claimed that they oppose violence.

SNIPPET: "A trustee of an Islamic think tank in Northern Virginia that is long suspected of financing terrorists is expected to become the new head of the Muslim Brotherhood's chapter in Jordan. Ishaq Farhan is expected to be named interim head of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), which is the Muslim Brotherhood's Jordanian political wing, the Jordan Times reported. The move follows the resignation of IAF directors after a leadership dispute. Farhan also is a longtime trustee of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). He is listed on the organization's IRS Form 990s from at least 2005, through 2007,...

In April, when Public Utilities Commission Chairman Michael Peevey persuaded the PUC board to back his plan to use $600 million generated by a 10-year surcharge on some energy bills to create a PUC-run global warming think tank, the response was far chillier than he probably expected. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was enthusiastic, but he was practically alone. Experts on utility law questioned whether it would be legal for an agency created to regulate utilities to force ratepayers to subsidize an agency think tank. Consumer groups such as The Utilities Reform Network questioned the fairness of imposing an additional de facto...

Considering IDA’s influential position with the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, and the sensitive nature of the work it undertakes for the federal government, it is distressing that this federally-funded “think tank” has established a strategic partnership with four different Islamic organizations that have been identified by federal prosecutors as tied to the international terrorist network. IDA has partnered with these groups as part of American Muslims for Constructive Engagement (AMCE), an alliance of six different organizations: International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Muslim American Society (MAS) Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)...

NASA will likely shut down its Institute for Advanced Concepts, which funds research into futuristic – and often far-out – ideas in spaceflight and aeronautics, officials say. The controversial move highlights the budgetary pressures the agency is facing as it struggles to retire the space shuttles by 2010 and develop their replacement. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) was established to "give an opportunity for people outside of NASA to develop really revolutionary and creative concepts for future aeronautics and space missions", says Robert Cassanova, who has served as the institute's director since its inception in February 1998. The...

SACRAMENTO - While critics believe California state government is bloated, a new analysis from a Silicon Valley think tank suggests the state has one of the leanest work forces in the country. Census data released this week shows California had 393,609 full-time-equivalent employees as of last March, working out to 105 employees per 10,000 state residents, according to the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. That makes California the third-lowest in the nation in state employees per resident, behind every state except Illinois (at 103) and Nevada (at 104). The federal government has 142 employees per...

JERUSALEM - An Israeli think tank with strong links to the military released videos and testimony Tuesday it said proved Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as human shields during last summer's war in Lebanon. The report's authors hoped to challenge allegations that Israel committed war crimes when it attacked residential areas during the war. Although no formal war crimes charges have been filed against either side, Israel has taken the brunt of international criticism. Israel is especially sensitive about the possibility of legal action because of previous lawsuits and indictments abroad against Israeli leaders and military officers. The 300-page report, compiled...

WASHINGTON - He may be a certified lame duck now, but President Bush and his truest believers are about to launch their final campaign - an eye-popping, half-billion-dollar drive for the Bush presidential library. Eager to begin refurbishing his tattered legacy, the President hopes to raise $500 million to build his library and a think tank at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Bush lived in Dallas until he was elected governor of Texas in 1995. Bush sources with direct knowledge of library plans told the Daily News that SMU and Bush fund-raisers hope to get half of the half billion...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The North American Free Trade Agreement has lowered the standard of living for workers in the United States, Mexico and Canada, according to a new report. Signed in 1994, the trade deal was touted as a win-win situation for all three signatories. But the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank, said that NAFTA has led to cuts in social spending and prompted wages to stagnate or even fall. "Twelve years later, it is clear that the costs to workers outweighed the benefits in all three nations," the report said. "Workers' share of the gains from rising...