Rarely does The Peacock Report (TPR) engage in center-column featuring of products, which thus far has been limited to pitching the books Hotel Dick by TPR founder Steve Peacock, plus Jaded Tasks by Wayne Madsen. However, after reading this excerpt from Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca, we are comfortable offering a free, unsolicited pitch for this book as well. Check it out.
A list of potentially college-bound high school students will cost the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point nearly $58,000 to obtain, a move that will enable the institution to target-market certain kids based on personally identifiable information gleaned from that list. According to a contracting document that The Peacock Report has located, the USMA intends to award a no-bid, sole-source contract for this list of adolescents to the National Research Center for College & University Admissions (NRCCUA), a Missouri research and database-operations firm that prides itself for annually gathering "information on student attitudes and educational plans from nearly 5.5 million students" across the U.S.
NRCCUA will deliver to the USMA an unspecified number of "names of college bound high school students who meet certain criteria and have expressed certain interests," according to the document, which was first circulated via FedBizOpps on Wednesday. "The NRCCUA will conduct a nationwide search of students in 9th, 10th, and 11th grades that meet USMA selected criteria."
The company website touts its ability to collect names and personal data "through a nationwide post secondary planning survey of students in more than 20,000 high schools. Secondary school educators distribute, supervise and return questionnaires to NRCCUA."
NRCCUA's mission statement/marketing pitch is "Creating a brighter future for America's youth, with integrity... through a unique process that captures and shares educational and career aspirations...one dream at a time."
Upon closer inspection of its methods and services, it's clear that this "unique process" does indeed capture the aspirations of children, as evidenced by this promise to potential clients: "We will pinpoint and provide you with each matched student’s complete name field, year of high school graduation, high school name, email address, grade point average and more."
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is ringing in the New Year with a plan to address the arguably unbearable time it takes for airline passengers to traverse their way through screening checkpoints, The Peacock Report has discovered. TSA will achieve this heightened scale of efficiency by joining hands with another hallowed U.S. institution: the advertising industry.
According to a presolicitation notice that TPR located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps contracting database, TSA and the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) soon will launch a pilot project that seeks to turn airport checkpoints into bombardment centers of commercial offerings. TSA's stated short-term goal for the one-year experiment is an assessment of "industry interest in advertising on available spaces within Passenger Screening Checkpoints," the Dec. 21 document says.
The agency's unstated, implicit goal is to generate additional revenue for the federal government, a task it will accomplish by seizing a captive audience of eyeballs, 24/7, "in select airports throughout the [U.S.] and its territories."
An official "Industry Day" for the "Advertisements Within Security Checkpoints Pilot Program," as it is formally known, is slated for Jan. 11 at TSA Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. For more information, call DHS Contracting Specialist Gregory Fields at (571) 227-2266, or contact him via e-mail at gregory.fields@dhs.gov.
Participate in the rejection of unbridled consumerism by refusing to participate: simply stay out of the mall the day after Thanksgiving -- that obscene day known as Black Friday -- the traditional launch of the holiday shopping season. It's Buy Nothing Day, folks, and The Peacock Report is urging all readers to not-so-subtly send a message to the purveyors and idolators of material gain that our lives have purpose beyond the accumulation of materal things.
Every November, for 24 hours, we remember that no one was born to shop. If you’ve never taken part in Buy Nothing Day, or if you’ve taken part in the past but haven’t really committed to doing it again, consider this: 2006 will go down as the year in which mainstream dialogue about global warming finally reached its critical mass. What better way to bring the Year of Global Warming to a close than to point in the direction of real alternatives to the unbridled consumption that has created this quagmire?
When it is indeed time to finally go out and buy some presents, make sure at least some of them are locally produced and distributed. Leading by example, here at TPR we have purchased a couple of bottles of cranberry wine, made right here in the New Jersey Pinelands by the Valenzano Winery, in advance of the Thanksgiving festivities.
While you're at it, chop up a credit card, will ya'?
A little more balance has been restored to our federal political system, now that the Democrats have taken back both the Senate and the House of Representatives -- but one question remains: will the Democrats learn the lesson's of Nov. 7, 2006, in which Election Day became REJECTION DAY for the top-heavy Republican majority?
The citizens of the United States have spoken, and have sent a clear message to the war profiteers at Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Inc. But The Peacock Report, which nonetheless sees cause for celebration, has this to say to the Democrats: don't think you're on Easy Street, just because the K Street lobbyists are going to start kissing your asses and sending more money your way. We'll be watching you closely, and the American people are ready to punish you again if and when necessary.
And to the Republicans? To borrow a line from the punk rock band The Plasmatics: You had it made/You had it made/You had it made/But you blew it.
A little Pink Floyd is in order here as well: Big bad pig man/Charade you are... Hey you, White House/Charade you are.
The misguided brainchild of the U.S. Dept. of Education under the Bush Administration -- the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act -- is coming to an arena near you. Yes, indeed, all you mommies and daddies of public school-age children, the White House and the Education Dept. are going all-out to cram NCLB down your throat, rock star-style. For those who think you know everything about NCLB, especially those of you (such as myself) who are aware that the law is turning children nationwide into proficient test-takers rather than analytical thinkers, think again.
Or should I say, let the federal propagandists do the thinking for you. Make plans now to attend next year's No Child Left Behind Summit: The Path to 2014, also known as the "Keeping Parents Informed" tour.
2014, by the way, is the target date when Bush, Inc., and its congressional lemmings believe that NCLB will have succeeded in transforming all students into a homogeneous glob of learners, evidenced by the passing of standardized tests, upon which all teachers are expected -- no, threatened -- to now focus their attention.
I found out about the still-unpublicized and tentatively scheduled event during a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, where I recently discovered a presolicitation notice seeking to recruit a group of traveling technicians to set up big-screen- and placard-littered stages for "Keeping Parents Informed."
Indeed, this modern equivalent of a Josef Goebbels-style mind-twisting endeavor needs a group of techies, according to the document, who can transport and provide:
[H]igh tech audio set for (4) six person panels, staging (including TV quality lighting), video recording and editing, big screen production including multiple floor monitors, webcasting, computer equipment with Microsoft Office installed, scenic elements including backdrops, banners, and signage, etc. for an audience of 300-400.
Contrary to my above-mentioned rock-star reference, it's unclear whether this is a one-time event, tentatively slated for a "Venue: To Be Determined; Location: St. Louis, MO," or is a traveling indoctrination event for parents around the country.
Either way, I hope I can get tickets to witness this spectacle. Should be a doozy, with Liberty and Justice for all!
The term "psychological operations," or psyops, is well known these days even outside of military and public-policy circles. But what exactly are psyops, aside from aerial leafleting of "enemy" territory or the surreptitious broadcasting of pre-packaged media into "rogue" nations? Thanks to a recent contract that the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOC) awarded to Torrance, California-based Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D. and his Working Psychology organization, TPR was able to pin down a few basic details of how U.S. Special Forces learn to "modify the behavior of various foreign target audiences and in a variety of environments,"as the Sept. 26 award describes the process of scientifically manipulating human emotion.
Before we get to that, keep in mind that Rhoads also is the author of an analysis, for lack of a better word, of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, a film which he says so outraged "middle America" that it actually helped George W. Bush get reelected. He accuses Moore of using some of the same propaganda tactics – albeit unsuccessfully – that Rhoads not-so-ironically uses in his training of Special Forces and other government and corporate disinformation specialists for whom he is indebted for making a living.
While Rhoads touts his supposed reliance on scientifically based research to back up his assertions, it’s interesting to note that in his introduction to the anti-Moore piece – in the second sentence, no less – he inserts the following quote from NPR pundit Kookie, I mean Cokie Roberts: "I think [Moore] exemplified all of the things that people hate about Democrats."
Need I say more? Back to the psyops contract.
SOC is paying Rhoads $100,832 to train upwards of 60 psyops officers during four separate four-day training sessions known as "advanced influence technique training." Students of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (USAJFKSWCS) at Fort Bragg, NC, will receive lessons from Rhoads on:
– "The ability to predict human responses, particularly when those responses deviate from logic and rationality; prevalent errors and biases in thinking and behavior that are common to all humans;
– "Emphasis on friendly persuasive approaches including supporting research that discusses how psychological tactics may be arranged in order of increasing psychological pressure in order to cement good, trusting long-lasting relationships;
– "Focus on an individual’s ability to reason, see logical arguments, and evaluate evidence and educational approaches to influence behavior; and approaches the utilize "thinking shortcut" to induce agreement;
– "The concept of credibility and credibility maintenance to include creating and maintaining expertise and trustworthiness;
– "Influence tactics for working with hostile audiences using tactics of similarity, credibility, context, narrative, conformity, reactance, and proximity.
– "Tactics used in obtaining behavioral conformity as a result of increased psychological pressure to obtain behavioral conformity;
– "Appeal tactics used with weak communicator and target relationships using appeals to the morality, politeness, consistency, conformity, and values of the target audience;
– "Emotional manipulations including fear, reactance, compliance, proximity and confrontation."
Commentary
Automaker Infiniti is exhorting consumers to buy its FX model because the SUV/sports car is, as it claims, "Brave. By Design." The Peacock Report is calling on potential car-buyers to boycott Infiniti until it pulls these ridiculous ads, which are an affront to the truly brave, whether they be teachers or journalists, first responders or war resisters.
The ad campaign is particularly insulting, in my personal opinion, to the memory of the FDNY Special Operations Command members from Roosevelt Island -- 10 of whom perished together in the rubble of the collapsed Twin Towers. Two members of that crew were the first to come to my aid more than a decade earlier, when I was shot in broad daylight while directing traffic in front of the Roosevelt Island School.
For additional thoughts on this matter, I urge you to visit The Master's Artist, an online journal of Christian writers with whom I'm affiliated. Stay tuned for more details in the near future, as I intend to make this a national campaign to wake Infiniti from its stupor.
Steve Peacock: HOTEL DICK: HARLOTS, STARLETS, THIEVES & SLEAZE
A rare glimpse into the notorious Helmsley Palace, New York City's former playground of the wealthy and powerful. A memoir. (*****)
Ron Paul: The Revolution: A Manifesto
Written by one of the few members of Congress whose legislative record backs up his belief in smaller government, personal responsibility, and constitutional liberty.
