downsizing – noun

A growth industry with exceedingly low labor costs, thanks to its unique ability to create and educate its own pool of experienced, desperate job applicants, through the very service it provides.



From Valleywag.

due diligence - noun

The oversight appropriate to a money-making opportunity, i.e. cost-cutting and maximally efficient. Whatever supervision is sufficient to allay investors without expending further time and money.

deposit – noun

Money placed at a bank as collateral for highly leveraged investments.

COMMENT: Deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. This is perhaps why Americans have an exceedingly low savings rate.

due process - noun

Law A legal requirement according to which every citizen has the right to a systematic, orderly interrogation without disruption by courts or counsel.

COMMENT: Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby (USN), Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and expert on the concept of due process:

DIA's approach to interrogation is largely dependent upon creating an atmosphere of dependency and trust between the subject and interrogator. Developing the kind of relationship of trust and dependency necessary for effective interrogations is a process that can take a significant amount of time. There are numerous examples of situations where interrogators have been unable to obtain valuable intelligence from a subject until months, or even years, after the interrogation process began.

Anything that threatens the perceived dependency and trust between the subject and interrogator directly threatens the value of interrogation as an intelligence-gathering tool. Even seemingly minor interruptions can have profound psychological impacts on the delicate subject-interrogator relationship. Any insertion of counsel into the subject-interrogator relationship, for example – even if only for a limited duration or for a specific purpose – can undo months of work and may permanently shut down the interrogation process. Therefore, it is critical to minimize external influences on the interrogation process.

data mining - noun

A homeland-security program for extracting personal information from corporate databases to improve customer service.

defense - noun

The ability to project overwhelming force anywhere on the globe.

decider – noun

A person who takes credit for making decisions from sets of options stacked by other people.

COMMENT: Choose from the following options on what to do in Iraq:

(1) Fight the enemy there, so we don't face him here.

(2) Cut and run.

(3) Surrender.

(4) Abandon the troops.

(5) Embolden America's enemies.

If you chose (1), you are a decider.

debate - verb, noun

1. v. To recite talking points.

2. n. A formal contest in which competitors exchange recitations and are scored for style.

As scholars and thinkers, you are contributing to a nationwide debate about the direction of the war on terror. A vigorous debate is healthy for our country, it really is, and I welcome the debate. It's one of the true hallmarks of a free society, where people can get up and express their beliefs in open forum. Yet five years into this war, there is one principle of which every member of every party should be able to agree on -- in other words, after all the debate, there is one thing we all ought to be able to agree on, and that is: We've got to fight the terrorists overseas, so we don't have to face them here at home again.

-- President Bush to members of the American Enterprise Institute, February 15, 2007 (Source)

deregulate - verb

To permit companies to do publicly what they would otherwise do in secret.

duct tape – noun

The ownership society's bulwark against chemical and biological weapons.

democracy – noun

1. Rule by the vagaries of voting-machine technology.

2. Rule by those who understand we're in Iraq because they attacked us on 9/11.

3. Rule by the marketplace of talking points.

4. Rule by what pundits and their coctail-party guests say is popular.

5. Rule by oversampling.

6. Rule by pre-screened town hall meeetings.

COMMENT: Behold: the wisdom of crowds. (Via Smythe's World)

diplomacy – noun

1. A ruse for buying time to settle on a rationalization for a planned military strike.

2. A means of informing foreign countries what we have decided.