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I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned Operation Mockingbird a CIA program to manipulate the narrative in the media. Last report in 2015 it is still operational and in 2016 was legalized.

I thought everybody knew about this considering how sadly obvious the "mockingbirds" are on /. to manipulate and moderate the conversation here, mostly ACs, but some with pseudonyms.

I see that your Google-fu is weak. Try this link for a good start.

These are based on FBI statistics, which is telling because as a police agency, the FBI might have an incentive to overstate the level of violent crime in order to justify their budgets. Yet they clearly show that the violent crime rate is steadily declining. In the first paragraph this page mentions that the violent crime rate in 2010 was 1/3 the rate of 1994. This has been the trend for a long time now. Hell, I've even heard strange New Age types talking about how this is a sign that we have "entered the Age of Aquarius".

The internet of things is going to spread the technological distribution from the creepy uber-geeks who are embedding processors in their heads, to the Mexican fisherman who still gives it a "Meh, gringo."

Thing is her distrust goes well beyond a reasonable suspicion. Yeah, the industry makes mistakes and has issues, but she goes to the other extreme and distrusts everything to the point of irrationality.

Are you sure?

There are a few more lines at the end of that quote...

"During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents" http://www.wanttoknow.info/warisaracket

Hitler engaged in a decades long persecution of Jews, and the purpose of the concentration camps was to provide a "final solution" by exterminating them. Over 7 million were killed.

You're seriously mistaken and duped. Not even close to that number of Jews died and relatively few we're purposefully killed. Most died of typoid and other diseases. Yes, Just like the USA's eugenics programme , there was a systematic campaign to remove the handicapped from the population, except that the Germans quietly killed about 70,000, whereas the US simply "forced the procreation switch off". Similarly, yes, there was human experimentation and death, but you have no idea how many your "7 million" people are! Do you realise that to achieve that number of killings in 3 years, they would have had to kill at least 6392 Jews on every single day?? What factories and how many does one need to do that? Have you seen the little mattress delousing chambers in Auschwitz that have been turned into gas-chambers after the war? Even if they were actually gas chambers, how many people do you thing could have been systematically killed in a facility like that, including processing the bodies afterwards? So use your brains for a change and stop believing the "winners'" propaganda machine and their movie factories.

Apart from Hitler, the Britons hated the Jews almost just as much and maybe not entirely without reason.

And then you seem to think the Americans were different, don't you? Is that why they took over 700 Nazi's quietly from Germany, helped them to change their names (Operation Paperclip and here), got them to start a new iteration of MindKontrolle and MK Ultra and are still protection them? Given even half an opportunity, the US people would do exactly the same as what the demonised European dictators did (Milgram Experiments) as proven by the list of sneaky and secret experiments the US government performed on their own people (Unethical Human Experimentation)

Roosevelt allowed the internment of Japanese Americans after the US was sneak-attacked by their home country without provocation. He and his military commanders felt that Japanese Americans with easy access to the cost might assist the Japanese government with an invasion, so they moved them away from the coast. The

Roosevelt was a cunning conniving bastard and traitor to the US people. He had full knowledge of the impending Pearl Harbour attack, moved all the new ships out of the harbour and let the old one's be destroyed, in order to sway the public opinion from being opposed to the war to one of being pro-war. He probably also instructed MacArthur to ensure half the US airforce would be destroyed as well a few hours later. Here is a well referenced historic timeline of the events. They had implement the plan they had hatched (scans of original Mc Collum memo

I hope that brings some enlightenment to thy senses.

They were allowed past security even with implements that could kill people (the box cutters). They were trained in flying aircraft without wanting to learn how to take off and land, but wanted to focus on just flying the aircraft.

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch7.htm

"A pilot they consulted at one school, the Sorbi Flying Club in San Diego, spoke Arabic. He explained to them that their flight instruction would begin with small planes. Hazmi and Mihdhar emphasized their interest in learning to fly jets, Boeing aircraft in particular, and asked where they might enroll to train on jets right away. Convinced that the two were either joking or dreaming, the pilot responded that no such school existed. Other instructors who worked with Hazmi and Mihdhar remember them as poor students who focused on learning to control the aircraft in flight but took no interest in takeoffs or landings. By the end of May 2000, Hazmi and Mihdhar had given up on learning how to fly.37"

Maybe they just told the screeners at the airport that day that they were temp workers for a cardboard box factory and needed the cutters for their job? I guess if I were a lawn care professional I could have taken a lawnmower and put it in the overhead bin?

There were numerous things that should have set off alarms, at least somebody dropping a dime to the FBI or CIA. Oh wait,

http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up10pg

"1998: An Oklahoma City FBI agent sends a memo warning that "large numbers of Middle Eastern males" are getting flight training and could be planning terrorist attacks. [CBS, 5/30/02] A separate CIA intelligence report asserts that Arab terrorists are planning to fly a bomb-laden aircraft into the WTC (World Trade Center). [New York Times, 9/19/02, Senate Intelligence Committee, 9/18/02"

Yeah, I sure feel safe with a 60 year old Flight Attendant guarding a drink cart to make me feel safe when the pilot takes a whizz..

Associated Press non-biased enough for you?

How about criminal convictions for workers caught rigging the recount?

Answering the "is-a-new-tesla-greener-than-an-existing-hummer?" in the header: Yes...

Can anyone think of a vehicle that is NOT greener than an existing hummer?

Apparently even a 100 year old Model T has a better mpg rating and they seem to last forever.

OTOH, if they use the drons against US cititzens more frequently they could save a lot on police, courts and prisons:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/a-US-citizen-killed-drone-strike

This is not the only sound based non-lethal weapon used by the IAF. They also use a device called The Scream, which emits a sound that causes disorientation and nausea. This one works at low, inaudible frequencies that vibrate the internal organs of the targets. There is also an high frequency version that is audible, that also produces a burning sensation on the skin (but does not produce any permanent damage).
 
I think they were also toying with using these types of weapons against the pirates in Somalia.

Human SIGINT is flawed because they can easily be manipulated, compartmentalized and shut down when neccessary. You can also be relying on people who are flawed morally, intellectually, etc...

An Example

15 of the 19 hijackers fail to fill in visa documents properly in Saudi Arabia. Only six are interviewed. All 15 should have been denied entry to the US. [Washington Post, 10/22/02, ABC, 10/23/02] Two top Republican senators say if State Department personnel had merely followed the law, 9/11 would not have happened.[ AP, 12/18/02More]

At least 13 of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were never interviewed by U.S. consular officials before being granted visas to enter the United States, according to a congressional report issued yesterday. The finding contradicts previous assurances from the State Department that most of them had been thoroughly screened.

The General Accounting Office also found that, for 15 hijackers whose applications could be found, none had filled in the documents properly.

...

The GAO report found that all 15 of the hijackers from Saudi Arabia applied for visas in Jeddah or Riyadh; two others applied in their native United Arab Emirates. The remaining two, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian citizen, applied as "third-country" applicants in Berlin.

None of 18 separate visa applications by 15 of the hijackers was completed properly, the report said. Thirteen of the 15, who were from Saudi Arabia or UAE, were never interviewed before being approved for a visa, the report found. Investigators were unable to review the applications for four other hijackers, including Atta, because they were destroyed.

If you want to see the actual Visas of some 9/11 hijackers you can go here.

If you want to know why people with such obviously fraudulent Visa applications can get in to the country consider the testimony of J. Michael Springmann. He worked at the Jeddah consulate approving Visas and says he was occasionally overruled by the CIA. Remember that when Springmann was working there they weren't known as terrorists, they were still called freedom fighters.

Human SIGINT is flawed because they can easily be manipulated, compartmentalized and shut down when neccessary. You can also be relying on people who are flawed morally, intellectually, etc...

An Example

15 of the 19 hijackers fail to fill in visa documents properly in Saudi Arabia. Only six are interviewed. All 15 should have been denied entry to the US. [Washington Post, 10/22/02, ABC, 10/23/02] Two top Republican senators say if State Department personnel had merely followed the law, 9/11 would not have happened.[ AP, 12/18/02More]

At least 13 of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were never interviewed by U.S. consular officials before being granted visas to enter the United States, according to a congressional report issued yesterday. The finding contradicts previous assurances from the State Department that most of them had been thoroughly screened.

The General Accounting Office also found that, for 15 hijackers whose applications could be found, none had filled in the documents properly.

...

The GAO report found that all 15 of the hijackers from Saudi Arabia applied for visas in Jeddah or Riyadh; two others applied in their native United Arab Emirates. The remaining two, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian citizen, applied as "third-country" applicants in Berlin.

None of 18 separate visa applications by 15 of the hijackers was completed properly, the report said. Thirteen of the 15, who were from Saudi Arabia or UAE, were never interviewed before being approved for a visa, the report found. Investigators were unable to review the applications for four other hijackers, including Atta, because they were destroyed.

If you want to see the actual Visas of some 9/11 hijackers you can go here.

If you want to know why people with such obviously fraudulent Visa applications can get in to the country consider the testimony of J. Michael Springmann. He worked at the Jeddah consulate approving Visas and says he was occasionally overruled by the CIA. Remember that when Springmann was working there they weren't known as terrorists, they were still called freedom fighters.

Human SIGINT is flawed because they can easily be manipulated, compartmentalized and shut down when neccessary. You can also be relying on people who are flawed morally, intellectually, etc...

An Example

15 of the 19 hijackers fail to fill in visa documents properly in Saudi Arabia. Only six are interviewed. All 15 should have been denied entry to the US. [Washington Post, 10/22/02, ABC, 10/23/02] Two top Republican senators say if State Department personnel had merely followed the law, 9/11 would not have happened.[ AP, 12/18/02More]

At least 13 of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were never interviewed by U.S. consular officials before being granted visas to enter the United States, according to a congressional report issued yesterday. The finding contradicts previous assurances from the State Department that most of them had been thoroughly screened.

The General Accounting Office also found that, for 15 hijackers whose applications could be found, none had filled in the documents properly.

...

The GAO report found that all 15 of the hijackers from Saudi Arabia applied for visas in Jeddah or Riyadh; two others applied in their native United Arab Emirates. The remaining two, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian citizen, applied as "third-country" applicants in Berlin.

None of 18 separate visa applications by 15 of the hijackers was completed properly, the report said. Thirteen of the 15, who were from Saudi Arabia or UAE, were never interviewed before being approved for a visa, the report found. Investigators were unable to review the applications for four other hijackers, including Atta, because they were destroyed.

If you want to see the actual Visas of some 9/11 hijackers you can go here.

If you want to know why people with such obviously fraudulent Visa applications can get in to the country consider the testimony of J. Michael Springmann. He worked at the Jeddah consulate approving Visas and says he was occasionally overruled by the CIA. Remember that when Springmann was working there they weren't known as terrorists, they were still called freedom fighters.

Human SIGINT is flawed because they can easily be manipulated, compartmentalized and shut down when neccessary. You can also be relying on people who are flawed morally, intellectually, etc...

An Example

15 of the 19 hijackers fail to fill in visa documents properly in Saudi Arabia. Only six are interviewed. All 15 should have been denied entry to the US. [Washington Post, 10/22/02, ABC, 10/23/02] Two top Republican senators say if State Department personnel had merely followed the law, 9/11 would not have happened.[ AP, 12/18/02More]

At least 13 of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were never interviewed by U.S. consular officials before being granted visas to enter the United States, according to a congressional report issued yesterday. The finding contradicts previous assurances from the State Department that most of them had been thoroughly screened.

The General Accounting Office also found that, for 15 hijackers whose applications could be found, none had filled in the documents properly.

...

The GAO report found that all 15 of the hijackers from Saudi Arabia applied for visas in Jeddah or Riyadh; two others applied in their native United Arab Emirates. The remaining two, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian citizen, applied as "third-country" applicants in Berlin.

None of 18 separate visa applications by 15 of the hijackers was completed properly, the report said. Thirteen of the 15, who were from Saudi Arabia or UAE, were never interviewed before being approved for a visa, the report found. Investigators were unable to review the applications for four other hijackers, including Atta, because they were destroyed.

If you want to see the actual Visas of some 9/11 hijackers you can go here.

If you want to know why people with such obviously fraudulent Visa applications can get in to the country consider the testimony of J. Michael Springmann. He worked at the Jeddah consulate approving Visas and says he was occasionally overruled by the CIA. Remember that when Springmann was working there they weren't known as terrorists, they were still called freedom fighters.

It's not like the poor old drug companies are scrimping and saving and borrowing like crazy to fund their drug researches and then have to charge like wounded bulls to make a piddling little profit. Do you have any idea how many drugs are actually researched by publically funded programs such as Universities? 1: let university develop drug 2: pay Uni piddling sum for the rights (actually, just pay a small fee to blanket cover anything the eggheads develop) 3: crank up production 4: Charge amzing amounts for the finished product 5: PROFIT http://www.wanttoknow.info/truthaboutdrugcompanies See how easy it is ? So YOUR taxes are funding YOUR Universities to develop drugs that the PHARMA COMPANIES get for a song to sell back to YOU for excessive amounts. Brilliant system, no?

How exactly was he "right in the middle of it?"

He was a science writer at MIT. Pons and Fleischmann's work was at the U of Utah.

Dr. Mallove also worked at MIT where he uncovered serious manipulation of data on the cold fusion experiments there in 1989. This led him to resign his position at MIT over 10 years ago and begin researching the truth behind cold fusion and other new energy discoveries, and eventually led to his publishing the first issue of Infinite Energy in 1995. See interview for further details from his perspective.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/eugenemallove

Sorry, but if I have to choose between literally hundreds of mainstream scientists who are unable to reproduce Pons and Fleishmann's work, and this guy, I know who I'm gonna believe.

There are plenty who (are) get(ting) interesting results as well:

By 1991, 92 groups of researchers from 10 different countries had reported excess heat, tritium, neutrons or other nuclear effects.[73] Over 3,000 cold fusion papers have been published including about 1,000 in peer-reviewed journals (see indices in further reading, below). In March 1995, Dr. Edmund Storms compiled a list of 21 published papers reporting excess heat and articles have been published in peer reviewed journals such as Naturwissenschaften, European Physical Journal A, European Physical Journal C, Journal of Solid State Phenomena, Physical Review A, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of Fusion Energy (see indices in further reading, below).

The generation of excess heat has been reported by (among others):

* Michael McKubre, director of the Energy Research Center at SRI International,
* Giuliano Preparata (ENEA (Italy))
* Richard A. Oriani (University of Minnesota, in December 1990),
* Robert A. Huggins (at Stanford University in March 1990),
* Yoshiaki Arata (Osaka University, Japan),
* T. Mizuno (Hokkaido University, Japan),
* T. Ohmori (Japan),

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion#Experimental_reports

"Despite a backdrop of meager funding and career-killing derision from mainstream scientists and engineers, cold fusion is anything but a dead field of research. Presenters at the MIT event estimated that 3,000 published studies from scientists around the world have contributed to the growing canon of evidence suggesting that small but promising amounts of energy can be generated using the infamous tabletop apparatus."

"MIT's Peter Hagelstein, on the other hand, said "cold fusion" reactions have yielded surplus energy from as far back as the initial experiments in 1989. Verification of these controversial results is not the problem -- many labs around the world have reproduced parts of the results many times. "

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/cold_fusion?currentPage=all#

Navy Discovers Cold Fusion (again):
http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2292

"Last March, scientists at the annual conference of the august American Physical Society heard presentations on cold fusion. Next month, the Second International Conference on Future Energy will be held in Washington, D.C.

The erosion of our freedom concerns me greatly, and I think that is where we really need to put our focus, not so much what we're doing abroad, but what we're doing here.

If the erosion of your freedoms really concerns you then you should be concerned about the fact that the Commission charged with investigating what happened wasn't given the full freedom to investigate it. You should care that more money was spent investigating why the Challenger blew up, or investigating Clinton's blow job than was spent investigating 9/11/01. Our government has been into messy, black ops stuff for a LONG time... from over throwing popularly elected governments and causing coups (Iran), to supporting oppressive military dictators (Pakistan, Iraq under Saddam), to all sorts of nastiness with drugs (Iran Contra, CIA ops). I'm not saying that the government planned and executed 9/11... that's crazy talk. The government has been covering up any sort of investigation into what really took place though. There has been so much crazy shit that our government has been involved with over the last fifty years that is finally coming home to roost that they can't let it get out. bin Laden was a CIA asset. Saddam was an allie of the United States. The fact of the matter is that our government has made some REALLY BAD foreign policy decisions that have alienated and pissed off a huge portion of the population of the world. At this point in the game the government needs to keep up the facade that they can "protect" us from evil terrorists while concealing the fact that the "evil terrorists" want to attack us because of what the government has been doing since before I was even born.

It baffles me that you can say that you care about the erosion of our freedom and liberty here at home, yet at the same time call me into question for questioning what has taken place since 9/11. Everything that is going on with the erosion of our freedoms is BASED ON 9/11. 9/11 is used as the justification for all of the nonsense that is taking place with the PATRIOT Act, suspension of habeus corpus, wiretaps and everything else.

Of all the scientists who are working in this area, however, Dr. Delgado appears to be the only one using radio to stimulate animals' brains, with special attention to effects on social behavior. He also makes use of telemetry in studying physiological activity in brains and other organs.

"I do not know why more work of this sort isn't done," he remarked recently, "because it is so economical and easy." Essentially, Dr. Delgado's system for studying social behavior consists of constant time-lapse photography of animal colonies, the analysis of those films and recording of of all the animals, details in the behavior patterns.

This permits not just qualitative assessment of the animals' social interactions but also the quantification of each one's behavioral profile, Dr. Delgado said. This is particularly important when analyzing the modifications in social behavior of the group produced by radio stimulation of a particular response in one or more of the animals.

For example, stimulation of several specific regions of the brain can induce aggressiveness in a monkey. Having quantatative data on that animal's behavior, as well as on that of others in the colony can reveal more precisely the magnitude, of various, sometimes subtle, effects of electrical stimulation on individual and collective social behavior.

-FL

Look at the internal combustion engine to see the massive amount of progress there's been.

oh and a source for the scramble figure is this, and another interesting critique is this

Wanna know what the SEC was storing in WTC 7? Files on some 3,000-4,000 cases on Wall Street investigations. http://www.wanttoknow.info/010917natllawjournal.WT C7SECfiles

He didn't, according to his actual post... he moved what are by any reasonable measure "fringe" theories about 9/11 to the bottom of the article, rather than keeping them in the main body.

You put "fringe" in quotes. Why? Perhaps you realize that people who don't like a theory will often deride it as "extremist" or "fringe" or "loony." It has nothing to do with whether it's factual; it's a prejorative slam that completely sidesteps any meaningful research into whether or not a theory has any factual basis. If we let all alternative theories be rejected in such a manor, there wouldn't BE any alternative theories presented.

You're taking too many liberties in assuming that any alternative theories surrounding 9/11 are fringe. There was a Zogby poll that revealed Half of New Yorkers Believe US Let 9/11 Happen. That doesn't sound very "fringe" to me. Especially since there has been a near-total mainstream media blackout on alternative theories. I'm sure you'd get different results in Oklahoma, but the fact that they polled New Yorkers is extremely relevant in this context.

You can't "disagree" with evidence (it either exists or it doesn't... though which one is the case can itself be a point of disagreement) -- you can, however, disagree with a particular interpretation of the evidence. However, again judging by his post, it doesn't seem like he was concerned by particular evidence that was presented in the article, but by extremist theories. You seem to lump theories and evidence together, which isn't really appropriate. It is reasonable to say that all the evidence should be presented. It is not reasonable to say that every theory, regardless of the corresponding evidence, should be included in the main body of the article.

You're saying a lot here, but let me yank a few things out and lend them a different perspective. In a perfect word, you can't disagree with evidence. But we don't live in one, and there are a lot of people (on all sides) who cherry-pick the evidence to support their claims, and intentionally exclude evidence which supports alternative theories, even if that same evidence does not directly undermind their preferred theory. What I'm saying is that evidence that supports alternative theories is systematically erased by the pro-official story crowd. Huge facts, like the collapse of WTC 7 are completely ignored by the media and supporters of the gov's theory. I personally don't know which (if any) alernate theory is correct, but I do know a coverup when I see one. I think ALL of the facts should be presented, regardless of whether somebody was able to tar them with the "fringe" label. I think we mostly agree in this regard, but I'm concerned about your "fringe" usage, because it makes it too easy to exclude theories. And when you exclude theories, than the facts and evidence that support those theories tends to get shoved down the memory hole as well.

Also, perhaps this is just a phrasing issue, but even if (and I don't agree with this) a NPOV means you are obligated to mention all existing explanations, it does not mean you have to highlight (your word) the ones you disagree with. It is reasonable to distinguish between theories that are supported by a large amount of evidence or that are the simplest explanations, versus complicated conspiracy theories that are pieced together by obscure, contested partial evidence.

Maybe YOU don't have to highlight theories you don't agree with, but does that give you the right to suppress somebody who does agree with them? I agree that weaker theories should be called out as lacking evidence, but you seem to be unaware that the government's official story IS a conspiracy theory, and one that is not well supported by the facts at that. Physicists, demolition experts and architects are questioning how the twin towers collapsed, and the government has yet to

The discrepencies in the polling data would really just be an interesting anomaly if there weren't so many other corroborating circumstances.

If you read the actual studies that I posted, you would see that while the first study is discussing the statistical unlikelihood of the exit poll results, other studies are noting the statistical correlation between the use of electronic voting machines and nonrandom skewing toward Bush (compared to registered voters, previous trends in the voting area, and results from other areas). Yet another study explores the high correlation between where the errors occured and how important the region was toward securing the electoral vote toward Bush.

There were signifigant nonrandom errors that always skewed toward Bush.
They were unprecepended regarding:
1) polling data predictive history
2) correlation with the use of electronc paperles devices
3) correlation with areas in the country that had unusual leverage over electoral votes

The CEO of Diebold had previously been quoted as saying:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/031109nytimes

IN mid-August (2003), Walden W. O'Dell, the chief executive of Diebold Inc., sat down at his computer to compose a letter inviting 100 wealthy and politically inclined friends to a Republican Party fund-raiser, to be held at his home in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. ''I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year,'' wrote Mr. O'Dell, whose company is based in Canton, Ohio.

That is hardly unusual for Mr. O'Dell. A longtime Republican, he is a member of President Bush's ''Rangers and Pioneers,'' an elite group of loyalists who have raised at least $100,000 each for the 2004 race.

But it is not the only way that Mr. O'Dell is involved in the election process. Through Diebold Election Systems, a subsidiary in McKinney, Tex., his company is among the country's biggest suppliers of paperless, touch-screen voting machines.

Partisans have fought the ability to audit electronic voting machines with every legal argument possible
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7386582p-7298 824c.html

If any process should be open, transparent, and verifiable, shouldn't it be voting? Dismissing concerns over voting irregularity out of a partisan satisfaction that whichever preferred side may have won this time is ridiculously shortsided.

Or are you just being funny?

Voting machine manufacturers ARE producing ATMs. The CEO of (Diebold) is the very same that vowed to deliver Ohio to GW.

http://www.diebold.com/solutions/atms/default.htm

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59874,00 .html

http://www.gristforthemill.org/010418diebold.html

http://www.wanttoknow.info/051221votingmachineshac ked

There are some links to chew on. Americans of ALL stripes and affiliations should be OUTRAGED.

If you're a conservative that wants to brush this off - suggestion - Imagine Hillary Clinton's best friend becomes CEO of say... Diebold. Scared yet? Or are you consistant in your lack of outrage?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control http://www.wanttoknow.info/mindcontrol10pg

Of course, googling for diebold headquarters gets you this as #3 http://www.wanttoknow.info/votingproblems

Voting Problems - Elections Cover-up

Diebold's headquarters are located in Ohio, the state which decided the 2004
presidential election ...

.....
30% of all U.S. votes were cast on touch screen voting machines. Most of them, including all of Florida's, lack paper records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount. Over 20 percent of the machines tested by observers around the country failed to record votes properly.
.....
Federal regulators have virtually no oversight over testing of the touchscreen technology. The three companies that certify the nation's voting technologies operate in secrecy, and refuse to discuss flaws in the voting machines.

Ditto for "recalibrating" the pointer.

If you do not think that spy satellites are not weapons you are just nuts.

OK, I'm nuts. I consider a weapon something that destroys stuff. I've never considered a periscope or binoculars weapons. Sure, aided vision can be used a a tactic in defense just like weather information, but I don't consider it a weapon.

Being that we spend 3 to 10 times any other country budgets for defense (http://www.wanttoknow.info/usmilitaryspending) and most of the top 10 spenders our our allies as well, I have yet to figure out who we are defending ourselves against (or why we don't defend our border or airspace with said funds). Since WWII, it seems to be necessary for one reason or another to have some kind of military offensive against a remote country. It seems economically necessary or at least economically "a good thing(tm)" to continue this kind of behavior at this time. I would not be employed where I am now if it was not for defense spending, and the military rich area that I live in would be without something like 50% of its jobs without the military and the trickle down businesses and industry that depend on money from defense spending.

The bully on the block thing only works when you are the bully, so I guess overspending on defense is worthwhile, and even with the current level of spending, I believe its still less than 10% of the total US government budget, which seems like a reasonable percentage, but a bit excessive when you look at the military capabilities of others.

Powerful oil interests influencing non-Bush Administration White House? Entirely probable. However, the Taliban didn't go to the White House. They went to Texas. Does it erase the fact that Bush's friends had a powerful interest in a pipeline through Afghanistan? Nope, it confirms it. And, Unocal winning the contract from the Taliban is history, not speculation. Even so, Clinton wouldn't recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, and so the pipeline plans languished, the project (perhaps with different players) on hold until Bush took over. At the very least, Moore provides not only reference but footage. You can do the same.

The pipeline was never built and probably never will be.

Again, your sources? I would say they are out of date, or at worst incorrect.

So, you are mis-informed. Hmmm. It seems people are getting the wrong impressions from this factual movie. How could that be?

Well, you certainly won't get the facts from the Faux News Channel. Try reliable news sources for facts about the pipeline you claim will never will be built.

Unocal's reasons for abandoning the project doesn't necessarily mean there weren't reasons for pursuing it. The fact they did abandon it, means they were pursuing it up to that point. Those reasons may have born fruit as the West's invasion of Afghanistan. It just means that after the damage has been done, making certain factors apparent, a new perception of viability has replaced an old one. New calculations have been made, and it may no longer be considered worth the trouble it once was by certain parties. It doesn't mean that other partners haven't benefited from the leverage pushed by Western partners, even though the West may have done all the work and damage. And, it also doesn't mean the Western partners won't be back to reap what they sowed at a later time when the heat is off, and Moore or others like him have been dissappeared.

= 9J =