Who the heck's idiotic idea was it that companies could make software to count votes, and then not let anybody look at the software and see what it actually does because it's "proprietary"?
The idea is thought to have originated (as it was overhead in a restaurant in Crstal City, a short distance from the Pentagon) with Richard Bissell, former CIA Chief of Plans (and the guy from where those Mission Impossible-type of plans originated, and thought to be the major brain behind the eminently successful Marshall Plan after WWII), Henry Kissinger, Dov Zakheim, Admiral Poindexter and several others back sometime in the late '80s to early '90s.
It appears to have been successfully carried out now, and it should be full operational at this point: with SAIC, Hicks & Associates, Accenture, the various voting machine corps (Premier Elections Systems - formerly Diebold, ES&S, VoteHere, et al.) and their TIA network up and running - everything is in GO MODE for the 2008 presidential election! Good luck, America......
Please ignore the posts which follow, Good Citizen circletimessquare, you are on the right track (although the neocons do appear to be behind it mostly...).
With SAIC controlling the vast majority of domestic surveillance (Number One recipient of NSA contracts, top five of CIA contract recipients, major contract recipient of the Pentagon's CIFA, and, the parent company of Hicks & Associates, the "unofficial" administrator of the Total Information Awareness project), and also having been contracted to do the "security features" for most of the voting machine companies (the formerly known Diebold, as well) the fix is definitely in.
Will we see Obama win the election, only to find John "insane" McCain in the White House? (And please, none of this "war hero" BS, the guy spent less than a full day in combat - surrendered upon his very first contact with the enemy - and a number of returning POWs had some pretty negative stuff to say about McCain's behavior in captivity, but the newsies gave them short shrift as they wanted "to put the war behind them".......)
The NSA is a DoD agency with no vacancies that are filled by political appointment. There are NO political appointees in it. None. Not a one. Not now. Not ever.
Dood, in the case in which you haven't been paying attention - and by your remarks that would appear to be the case - NSA has (along with CIA, DIA, CIFA, DTO, etc., etc., etc.) outsourced many, far too many of its intel functions, thanks in part to the Bush administration - although it started back in the Clinton era. So, its fundamentally a moot point, unless you are familiar with all those private contractors......
I believe, Citizen nurb432, you have made the most cogent post of any of the clueless posts on this thread:
In case no one has heard, the SAIC has coded the elections/voting software for almost all of the voting machine manufacturers.
In case no one has heard, Hicks & Associates oversees that Total Information Awarness network. Hicks & Associates (Poindexter and Cheney's handpicked boys) is owned by SAIC. TIA has inputs from NSA, NGA and all those intel contractors who happen to be involved with domestic surveillance, evidently no one has heard of al Qaeda being anyplace else but at the American voting booth. Anyone beginning to get the picture?????
While it could simply be a problem of technical origin - something I appreciate having been in the field of aviation programming for a short time during the '80s - I would still very much like to peruse the passenger list.....just in case....
Well..superdan2k, no will will certainly accuse you of being a rocket scientist...or anyone with even a remotely functioning brain. I guess the gist of this article and movement (that would the movement of America as a Corporate Fascist State, run like a criminal enterprise, in a state of perpetual, artificial war) is completely lost on you....although, I'm sure eveyone is glad you are an endurance athlete....watch out for those squirrel crossings, dood....
Wait a second here... so this is being developed by Micro$oft employees... FOR microsoft employees????
Of course, it depends on where those "employees" are located. Is it being developed by their employess at Micro$oft/China? Remember the Chinese Bodies Exhibition that toured the US and Europe awhile back? You know, where the bodies of murdered Chinese dissidents had been preserved for the enjoyment of slimey Americanski. Maybe foreign programmers will develop it to keep their pesky American counterparts in line, kemisabe?
And people thought I was exaggerating when I mentioned several years back about M$ buying a state law in Washington (from the Department of Labor and Industry) to put a cap on the amount that an independent contractor could earn in that state - then M$ dramatically raises the level of jobs they are offshoring......
Very good points indeed, Good Citizen Retric. I would take exception to #1 and 8, though: #1 should be to end the illegal occupation, as that is what it technically and legally is. #8 is arbitrary, that and many other junk bond-derived machinations derive from the Financial Services Modernization Act and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act during the previous administration (aided by Treasury Secy. Rubin and Alan Greenspan, of course, and with the hearty approval of the neocons). Although most of the items goes beyond the ken of the presidency, it would be nice.....
The Greenspan Doctrine:
Take as much as possible from the middle-class and working class and give as much as possible to the rich and super-rich.
There is an election coming soon. So for those that really fear this find out where the candidates stand on it.
I would refer you to the following article to clear up any illusions you may be harboring as to the voting process - it has clearly been corporate-controlled for some time now and will only become worse......
It is a moot point, anyway, since they have been doing this, at least since 2000. Anyone who isn't aware of the wiretaps at the telcoms, or that the IXPs have all been bugged, simply hasn't been paying attention......
While I am normally hesitant to criticize the FBI - after all, wasn't it the crack and elite FBI Passport Recovery Team which was able to miraculously recover Mohammed Atta's passport from the wreckage of the WTC in the aftermath of 9/11/01? (No doubt Atta cranked down his cockpit window prior to crashing and conveniently threw out his passport.)
Having said that, I would question the efficacy of the FBI in any matter whatsoever - they have an long history for taking the credit for the achievements and unquestioned bravery of the US Marshal Service (I'm completely serious now, just check out their history, etc.). When the fewmets hit the fan, the feebs of the FBI always manage to dis-a-frigging-pear into the woodwork.
Maybe that's why, when those recovered hard drives were returned from the German firm of Convar (just having been purchased by Kroll - in charge of overall security at the WTC on 9/11/01) their full bill hadn't been actually paid - ergo, they couldn't tell we, the people, the financial data on those recovered drives pertaining to shorts/puts on the airlines and companies residing in the WTC Towers, and more importantly, any and all currency speculation (the big kahuna, for those who are still clueless) taking part on the computer systems extant in the WTC Towers that day. (Sneaky and diabolical using the systems physically located in the Towers to do the dirty deeds, huh?)
Surprise, surprise-- Clinton and Kucinich were actually better aligned with my views...
I fail to understand how anyone, anyone that is who is either a Democrat or progressive, could possibly support that Republican, Hillary Clinton?
Her primary supporters are Rupert Murdoch (forget the news forever) and the Indian (American job) offshoring industry. The only women I would prefer to see in the White House are Catherine Austin Fitts or Brooksley Born - several of the minority of Americans who actually know what is really taking place in this country today.
Actually, I think Clinton just edges out Obama on worst voting record - although, as we all are aware, Obama's primary supporters are hedge fund managers such as Paul Tudor Jones, II, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. Need I say more.....
I'm afraid I disagree with a number of points you made, poster Moraelin.
The thing is, it's not only ghetto kids.
I believe that to be mainly a product of pop culture for young Black Americans today. Many years ago Black Americans wore their knowledge and intelligence as a badge of pride, today they wear their ignorance as a badge of pride. Perhaps the social engineering - resulting from AFDC and prejudice in jobs/schools, etc., - whereby a father figure can frequently be found to be missing in the homes of lower socioeconomic Black American youth.
Human culture for _millenia_ respected intelligence.
I strongly disagree with that statement and believe history presents us with almost limitless examples to the contrary.
Due to Da Vinci's bastard birth (during Renaissance times), he was limited to only three occupations: artist, sculptor or pharmacist (that period's traveling country doctor). Thorstein Veblen was a truly far-sighted genius and thinker, being the first to utilize Darwinian principles in the explanations of people's behavior in the area of social economics. (Please see Rick Tilman's outstanding scholarly work on the subject.)
Your trite description of the horrors of the dark ages - something which we have again entered (please review Jane Jacobs' Dark Age Ahead for an excellent example) - does a major disservice to that period.
I would strongly suggest the explosion of the sciences in the 19th and 20th century (with the exception of the 2nd half of the 20th century - due to the GI Bill in America - please see Edward Humes excellent work Over Here for a detailed analysis of the social benefits of that legislation) was in spite of the obstacles presented to all but the elites in obtaining further and advanced eduction. When people of truly advanced intelligence happen upon the human scene, they generally wise up and hide among us (William Sidris and several others come immediately to mind).
Greatest thinkers in the Western Hemisphere IMO:
Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Darwin, Thorstein Veblen, Martin Luther King, Michael Parenti, Catherine Austin Fitts
Given that the majority of American industries are now majority foreign-owned; the US Treasury technically went backrupt back in 2003, the economy - when one subtracts the ever increasing debt which is figured into the GDP stats - has actually been shrinking over the preceding seven years; the exponential increase every year of the number of American jobs being offshored (that's what the numbers demonstrate and I follow the numbers, not Business Week nor The Economist) while foreign replacement workers are being imported by the boatload; that this crime outfit presently running the country has malevolently stopped publishing the M3 econ indicator, and Citigroup recently had to approach the Emir of Abu Dhabi for an $8 billion loan in order to stay solvent, I'm none too optimistic about the future.
Artificially stagnant and lowered wages.....anyone????
People far more prescient than myself have stated (and correctly so) many times over the years that the inherent problem with even contemplating the future is the problem of human greed and avarice. The General Motors Futurama Exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair (held in NYC) had many pragmatic predictions, which certainly should have come to past.
Alas, vile greedheads interfered. As those lowbrows who are forever exclaiming about, "...if they can put a man on the moon...." Of course, they murdered the man behind that project (JFK), which killed many a future prediction and dream. Therein lies the problem.
Urban transportation in America, a pathetic pipe dream in most places - but it could have been realized many, many years ago. As that House Select Committee Investigation, back in 1974, demonstrated, General Motors, Firestone and Sun Oil conspired to curtail any valid and optimal urban and exurban transportation systems throughout America as they wish to sell tires, large vehicles running on gas (buses) and oil.
Can anyone seriously ponder any predictions of the future given the imbeciles currently being elected as president? Given the criminals being currently elected to VP? SecDef? SecState?
The math in Einstein's Cosmological Constant is highly suspect - but he was a pretty good physicist after all! I suspect Neal Turok of Cambridge has the right theory to end all theories - dark energy not required.....
The funny thing is, the person who recommended Ron Paul actually believes that there is something called "democracy" operating in America today. Seriously, all elections, at least going back to Eisenhower, have been bought (probably even earlier, for all I know).
Now Joe Kennedy obviously purchased his son's presidential election utilizing the help of Mafia elements, Texas oilmen, etc., but John either didn't get the memo or ignored his father and worked primarily on behalf of the citizenry.
Which is why he was wacked......similary as was Martin Luther King (coming out against the Vietnam War) and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy (running on an anti-war platform).
The election has already been purchased - the dems nominee will be Clinton/Richardson - and although I haven't been paying any attention to the Repuke side, it will probably be Guiliani/Thompson.
It is interesting to note that Total Information Awareness (TIA) components were well underway long before the events of 9/11/01 in America. Whether the FBI renames Carnivore to something else, the way the TIA was stealthily renamed and distributed (the illegal wiretapping of the nation within the first month of the Bush administration, the privatization of intel operations [now spread beyond 70 private contractors with online inputs to the Bushies], the privatization of Comsat leading to the National Applications Office, the final dot in the array - the use of satellites to spy overall on the American citizenry) among a variety of components, with inputs from NSA, NGA, etc., everything is now assembled and in place for TOTAL CONTROL. The Corporate Fascist State has won, end of story.....
Gee....and of course we have absolute faith in our elected officials. Besides Bush and those missing 5 million e-mails, missing CIA tapes which were officially ruled (by federal judge and Senators) to be NOT destroyed, and a myriad other events, one can recall that Clinton Administration prior (Flight 800 coverup - what was up with that, anyway?) the diabolical support for NAFTA, GATT, WTO, the repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act, the Financial Services Modernization Act (these both pertain to rollback of FDR's New Deal leglistation to avoid the NEXT GREAT DEPRESSION), etc., etc., etc......Oh yeah, and those "terrorist" suspects from Liberty City in Miami - other places in the country we refer to them as impoverished street people or transients - who were found either not guilty or a locked jury - same thing....and all those other phony "terrorist" crap Bush has been dealing...and Bush's bizarre and one-of-a-kind "military record".....
Circulation is dropping rapidly, and digital presence will soon be as, if not more, important than print editions.
Say it ain't so!!!
I mean, they (moronic newsies, half-witted pundits, talking headjobs, etc., ad nauseum) constantly yap at us that they are giving us the "content" we demand - yet if that were truly and honestly the case, circulation would not - and continue to - drop.
Obviously, they are feeding us pure crapola (except, perhaps, for those McClatchy newspapers which are about the ONLY newspapers in America which still actually print truthful, non-propaganda articles - also, the various alternative political newspapers throughout the country such as this wonderful example).
I frankly (sorry Newty) can't understand why anyone would read any American news instead of following the more (usually) honest international news or the standard blog spots (Bradblog, Buzzcom, Thinkprogress, Commondreams, Waynemadsenreport, noquarterusa.net, liberalavenger, etc.)
Exactly - I have no doubt that one day we will fully observe and tabulate that ALL living creatures fear death, not just we humans, elephants, dogs and miscellaneous other limited creatures we have so far observed.
There was a book and school of thought by a philosopher who's name (sorry to report) now escapes me, which bases most or all human behavior on the fear of death. Probably hardwired, as you inferred, to use the vernacular.....
Excuse me, but you are ignoring that fact that Bush approached the telcoms within the first month he assumed the presidency - long before 9/11/01. Also, there have been many more than just "three people" waterboarded. Read any news over the past 4 years, for gosh sakes????? So WTF does this have to do with avoiding terrorist attacks? And WTF is any proof to suggest it has?
Slashdot Mirror
The idea is thought to have originated (as it was overhead in a restaurant in Crstal City, a short distance from the Pentagon) with Richard Bissell, former CIA Chief of Plans (and the guy from where those Mission Impossible-type of plans originated, and thought to be the major brain behind the eminently successful Marshall Plan after WWII), Henry Kissinger, Dov Zakheim, Admiral Poindexter and several others back sometime in the late '80s to early '90s.
It appears to have been successfully carried out now, and it should be full operational at this point: with SAIC, Hicks & Associates, Accenture, the various voting machine corps (Premier Elections Systems - formerly Diebold, ES&S, VoteHere, et al.) and their TIA network up and running - everything is in GO MODE for the 2008 presidential election! Good luck, America......
With SAIC controlling the vast majority of domestic surveillance (Number One recipient of NSA contracts, top five of CIA contract recipients, major contract recipient of the Pentagon's CIFA, and, the parent company of Hicks & Associates, the "unofficial" administrator of the Total Information Awareness project), and also having been contracted to do the "security features" for most of the voting machine companies (the formerly known Diebold, as well) the fix is definitely in.
Will we see Obama win the election, only to find John "insane" McCain in the White House? (And please, none of this "war hero" BS, the guy spent less than a full day in combat - surrendered upon his very first contact with the enemy - and a number of returning POWs had some pretty negative stuff to say about McCain's behavior in captivity, but the newsies gave them short shrift as they wanted "to put the war behind them" .......)
Dood, in the case in which you haven't been paying attention - and by your remarks that would appear to be the case - NSA has (along with CIA, DIA, CIFA, DTO, etc., etc., etc.) outsourced many, far too many of its intel functions, thanks in part to the Bush administration - although it started back in the Clinton era. So, its fundamentally a moot point, unless you are familiar with all those private contractors......
In case no one has heard, the SAIC has coded the elections/voting software for almost all of the voting machine manufacturers.
In case no one has heard, Hicks & Associates oversees that Total Information Awarness network. Hicks & Associates (Poindexter and Cheney's handpicked boys) is owned by SAIC. TIA has inputs from NSA, NGA and all those intel contractors who happen to be involved with domestic surveillance, evidently no one has heard of al Qaeda being anyplace else but at the American voting booth. Anyone beginning to get the picture?????
While it could simply be a problem of technical origin - something I appreciate having been in the field of aviation programming for a short time during the '80s - I would still very much like to peruse the passenger list.....just in case....
Well..superdan2k, no will will certainly accuse you of being a rocket scientist...or anyone with even a remotely functioning brain. I guess the gist of this article and movement (that would the movement of America as a Corporate Fascist State, run like a criminal enterprise, in a state of perpetual, artificial war) is completely lost on you....although, I'm sure eveyone is glad you are an endurance athlete....watch out for those squirrel crossings, dood....
Of course, it depends on where those "employees" are located. Is it being developed by their employess at Micro$oft/China? Remember the Chinese Bodies Exhibition that toured the US and Europe awhile back? You know, where the bodies of murdered Chinese dissidents had been preserved for the enjoyment of slimey Americanski. Maybe foreign programmers will develop it to keep their pesky American counterparts in line, kemisabe?
And people thought I was exaggerating when I mentioned several years back about M$ buying a state law in Washington (from the Department of Labor and Industry) to put a cap on the amount that an independent contractor could earn in that state - then M$ dramatically raises the level of jobs they are offshoring......
I would open an investigation of where George H.W. Bush was the day of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy....
The Greenspan Doctrine:
Take as much as possible from the middle-class and working class and give as much as possible to the rich and super-rich.
Stanley Milgram already did this research years and years ago. It's called FLASH MOBS.....
I would refer you to the following article to clear up any illusions you may be harboring as to the voting process - it has clearly been corporate-controlled for some time now and will only become worse......
It is a moot point, anyway, since they have been doing this, at least since 2000. Anyone who isn't aware of the wiretaps at the telcoms, or that the IXPs have all been bugged, simply hasn't been paying attention......
Having said that, I would question the efficacy of the FBI in any matter whatsoever - they have an long history for taking the credit for the achievements and unquestioned bravery of the US Marshal Service (I'm completely serious now, just check out their history, etc.). When the fewmets hit the fan, the feebs of the FBI always manage to dis-a-frigging-pear into the woodwork.
Maybe that's why, when those recovered hard drives were returned from the German firm of Convar (just having been purchased by Kroll - in charge of overall security at the WTC on 9/11/01) their full bill hadn't been actually paid - ergo, they couldn't tell we, the people, the financial data on those recovered drives pertaining to shorts/puts on the airlines and companies residing in the WTC Towers, and more importantly, any and all currency speculation (the big kahuna, for those who are still clueless) taking part on the computer systems extant in the WTC Towers that day. (Sneaky and diabolical using the systems physically located in the Towers to do the dirty deeds, huh?)
I fail to understand how anyone, anyone that is who is either a Democrat or progressive, could possibly support that Republican, Hillary Clinton?
Her primary supporters are Rupert Murdoch (forget the news forever) and the Indian (American job) offshoring industry. The only women I would prefer to see in the White House are Catherine Austin Fitts or Brooksley Born - several of the minority of Americans who actually know what is really taking place in this country today.
Actually, I think Clinton just edges out Obama on worst voting record - although, as we all are aware, Obama's primary supporters are hedge fund managers such as Paul Tudor Jones, II, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. Need I say more.....
Hmmmm.....first this....next the Replicant. Sheeeesh!!!
The thing is, it's not only ghetto kids.
I believe that to be mainly a product of pop culture for young Black Americans today. Many years ago Black Americans wore their knowledge and intelligence as a badge of pride, today they wear their ignorance as a badge of pride. Perhaps the social engineering - resulting from AFDC and prejudice in jobs/schools, etc., - whereby a father figure can frequently be found to be missing in the homes of lower socioeconomic Black American youth.
Human culture for _millenia_ respected intelligence.
I strongly disagree with that statement and believe history presents us with almost limitless examples to the contrary.
Due to Da Vinci's bastard birth (during Renaissance times), he was limited to only three occupations: artist, sculptor or pharmacist (that period's traveling country doctor). Thorstein Veblen was a truly far-sighted genius and thinker, being the first to utilize Darwinian principles in the explanations of people's behavior in the area of social economics. (Please see Rick Tilman's outstanding scholarly work on the subject.)
Your trite description of the horrors of the dark ages - something which we have again entered (please review Jane Jacobs' Dark Age Ahead for an excellent example) - does a major disservice to that period.
I would strongly suggest the explosion of the sciences in the 19th and 20th century (with the exception of the 2nd half of the 20th century - due to the GI Bill in America - please see Edward Humes excellent work Over Here for a detailed analysis of the social benefits of that legislation) was in spite of the obstacles presented to all but the elites in obtaining further and advanced eduction. When people of truly advanced intelligence happen upon the human scene, they generally wise up and hide among us (William Sidris and several others come immediately to mind).
Greatest thinkers in the Western Hemisphere IMO:
Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Darwin, Thorstein Veblen, Martin Luther King, Michael Parenti, Catherine Austin Fitts
Given that the majority of American industries are now majority foreign-owned; the US Treasury technically went backrupt back in 2003, the economy - when one subtracts the ever increasing debt which is figured into the GDP stats - has actually been shrinking over the preceding seven years; the exponential increase every year of the number of American jobs being offshored (that's what the numbers demonstrate and I follow the numbers, not Business Week nor The Economist) while foreign replacement workers are being imported by the boatload; that this crime outfit presently running the country has malevolently stopped publishing the M3 econ indicator, and Citigroup recently had to approach the Emir of Abu Dhabi for an $8 billion loan in order to stay solvent, I'm none too optimistic about the future.
Artificially stagnant and lowered wages.....anyone????
Alas, vile greedheads interfered. As those lowbrows who are forever exclaiming about, "...if they can put a man on the moon...." Of course, they murdered the man behind that project (JFK), which killed many a future prediction and dream. Therein lies the problem.
Urban transportation in America, a pathetic pipe dream in most places - but it could have been realized many, many years ago. As that House Select Committee Investigation, back in 1974, demonstrated, General Motors, Firestone and Sun Oil conspired to curtail any valid and optimal urban and exurban transportation systems throughout America as they wish to sell tires, large vehicles running on gas (buses) and oil.
Can anyone seriously ponder any predictions of the future given the imbeciles currently being elected as president? Given the criminals being currently elected to VP? SecDef? SecState?
The math in Einstein's Cosmological Constant is highly suspect - but he was a pretty good physicist after all! I suspect Neal Turok of Cambridge has the right theory to end all theories - dark energy not required.....
Now Joe Kennedy obviously purchased his son's presidential election utilizing the help of Mafia elements, Texas oilmen, etc., but John either didn't get the memo or ignored his father and worked primarily on behalf of the citizenry.
Which is why he was wacked......similary as was Martin Luther King (coming out against the Vietnam War) and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy (running on an anti-war platform).
The election has already been purchased - the dems nominee will be Clinton/Richardson - and although I haven't been paying any attention to the Repuke side, it will probably be Guiliani/Thompson.
It is interesting to note that Total Information Awareness (TIA) components were well underway long before the events of 9/11/01 in America. Whether the FBI renames Carnivore to something else, the way the TIA was stealthily renamed and distributed (the illegal wiretapping of the nation within the first month of the Bush administration, the privatization of intel operations [now spread beyond 70 private contractors with online inputs to the Bushies], the privatization of Comsat leading to the National Applications Office, the final dot in the array - the use of satellites to spy overall on the American citizenry) among a variety of components, with inputs from NSA, NGA, etc., everything is now assembled and in place for TOTAL CONTROL. The Corporate Fascist State has won, end of story.....
Gee....and of course we have absolute faith in our elected officials. Besides Bush and those missing 5 million e-mails, missing CIA tapes which were officially ruled (by federal judge and Senators) to be NOT destroyed, and a myriad other events, one can recall that Clinton Administration prior (Flight 800 coverup - what was up with that, anyway?) the diabolical support for NAFTA, GATT, WTO, the repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act, the Financial Services Modernization Act (these both pertain to rollback of FDR's New Deal leglistation to avoid the NEXT GREAT DEPRESSION), etc., etc., etc......Oh yeah, and those "terrorist" suspects from Liberty City in Miami - other places in the country we refer to them as impoverished street people or transients - who were found either not guilty or a locked jury - same thing....and all those other phony "terrorist" crap Bush has been dealing...and Bush's bizarre and one-of-a-kind "military record".....
Say it ain't so!!!
I mean, they (moronic newsies, half-witted pundits, talking headjobs, etc., ad nauseum) constantly yap at us that they are giving us the "content" we demand - yet if that were truly and honestly the case, circulation would not - and continue to - drop.
Obviously, they are feeding us pure crapola (except, perhaps, for those McClatchy newspapers which are about the ONLY newspapers in America which still actually print truthful, non-propaganda articles - also, the various alternative political newspapers throughout the country such as this wonderful example).
I frankly (sorry Newty) can't understand why anyone would read any American news instead of following the more (usually) honest international news or the standard blog spots (Bradblog, Buzzcom, Thinkprogress, Commondreams, Waynemadsenreport, noquarterusa.net, liberalavenger, etc.)
There was a book and school of thought by a philosopher who's name (sorry to report) now escapes me, which bases most or all human behavior on the fear of death. Probably hardwired, as you inferred, to use the vernacular.....
Excuse me, but you are ignoring that fact that Bush approached the telcoms within the first month he assumed the presidency - long before 9/11/01. Also, there have been many more than just "three people" waterboarded. Read any news over the past 4 years, for gosh sakes????? So WTF does this have to do with avoiding terrorist attacks? And WTF is any proof to suggest it has?