My 2nd contribution to Muckrakerreport :

Do not read if you want to cling to your illusions !

Been saying it for years, but thank you Gideon for re-iterating a worthwhile point, and offering a dissenting Israeli perspective.

In my research on how 3rd party candidates get shut out of the political process, I came across a startling result.

If a Presidential candidate (eg Michael Badnarik in 2004) has >5% of a major popular poll going into the debates then they are eligible, by law, to participate in the debate.

But the League of Women Voters, the group that organizes and orchestrates the Presidential debates, uses 15% as the minimum % needed in popular polls to extend invitations to debate.

5% by law, 15% by this organization, which is not a part of the federal government mind you.

This is disconcerting for the following reason :

Prior to the election of Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota, he had 8% support in the polls. He goes on to win the governorship, and is re-elected by a very wide margin. The people of Minnesota thought Ventura did a good job in his first term, and they voted across party lines to re-elect him, as he ran as an independent. But if he were running for Pres and not Gov, he would have been shut out of the political process, not legally, but by the League of Women Voters.

What a sham !

The 15% mark is completely artificial, and in place to deny a serious challenge by 3rd party contenders. Let them all debate I say. Let the people vote for the candidate they think will do the best, according to their system of beliefs. It is nonsense to have to vote for a jackass or a lunatic, but such is our usual choice with our failed duopoly.

The scare tactics are still being performed, this time not by the government, but by a would-be President, who crosses the line with this politicized statement.

Whatever merits he had for running on the Republican side, a comment like this should seriously cost him his bid.

For a man who helped block investigating 9-11 rigorously, to use 9-11 to further one’s political campaign is disgusting.

I’d love to spit some beech nut in that dude’s eye ….

Forget for a moment that the Mossad helped create Hamas as a counterweight to the PLO, and forget that Condaleeza Rice has been so pro-Israel in all other matters, do one tiny thing out of line with the Zionist agenda, and they throw a temper tantrum !

Pre-Iraq War, when the US media was attempting to portray the French as the single obstacle at the UN for US invading Iraq, I remember defending the French by telling lunatics that it was also the Germans, Russians, Candians, Chinese who opposed unilateral action, and preferred to let the weapons inspections and the UN solve the solution diplomatically.

After reading the above article, I feel that the US government owes France an apology. At least they warned the CIA (as did the Mossad, the Egyptians, the Germans, et al)
Amazing that all the warnings fell on deaf ears !

The title says it all. Bravo Scott Ritter !

In a previous post, an Aussie video-surveyed Americans with the premise that Americans were stupid about the world in which their country runs. I suspected that his results were edited to fit his premise and here are the results of my more extensive poll given to my college students.

In my opinion, the scores are not as high as they should be, but definitely better than the questionable poll the Aussie presented as bona fide. Below are the questions and the % of correct answers, and the criterion identified for some of the answers with multiple correct answers/numerical data.

General Knowledge Questions , concerning the US and the World in general.

1. How many senators are there in the US ? ________ 67.6%
2. How many members of the House are there ? ________ 11.8%
3. In what year did the US Civil War begin ? _______ 32.4%
4. How many US soldiers died in Vietnam ? _______ (within a few thousand)17.6%
5. What is the capital of Spain ? ________ 73.5%
6. Which country is farther south, Egypt or Argentina ? _______ 76.5%
7. What mountain range is home to Mount Everest ? _______ 38.2%
8. Name a country that begins with the letter T ___________ 85.3%
9. What is the main religion of Saudia Arabia ? _________ 61.8%
10. What is the main religion of Israel ? __________ 61.8%
11. Who is the president of Venezuela ? _________ 26.5%
12. In what year did the Cuban Revolution begin ? ________ 5.9%
13. In what year did the French Revolution begin ? ________ 14.7%
14. What is the capital of Wyoming ? _________ 32.4%
15. What is the 2nd amendment to the Constitution ? ___________ 52.9%
16. How many world wars have there been ? _________ 94.1%
17. How many sides does a triangle have ? _________ 100%
18. How many continents are there ? ______ 82.4%
19. Name a country with a government overthrown by a CIA-directed coup __________ 17.6%
20. Name any country that belongs to the “coalition of the willing” __________ 23.5%
21. True or False : The Taliban is responsible for planting the poppy plants in Afghanistan. __________ 29.4%
22. Who is the leader of Hezbollah ? __________________ 11.4%
23. Who is the president of Iran ? ____________ 14.7%
24. Who is the chancellor of Germany ? ________________ 2.9%
25. What language is spoken in the Netherlands ? ____________ 50%
26. What is the most populous country in the world? _____ 76.5%
27. Which country consumes the largest percentage of world oil ? __________ 58.8%
28. What war replaced the “Cold War” in the US _______________ 0%
29. The US dollar is backed by gold, True or False ________ 29.4%
30. What is the national debt of the USA ? __(within a trillion, yikes) 20.6%
31. What is the West Bank ? ______________ 29.4%
32. In what year was Israel established as a nation ? __________ 11.8%
33. Were weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq ? _________ 88.2%
34. Which countries sold arms to Saddam Hussein in the 80’s when Iraq was at war with Iran ? ___(any country) 50%
35. How many people died on 9-11-2001 ? _____________ (within 1,000) 20.6%
36. What is the 3rd largest political party in the US ? ___________ 8.8%
37. In what year was income tax legislation passed, that is still applicable ? ________ 14.7%
38. In what year was the Federal Reserve Act passed in Congress ? ______ 17.6%
39. Who was the US president when the US entered WWI ? ___________ 23.5%
40. What are Hiroshima and Nagasaki known for ? ___________ 67.6%
41. When was JFK assassinated ? ___________ (most correct answers had the correct day) 41.1%
42. When was Pearl Harbor attacked by the Japanese ? ____ (most correct answers had the correct day) 47.1%
43. Who was Vice President under Jimmy Carter ? _______ 20.6%
44. Who is Kofi Annan ? ____________ 23.5%
45. Who was Yasser Arafat ? ________________________ 29.4%
46. Who is the prime minister of Israel ? ____________ 4.3%
47. Name the countries with Nuclear Weapons __________(any 3 countries correctly identified) 44.1%
48. Which country has violated the most UN resolutions ? _____________ 5.9%
49. In what year did the Great Depression begin ? ________ 47.1%
50. Which country violated international law by setting mines in Nicaragua’s harbor in 1986 __________ 11.8%

A terrific article written by a superb writer …