Betting on the next terrorist attacks? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

eyeronic · 07-29-2003, 07:30 AM

The pentagon has come up with a brilliant plan to try to catch terrorists. They will hunt the terrorists down over the internet when they bet on their own attacks(or something like that). This is one of the most sick and warped things I've ever seen:

New York Times July 29th

Pentagon Prepares a Futures Market on Terror Attacks
By CARL HULSE

ASHINGTON, July 28 — The Pentagon office that proposed spying electronically on Americans to monitor potential terrorists has a new experiment. It is an online futures trading market, disclosed today by critics, in which anonymous speculators would bet on forecasting terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups.

Traders bullish on a biological attack on Israel or bearish on the chances of a North Korean missile strike would have the opportunity to bet on the likelihood of such events on a new Internet site established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The Pentagon called its latest idea a new way of predicting events and part of its search for the "broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks." Two Democratic senators who reported the plan called it morally repugnant and grotesque. The senators said the program fell under the control of Adm. John M. Poindexter, President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser.

One of the two senators, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax. "Can you imagine," Mr. Dorgan asked, "if another country set up a betting parlor so that people could go in — and is sponsored by the government itself — people could go in and bet on the assassination of an American political figure?"

After Mr. Dorgan and his fellow critic, Ron Wyden of Oregon, spoke out, the Pentagon sought to play down the importance of a program for which the Bush administration has sought $8 million through 2005. The White House also altered the Web site so that the potential events to be considered by the market that were visible earlier in the day at www.policyanalysismarket.org could no longer be seen.

But by that time, Republican officials in the Senate were privately shaking their heads over the planned trading. One top aide said he hoped that the Pentagon had a good explanation for it.

The Pentagon, in defending the program, said such futures trading had proven effective in predicting other events like oil prices, elections and movie ticket sales.

"Research indicates that markets are extremely efficient, effective and timely aggregators of dispersed and even hidden information," the Defense Department said in a statement. "Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as elections results; they are often better than expert opinions."

According to descriptions given to Congress, available at the Web site and provided by the two senators, traders who register would deposit money into an account similar to a stock account and win or lose money based on predicting events.

"For instance," Mr. Wyden said, "you may think early on that Prime Minister X is going to be assassinated. So you buy the futures contracts for 5 cents each. As more people begin to think the person's going to be assassinated, the cost of the contract could go up, to 50 cents.

"The payoff if he's assassinated is $1 per future. So if it comes to pass, and those who bought at 5 cents make 95 cents. Those who bought at 50 cents make 50 cents."

The senators also suggested that terrorists could participate because the traders' identities will be unknown.

"This appears to encourage terrorists to participate, either to profit from their terrorist activities or to bet against them in order to mislead U.S. intelligence authorities," they said in a letter to Admiral Poindexter, the director of the Terrorism Information Awareness Office, which the opponents said had developed the idea.

The initiative, called the Policy Analysis Market, is to begin registering up to 1,000 traders on Friday. It is the latest problem for the advanced projects agency, or Darpa, a Pentagon unit that has run into controversy for the Terrorism Information Office. Admiral Poindexter once described a sweeping electronic surveillance plan as a way of forestalling terrorism by tapping into computer databases to collect medical, travel, credit and financial records.

Worried about the reach of the program, Congress this year prohibited what was called the Total Information Awareness program from being used against Americans. Its name was changed to the Terrorism Information Awareness program.

This month, the Senate agreed to block all spending on the program. The House did not. Mr. Wyden said he hoped that the new disclosure about the trading program would be the death blow for Admiral Poindexter's plan.

The Pentagon did not provide details of the program like how much money participants would have to deposit in accounts. Trading is to begin on Oct. 1, with the number of participants initially limited to 1,000 and possibly expanding to 10,000 by Jan. 1.

"Involvement in this group prediction process should prove engaging and may prove profitable," the Web site said.

The overview of the plan said the market would focus on the economic, civil and military futures of Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey and the consequences of United States involvement with those nations. The creators of the market envision other trappings of existing markets like derivatives.

In a statement, Darpa said the trading idea was "currently a small research program that faces a number of major technical challenges and uncertainties."

"Chief among these," the agency said, "are: Can the market survive and will people continue to participate when U.S. authorities use it to prevent terrorist attacks? Can futures markets be manipulated by adversaries?"

Mr. Dorgan and Mr. Wyden called for an immediate end to the project and said they would use its existence to justify cutting off financial support for the overall effort. In the letter to Admiral Poindexter, they called the initiative a "wasteful and absurd" use of tax dollars.

"The American people want the federal government to use its resources enhancing our security, not gambling on it," the letter said.

HaloLauren · 07-29-2003, 07:32 AM

I dont think it will do them much good, but it should make them some money.

*Like Cartman* Why the fuck not?

urizenxvii · 07-29-2003, 07:47 AM

argh! what's the name of that book! the one with the guy who's really smart and keeps changing roles? it's a sci fi novel from a while back. They have a system exactly like that, I think the system's called Delphi or something.

Pennington · 07-29-2003, 08:04 AM

http://www.ideosphere.com/
http://www.longbets.org/

It's been done.

HaloLauren · 07-29-2003, 08:05 AM

It's been done by individuals, not by the government.

I'd much rather see the government making money off of it than some rube.

Pennington · 07-29-2003, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by HaloLauren
It's been done by individuals, not by the government.

I was just pointing out that it's not a new or an original concept.

I'd much rather see the government making money off of it than some rube.

Bad things happen when govenments start to work for a profit.

The_Dude · 07-29-2003, 09:22 AM

i thought it was a hoax too....are we getting that desperate?

lurkette · 07-29-2003, 10:03 AM

What's to keep it from being directive instead of predictive - that is, someone sees a long shot event, places lots of money on it, then carries it out and collects the profits? It's not like they would have done it in the first place, it just becomes another way to make a bunch of money.

Oop - just heard on NPR the program was terminated due to Senate objections.

Cynthetiq · 07-29-2003, 10:10 AM

wild... like a dead pool but on a grander scale

SaltPork · 07-29-2003, 10:23 AM

This by far is one of the worst ideas that the govt has ever had, it ranks right up there with welfare.

Lord Humungus · 07-29-2003, 10:25 AM

I don't really know to think about that. Lets just turn our entire civilization into gambling junkies so we can piss away our hard earned money and jump out of tall story buildings. Maybe we can start betting on all the people who will jump out of a tall building because they lost a bet that a political figure was going to get killed on a sunday but rather got killed on a monday. Then we can start betting on whos gonna win a bet on the bet placed on the guy that jumped out of a building because he lost a bet.
Fine idea!

Sick bastards.

HaloLauren · 07-29-2003, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pennington
I was just pointing out that it's not a new or an original concept.

I'd much rather see the government making money off of it than some rube.

Bad things happen when govenments start to work for a profit.

They are not working for profit. The money they make goes back into helping us, and if they make enough, they could lower taxes.

Democrat version: If they make enough, they could give more money to the "less fortunate".

SaltPork · 07-29-2003, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by HaloLauren
They are not working for profit. The money they make goes back into helping us, and if they make enough, they could lower taxes.

Democrat version: If they make enough, they could give more money to the "less fortunate".

You're kidding, right? Please tell me you were joking.

eyeronic · 07-29-2003, 10:47 AM

Cancelled, but not before the Fucking Bush administration spent $600,000!!!

Whoever says the Democrats waste money needs to check themselves!!!

The Bush administration is the worst ever!!!

Here's the article that says how much they spent.

Stare At The Sun · 07-29-2003, 01:53 PM

Absolutly unreal. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I just cant handle this anymore, my blood pressure is rising...*sigh* Maybe one day things will get better

lurkette · 07-29-2003, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by eyeronic
Cancelled, but not before the Fucking Bush administration spent $600,000!!!

I don't meant to stick up for this stupid idea, or for the Bush administration, but $600,000 is a drop in the proverbial bucket of the U.S. Budget. I'll be they spend more on toilet paper for the restrooms at the Capitol. Nothing to get bent out of shape about. (Of course, it's $600K that could have gone toward something worthwhile, but probably wouldn't have anyhow.)

guy2003 · 07-29-2003, 03:08 PM

I'm extremely dissipionted in the betting. Don't the victims of these types of crimes deserve better than this?

chavos · 07-29-2003, 04:17 PM

God Bless Poindexter.... Liberals have rarely found such a fuggin ridiculous bogeyman, and i for one am glad to have him around, if only as a fundraising scare tactic. He doesn't get to do shit, expect for propose bad ideas that get shot down on national press before they do anything. What a great job.

tinfoil · 07-29-2003, 06:15 PM

This is easily one of the most ludicrous things I have seen. The people involved should be fired for wasting tax payer money.

Betting on death? No thanks. What's next, Terrorist Survivor? Only on Fox, by the way.

oldman2003 · 07-29-2003, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by guy2003
I'm extremely dissipionted in the betting. Don't the victims of these types of crimes deserve better than this?

I agree....

Gorgo · 07-29-2003, 07:23 PM

Hmm, Off Track Betting for Terrorists attacks. Who the hell thinks of these crazy ideas. Forget investing in pork belly futures, I want some of that 3,000 die from Anthrax in the Subway action . . .

Could it be the same folks who think $10 billion for a Missle Defense System will prevent a land-based nuclear terrorist attack so bad it will make Oklahoma City look like a mud puddle?

Bill O'Rights · 07-30-2003, 08:22 AM

It says something when crap like this no longer even surprises me anymore. All I can do is sit here and shake my head in complete and total disbelief, and utter disgust.

The Bolshevist · 07-30-2003, 12:06 PM

Walt Disney World Nuked 2:1
Bush says something silly 1:1
Osama opens porn site 5:1
Qusay and Uday aren't dead 7:1
Saddam steals Hawaiian islands, holds them for ransom 11:1
Korea nukes Seattle 12:1
Korea nukes Canberra 20:1
Iran deposes leaders, holds free elections 300:1
Democrats win in 04 500:1
Santa Claus is in league with the devil, has pedophilic tendencies - No bets.

chavos · 07-30-2003, 12:29 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/...ket/index.html

As the link elaborates, the market idea has been killed under bipartisan pressure, mostly from the Senate. The $8 million that was ear marked will apparently going elsewhere. Good riddance.

sunstone · 07-30-2003, 01:02 PM

When I first saw this I really thought it was satire. I can't believe they actually did something like this. Can you wonder why the rest of the world is convinced our leadership has totally lost control?? What exactly would most Americans say if this same scheme was announced in one of the countries on our "enemy" list??
This, sadly, is an indication of a serious decline in our society and just leaves me shaking my head in disbelief.

KoKenZen · 07-30-2003, 01:25 PM

Tis a brialiant idea

Xell101 · 07-30-2003, 06:14 PM

Logical, in an odd osrt of way...

Gorgo · 07-31-2003, 03:38 PM

Good News ! ! !

Not only was this assinine project put in the circular file next to the desk, the creative originator of the idea, a former National Security Advisor for Ronald Reagen aka ex-USN Admiral John Pointdexster, will be resigning. Donald Rumsfield suggested it stating Pointdexster had lost all credibility.

Odds that Pointdexster was a scapegoat for the real creator: 1:5

Odds that Oliver North acted alone in Iran-Contra dealings: 1:10

dy156 · 08-04-2003, 11:27 AM

I think that these Senators are posturing and that it is short sighted to eliminate a potential source of intelligence. Someone profitted from selling American and United Airlines stock right before 9/11, and I also read that futures markets were a better predictor of Florida weather than meteorologists in a study involving citrus futures. I think we should use the intelligence we can get, and this program should not have been cancelled.

airline stock sales prior to 9/11

onetime2 · 08-05-2003, 11:43 AM

I thought it was an interesting concept. Basically it gets a whole bunch of brain power thinking about the situation and a ranking of what they see as the most likely targets. The outcomes that are most heavily wagered on are obviously seen as the most likely to occur by those taking the time to analyze the situation thoroughly.

In reality it is probably a bad idea because you probably will attract quite a few wack jobs and those that are just interested in betting on messed up things.

The concept is not that far from the calls from the various law enforcement agencies that came out after 9/11 looking for screenwriters, authors, etc to share their ideas for future terrorist attacks with them.

j8ear · 08-05-2003, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tinfoil
The people involved should be fired for wasting tax payer money.

~That~ is one of the funniest things I have ever read in my whole life.

eyeronic · 08-05-2003, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dy156
I think that these Senators are posturing and that it is short sighted to eliminate a potential source of intelligence. Someone profitted from selling American and United Airlines stock right before 9/11, and I also read that futures markets were a better predictor of Florida weather than meteorologists in a study involving citrus futures. I think we should use the intelligence we can get, and this program should not have been cancelled.

airline stock sales prior to 9/11

I still think it's a crackpot idea, but I now understand where the notion came from. Great SNOPES link. Fascinating. Makes you wonder how many people knew about 9/11 before it happened. Thanks dy156.

07-29-2003, 07:30 AM	#1 (permalink)
eyeronic I run E. Location: New York	Betting on the next terrorist attacks? The pentagon has come up with a brilliant plan to try to catch terrorists. They will hunt the terrorists down over the internet when they bet on their own attacks(or something like that). This is one of the most sick and warped things I've ever seen: New York Times July 29th Pentagon Prepares a Futures Market on Terror Attacks By CARL HULSE ASHINGTON, July 28 — The Pentagon office that proposed spying electronically on Americans to monitor potential terrorists has a new experiment. It is an online futures trading market, disclosed today by critics, in which anonymous speculators would bet on forecasting terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups. Traders bullish on a biological attack on Israel or bearish on the chances of a North Korean missile strike would have the opportunity to bet on the likelihood of such events on a new Internet site established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The Pentagon called its latest idea a new way of predicting events and part of its search for the "broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks." Two Democratic senators who reported the plan called it morally repugnant and grotesque. The senators said the program fell under the control of Adm. John M. Poindexter, President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser. One of the two senators, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax. "Can you imagine," Mr. Dorgan asked, "if another country set up a betting parlor so that people could go in — and is sponsored by the government itself — people could go in and bet on the assassination of an American political figure?" After Mr. Dorgan and his fellow critic, Ron Wyden of Oregon, spoke out, the Pentagon sought to play down the importance of a program for which the Bush administration has sought $8 million through 2005. The White House also altered the Web site so that the potential events to be considered by the market that were visible earlier in the day at www.policyanalysismarket.org could no longer be seen. But by that time, Republican officials in the Senate were privately shaking their heads over the planned trading. One top aide said he hoped that the Pentagon had a good explanation for it. The Pentagon, in defending the program, said such futures trading had proven effective in predicting other events like oil prices, elections and movie ticket sales. "Research indicates that markets are extremely efficient, effective and timely aggregators of dispersed and even hidden information," the Defense Department said in a statement. "Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as elections results; they are often better than expert opinions." According to descriptions given to Congress, available at the Web site and provided by the two senators, traders who register would deposit money into an account similar to a stock account and win or lose money based on predicting events. "For instance," Mr. Wyden said, "you may think early on that Prime Minister X is going to be assassinated. So you buy the futures contracts for 5 cents each. As more people begin to think the person's going to be assassinated, the cost of the contract could go up, to 50 cents. "The payoff if he's assassinated is $1 per future. So if it comes to pass, and those who bought at 5 cents make 95 cents. Those who bought at 50 cents make 50 cents." The senators also suggested that terrorists could participate because the traders' identities will be unknown. "This appears to encourage terrorists to participate, either to profit from their terrorist activities or to bet against them in order to mislead U.S. intelligence authorities," they said in a letter to Admiral Poindexter, the director of the Terrorism Information Awareness Office, which the opponents said had developed the idea. The initiative, called the Policy Analysis Market, is to begin registering up to 1,000 traders on Friday. It is the latest problem for the advanced projects agency, or Darpa, a Pentagon unit that has run into controversy for the Terrorism Information Office. Admiral Poindexter once described a sweeping electronic surveillance plan as a way of forestalling terrorism by tapping into computer databases to collect medical, travel, credit and financial records. Worried about the reach of the program, Congress this year prohibited what was called the Total Information Awareness program from being used against Americans. Its name was changed to the Terrorism Information Awareness program. This month, the Senate agreed to block all spending on the program. The House did not. Mr. Wyden said he hoped that the new disclosure about the trading program would be the death blow for Admiral Poindexter's plan. The Pentagon did not provide details of the program like how much money participants would have to deposit in accounts. Trading is to begin on Oct. 1, with the number of participants initially limited to 1,000 and possibly expanding to 10,000 by Jan. 1. "Involvement in this group prediction process should prove engaging and may prove profitable," the Web site said. The overview of the plan said the market would focus on the economic, civil and military futures of Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey and the consequences of United States involvement with those nations. The creators of the market envision other trappings of existing markets like derivatives. In a statement, Darpa said the trading idea was "currently a small research program that faces a number of major technical challenges and uncertainties." "Chief among these," the agency said, "are: Can the market survive and will people continue to participate when U.S. authorities use it to prevent terrorist attacks? Can futures markets be manipulated by adversaries?" Mr. Dorgan and Mr. Wyden called for an immediate end to the project and said they would use its existence to justify cutting off financial support for the overall effort. In the letter to Admiral Poindexter, they called the initiative a "wasteful and absurd" use of tax dollars. "The American people want the federal government to use its resources enhancing our security, not gambling on it," the letter said. __________________ I hold with those that favor fire.

07-29-2003, 07:47 AM	#3 (permalink)
urizenxvii Tilted Location: location, location	argh! what's the name of that book! the one with the guy who's really smart and keeps changing roles? it's a sci fi novel from a while back. They have a system exactly like that, I think the system's called Delphi or something. __________________ BOOYAH!

07-29-2003, 09:22 AM	#7 (permalink)
The_Dude The GrandDaddy of them all! Location: Austin, TX	i thought it was a hoax too....are we getting that desperate? __________________ "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

07-29-2003, 10:03 AM	#8 (permalink)
lurkette My future is coming on Moderator Emeritus Location: east of the sun and west of the moon	What's to keep it from being directive instead of predictive - that is, someone sees a long shot event, places lots of money on it, then carries it out and collects the profits? It's not like they would have done it in the first place, it just becomes another way to make a bunch of money. Oop - just heard on NPR the program was terminated due to Senate objections. __________________ "If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." - Anatole France

07-29-2003, 10:10 AM	#9 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	wild... like a dead pool but on a grander scale __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

07-29-2003, 07:32 AM	#2 (permalink)
HaloLauren Banned	I dont think it will do them much good, but it should make them some money. Like Cartman Why the fuck not?

07-29-2003, 08:04 AM	#4 (permalink)
Pennington Banned Location: Autonomous Zone	http://www.ideosphere.com/ http://www.longbets.org/ It's been done.

07-29-2003, 08:05 AM	#5 (permalink)
HaloLauren Banned	It's been done by individuals, not by the government. I'd much rather see the government making money off of it than some rube.

07-29-2003, 10:23 AM	#10 (permalink)
SaltPork Everything's better with bacon Location: In your local grocer's freezer.	This by far is one of the worst ideas that the govt has ever had, it ranks right up there with welfare. __________________ It was like that when I got here....I swear.

07-29-2003, 10:25 AM	#11 (permalink)
Lord Humungus Addict Location: The Outer rim of HELL	I don't really know to think about that. Lets just turn our entire civilization into gambling junkies so we can piss away our hard earned money and jump out of tall story buildings. Maybe we can start betting on all the people who will jump out of a tall building because they lost a bet that a political figure was going to get killed on a sunday but rather got killed on a monday. Then we can start betting on whos gonna win a bet on the bet placed on the guy that jumped out of a building because he lost a bet. Fine idea! Sick bastards. __________________ I am still searching for the movie this quote was in... "Make you strong, like bull", said in a russian accent Post here if you know anything...PLEASE! Last edited by Lord Humungus; 07-29-2003 at 10:28 AM..

07-29-2003, 10:47 AM	#14 (permalink)
eyeronic I run E. Location: New York	Cancelled, but not before the Fucking Bush administration spent $600,000!!! Whoever says the Democrats waste money needs to check themselves!!! The Bush administration is the worst ever!!! Here's the article that says how much they spent. __________________ I hold with those that favor fire.

07-29-2003, 01:53 PM	#15 (permalink)
Stare At The Sun Eh? Location: Somewhere over the rainbow	Absolutly unreal. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I just cant handle this anymore, my blood pressure is rising...sigh Maybe one day things will get better

07-29-2003, 03:08 PM	#17 (permalink)
guy2003 Banned Location: Tullahoma, TN	I'm extremely dissipionted in the betting. Don't the victims of these types of crimes deserve better than this?

07-29-2003, 04:17 PM	#18 (permalink)
chavos Banned Location: St. Paul, MN	God Bless Poindexter.... Liberals have rarely found such a fuggin ridiculous bogeyman, and i for one am glad to have him around, if only as a fundraising scare tactic. He doesn't get to do shit, expect for propose bad ideas that get shot down on national press before they do anything. What a great job.

07-29-2003, 06:15 PM	#19 (permalink)
tinfoil Fucking Hostile Location: Springford, ON, Canada	This is easily one of the most ludicrous things I have seen. The people involved should be fired for wasting tax payer money. Betting on death? No thanks. What's next, Terrorist Survivor? Only on Fox, by the way. __________________ Get off your fuckin cross. We need the fuckin space to nail the next fool martyr.

07-30-2003, 01:25 PM	#26 (permalink)
KoKenZen Upright	Tis a brialiant idea

07-30-2003, 06:14 PM	#27 (permalink)
Xell101 Junkie	Logical, in an odd osrt of way...

07-29-2003, 07:23 PM	#21 (permalink)
Gorgo Tilted Location: Tampa Bay, Florida	Hmm, Off Track Betting for Terrorists attacks. Who the hell thinks of these crazy ideas. Forget investing in pork belly futures, I want some of that 3,000 die from Anthrax in the Subway action . . . Could it be the same folks who think $10 billion for a Missle Defense System will prevent a land-based nuclear terrorist attack so bad it will make Oklahoma City look like a mud puddle? __________________ Will Code for food . . .

07-30-2003, 08:22 AM	#22 (permalink)
Bill O'Rights will always be an Alyson Hanniganite Location: In the dust of the archives	It says something when crap like this no longer even surprises me anymore. All I can do is sit here and shake my head in complete and total disbelief, and utter disgust. __________________ "I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony "Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

07-30-2003, 12:06 PM	#23 (permalink)
The Bolshevist Insane Location: Vancouver, Canada	Walt Disney World Nuked 2:1 Bush says something silly 1:1 Osama opens porn site 5:1 Qusay and Uday aren't dead 7:1 Saddam steals Hawaiian islands, holds them for ransom 11:1 Korea nukes Seattle 12:1 Korea nukes Canberra 20:1 Iran deposes leaders, holds free elections 300:1 Democrats win in 04 500:1 Santa Claus is in league with the devil, has pedophilic tendencies - No bets. __________________ Workers of the world, UNITE! You have nothing to lose but your silly uniforms and paper hats!!

07-30-2003, 12:29 PM	#24 (permalink)
chavos Banned Location: St. Paul, MN	http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/...ket/index.html As the link elaborates, the market idea has been killed under bipartisan pressure, mostly from the Senate. The $8 million that was ear marked will apparently going elsewhere. Good riddance.

07-30-2003, 01:02 PM	#25 (permalink)
sunstone Upright Location: Pacific Northwest	When I first saw this I really thought it was satire. I can't believe they actually did something like this. Can you wonder why the rest of the world is convinced our leadership has totally lost control?? What exactly would most Americans say if this same scheme was announced in one of the countries on our "enemy" list?? This, sadly, is an indication of a serious decline in our society and just leaves me shaking my head in disbelief.

07-31-2003, 03:38 PM	#28 (permalink)
Gorgo Tilted Location: Tampa Bay, Florida	Good News ! ! ! Not only was this assinine project put in the circular file next to the desk, the creative originator of the idea, a former National Security Advisor for Ronald Reagen aka ex-USN Admiral John Pointdexster, will be resigning. Donald Rumsfield suggested it stating Pointdexster had lost all credibility. Odds that Pointdexster was a scapegoat for the real creator: 1:5 Odds that Oliver North acted alone in Iran-Contra dealings: 1:10 __________________ Will Code for food . . .

08-04-2003, 11:27 AM	#29 (permalink)
dy156 cookie Location: in the backwoods	I think that these Senators are posturing and that it is short sighted to eliminate a potential source of intelligence. Someone profitted from selling American and United Airlines stock right before 9/11, and I also read that futures markets were a better predictor of Florida weather than meteorologists in a study involving citrus futures. I think we should use the intelligence we can get, and this program should not have been cancelled. airline stock sales prior to 9/11

08-05-2003, 11:43 AM	#30 (permalink)
onetime2 Junkie Location: NJ	I thought it was an interesting concept. Basically it gets a whole bunch of brain power thinking about the situation and a ranking of what they see as the most likely targets. The outcomes that are most heavily wagered on are obviously seen as the most likely to occur by those taking the time to analyze the situation thoroughly. In reality it is probably a bad idea because you probably will attract quite a few wack jobs and those that are just interested in betting on messed up things. The concept is not that far from the calls from the various law enforcement agencies that came out after 9/11 looking for screenwriters, authors, etc to share their ideas for future terrorist attacks with them. __________________ Strive to be more curious than ignorant.