He hasn't made a good doc. movie since Roger and Me.
After watching Roger and Me, at age 25, I went out and bought Oldsmobile Delta 88 - made in flint, Michigan.
but his movies are bunch of bull now. too bad. He got too fat for his own good.

I recall the cold war ended nearly 20 years ago...

haha

Highway, the Cold War ended but the Soviet Union transitioned from a Communist system to basically a thugocracy and they are biding their time. They never really wanted to get rid of the USSR but they had no choice to with increasing debt and a revolting public.

Now some want socialism/communism here and they don't take the lessons of the past to heart ;-(

No my definition of spin is absolutely correct.  I'm sorry that you THINK otherwise but political science is my field of study and I know what it means.  And it means exactly what I said.  The curious thing is the examples you gave me follows MY DEFINITION of spin... NOT YOURS.  Taking the 9.7% number and simply using that as the only info without mentioning it is one of the higest in a long time or other info is spinning.  Actually your Michael Moore example is a classic example of spin.  Taking only a piece of the quote and twisting it such that it seems like he is saying something he isn't thus that Moore can say he should be removed from office because of this.  Hell it is so classic it has a name in philosophy called the Fallacy of suppressed evidence which states, intentionally failing to use information suspected of being relevant and significant. 

Source

And I'm pretty sure when you look at the definition you'll notice it is eerily similar to the definition of spin.  It's because it is essentially the fallacy of spin which has a more common name that you hear around the forums called cherry-picking.

Your definition, which is giving an opinion based on reported facts, is an editorial.  My definition of taking bits and pieces of information, overanalyzing them or twisting them to something it is or isn't necessarily to something that is preferable to you is spin.  There is no second definition there is no other translation.  And because I know that you are probably going to be hardheaded or stubborn about this I will even provide you links to the exact definition... the ones I used... just to make sure you understand this:

11. Slang. to cause to have a particular bias; influence in a certain direction: His assignment was to spin the reporters after the president's speech.

Source

Spin - a political agenda, twisting truths or facts into something that "proves" your point of view.

Source

Look guys I'm not here to play around with petty differences in ideological views.  It's obvious there are a lot of people that don't like Michael Moore... including me.  But that doesn't mean he gets special treatment above the rest in that he is worse.  When people blatanly go out to do nothing but spin the facts to their own agendas... that is the worst.  Anyone can blatantly lie and it'll be found out.  But it's more dangerous when someone can find some backing, spin it some way, and convince the ingnorant and gullible.  You can't really do that with full blown lies which is why they DONT do it because they know this is more effective. 

People are allowed to have their views and even more they can spin them if they want but it is not something I will ever respect.  I bet most, including Mafoo here, feel the same way.  I wish for a political world where the facts and opinions there of are discussed but instead we always get people trying at all costs to prove their opinions correct through falsehoods and half-truths.  Michael Moore helps to keep that going and I just don't respect it. 

Well not going to comment on your idea of USSR history but a little comment on socialism/capitalism.

Personally being a libertarian, it's hard to discuss capitalism and the economy here in America.  It's just something that I don't understand completely and how it'll work.  We look back at failures of socialism and we can find as many equal failures of capitalism.  Maybe both are just being approached incorrectly and need tweaking to get a better system.  But for the most part the systems we do have are not running that well.  Much to learn about global economy, we do.

I mean I'm not going to come out and say I have the answer to the economy and its name is socialism or capitalism or whatever it may be.  Really I don't know what that answer is and obviously no one else does either.  I have noticed that the effects of competition work well in a market and for a consumer.  Capitalism definitely appreciates this but this can be incorporated in countries as well.  Essentially it already is to tell ya the truth.  Not to mention one could argue some of these world corporations work as countries themselves rather than businesses. 

Too many things about the economy we don't understand which is why I doubt you know the answer or Michael Moore knows the answer.  I doubt none of the politicians know the answer either because the economists don't know the answer.  Maybe we are simply approaching the economy the wrong way to begin with.  Who knows eh.  Until then I'm content with our form of capitalism with competition being the main driving force.  But some of these global corporations that seek to be monopolies make it difficult and unnecessary government intervention as well.

I disagree.  I believe Gorbachov really wanted to get rid of the USSR.  As did the people and a lot of the people who helped made it possible.

It's just... it's a LOT harder to get stuff done in a democracy then it is a dictatorship... and without much expirence at it... for a lot of people... thing didn't get better.  It stayed the same... and for some even got worse...

and a lot of people are willing to give up freedom for prosperity.

Things were horrible in russia, but the busses always ran on time.

I used to work for a pair of chinese woman who ran a store and a number of kiosks.  They ahd a bust of Mao Ze Dong in the back of their storeroom and actually talked positive about the man.

The way they put it... say what you want about him and the stuff he did... but the rice bowls were always full.

Or rather that's what they said.  I thought they were crazy.

Looking back on it I think they might of smuggled drugs too... since everything they sold at the store was as they put it "pure profit"... so i could barter down as much as i want to get people to buy it and clear stock.

Well then again maybe they just got it off for ridiculiously cheap.

There are cultural differences between the East and West, and these different people expect different things from their leaders.

The West and East have the societal values of Individualism and Collectivism.  The United States is Individualistic and China is Collectivistic.  China, being collectivistic, has a hierarchial ideology where it isn't proper to question people higher up than you, whereas in America we have no problem questioning our leaders and politicans.  Its not a suprise that these cultural differences play out differently in a democratic or authoritian government, and have a role in what type of government develops.

I went on a long google search for the proper term, because its been a while since I studied it, and you'd be better off reading this link than listening to me try to explain the differences of something I couldnt even remember the name of.  Of course everything isnt that black and white, there are people who want the government to stay out of the free market but would gladly let the government tell people what sexuality they should have, but societies tend to swing one way or the other.

http://www.ncset.org/publications/essentialtools/diversity/partIII.asp

To make your life easier, I'll just copy Table 4.

COLLECTIVISM                                                                                                     INDIVIDUALISM

Michael Moore, I can't believe people actually buy the crap he rolls out in his films.
He is entertaining though, I always get a good laugh.

Mr. Moore isn't much of a documentary director, but they're always pretty entertaining. I'll watch this just for the experience of it.

Yeah, i'm used to the term. I just think it's a crazy way to live.

Sociology mostly bears this out.

Collectivism is the philosophy of those willing to be exploited.