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May 5, 2007 at 14:42:35
Debate Questions Corporate Media Won't Ask by Kent Welton Page 2 of 3 page(s) |
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16. Are you a better-safe-than-sorry Conservative following a precautionary principle, or, are you willing to risk your own children’s world, and mine, due to your ignorance of climate science, and a willingness to place economic growth above planetary survival? 17. What do you think is a fair ratio of top executives to workers in a company. Is it 15-25 times, as both conservative, Peter Drucker, and Liberal, John Kenneth Galbriath, once agreed is proper, or do you think today’s 500-1 ratio is just keen? If so, do do you believe in an excess compensation tax and more public representation on corporate boards currently filled with cronies of the chief executive? 18. Do you believe the "Federal Reserve" is a mistake, that our public central bank and congressional money power bequeathed by the founders of this country should ever have been given to a private cabal of big banks? 19. Do you believe we should be forced to pay interest to borrow money from a private central bank in order to: 1. Go to war, 2. Repair billions of damage from hurricanes and natural disasters 3. Re-build critical infrastructure? 
20. Don’t you think its about time we audited the Federal Reserve, and made public the real owners of "our" central bank, and not simply the corporate fronts? Checked for the gold in Fort Knox? Have each state elect its representative to the Central Bank?
21. Where do these Hedge funds and private equity vulture funds get all their money? Are we, the public, involved in anyway as to what these banksters are doing by unnecessarily churning our economy to profit top executives and vulture capitalists? Can I go down to my local bank and borrow a couple of million to do a carry-trade deal?
22. Where is the public interest in "our" banking scheme?
23. Do you believe in 36% interest rates for credit cards? 700% interest for payday loans?
24. Would you support no-interest loans for housing, for all Americans, from a public central bank? Do you see the value of having money now spent on housing interest go into the economy instead - in this consumer-spending based economy? Are you familiar with economist’s velocity-of-money concept - wherein it is better to have more money in the hands of the many than in the hands of the few?
25. Do you believe that George Bush actually won the election in 2000 or 2004? Do you think it was appropriate for the Supreme court to anoint a president, in a "just this once" decision, rather than see the voting process completed fairly?
26. Who owns your own precinct's voting machine? Do you know? Do you favor the right of the public to fully inspect and certify the "proprietary" secret operating system and software with which "our" democracy currently functions?
27. Given the voting machine problems, would not it be better to return to paper ballots to assure the validity of election outcomes, and have a truly honest election process and democracy? Should not any voting machine company, given its position of power, have a publicly elected board and completely open system?
28. Should not each city choose their own voting system and not be subject to county, state or federal mandates? Should democracy not begin from the ground up?
29. Do you believe your faith is better than mine, or my preference for doubt as opposed to faith? Do you believe Jesus is the only son of god, or that you are among "God’s chosen people"?
30. Do you think the state should, in effect, become the father of children as soon as coitus is complete? If you are willing to force motherhood on pregnant women and girls, will you put up your own funds for the support of their unwanted children? Will you tax the unbelievers, rather than the Pope and Ayatollahs, to pay for religion’s unlimited population growth?
31. Do you support family planning expenditures? Do you think unlimited population growth is a good thing? What would you do to prevent growth-to-ruin?
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| 6 comments |
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Most of those questions are good, but I object to #11.
11. Do you believe it has been wise to become utterly dependent on a Communist, undemocratic, China for so much of what we need to live, and even for our critical defense needs? Why does it matter if the country we're dependent on is "Communist" or not? (Would it be any better if it was "capitalist?") The word "Communist" is just a red herring (no pun intended). China is thoroughly capitalist or committed to becoming so. There's almost nothing communist about it anymore, and even if there was, so what? The US is no democracy, or at best a fake democracy -- let's not kid ourselves. We have lost the moral right to look down at anyone. You could legitimately ask if it's wise to become so terribly dependent on ANY other country, but the fact that China embraced a certain form of state ownership from 1949 to the late 1970's, and that it's not particularly democratic -- I don't think this makes US dependence on China any better or worse. by Richard Mynick (2 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1552 comments [255 recommended, 5 rejected]) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 3:39:58 PM  (0+)
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questions
These are all loaded questions which try to frame the issues -- and not really suitable for a debate, which should encourage candidates to explain his position on various issues. The idea of a debate is not all that great anyway -- a debate is held to 'win' the debate, not to inform voters about the candidates. by Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 997 comments) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 3:55:25 PM (0+)
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Reply: These are not debates
The "Presidential Debates" and "Candidate Debates" are not really debates. They are situational media for talking point distribution. A "debate" would be more like: "Mr. Kucinich, you are opposed to the war in Iraq. Mr. Romney, you are in favor. Begin." Ain't gonna happen. Most of the questions are interesting for simply showing how the FRAME of the "discussions" during our elections are so well controlled by the right-wing-leaning corporate-controlled media. Often, it's not what people are saying -- it's what they are NOT EVEN TALKING ABOUT that really matters the most. by Charlie L (2 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 747 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 5:25:46 PM (0+)
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Media is a middleman/censor for the Presidential Elections
I think it's essential to understand and teach your children that the problem with the presidential election system is the fact that it's all a vehicle to sell ad time and get ratings and that issues, ethics and policy are all secondary. by Gustav Wynn (77 articles, 65 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 422 comments [34 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 10:57:08 PM (0+)
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debate questions
Kent these are all very good questions and I am sure many of the candidates would answer them with a big line of word crafted bullshit that no one could make heads or tails of. Some would address the questions honestly and probably admit that America is fast becoming a corporate controlled oligarchy. Your questions about NAFTA and free trade are very important because I believe this policy has dramatically increased corporate power and is the most useful tool corporations have for the enslavement of labor. Some very important questions were not mentioned in your article and they are, Do you believe that it is right for an administration to look the other way and allow business to break tax and employment laws by hiring illegal immigrants? Look the other way when illegal immigrants use fake or borrowed social security numbers or drivers licences? Do you believe that our borders should be open and that a north American union should be formed so that goods and services(labor) can flow more freely? will allowing a massive amount of immigrants into our country create a labor surplus thus effectively driving down wages to near slavery level. These issues are important as corporate interests love trade policies like NAFTA and also are working hard to put together a system were they can have access to an unlimited amount of guest workers from anywhere in the world. This will destroy the American way of life and our middle class. The end result will be a country were two percent of the people hold ninety eight percent of the wealth. by Gary Denson (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 283 comments) on Sunday, May 6, 2007 at 8:55:31 AM (0+)
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Debate Questions
The only question worth asking is, "Have you examined the overwhelming mountain of evidence that shows that 9-11 was something other than what the official story says it was; have you thought critically about this evidence, and come to an informed conclusion?" Everything else is window dressing. by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 435 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, May 14, 2007 at 11:01:35 AM (0+)
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