Last night's debate didn't get to any of the issues

[pscot]

that I wanted to hear about. Except for Iraq, it seemed to be pretty much bogged down in the 20TH century. It seemed like an argument over how to arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. So I made up a list of questions I'd like to hear answered. IMO anyone who's not thinking seriously about these issues really doesn't belong in the White House. This list is meant to be suggestive rather than comprehensive. Not necessarily in order of importance:

1) Do you believe that the military and our intelligence agencies should use torture as a way of gathering information?

2) Do large para-military operations like Blackwater Corporation, which employ thousands of armed mercenaries, represent a threat to constitutional democracy?

3) Why are we spending more than the rest of the world combined on our defense budget?

5) Do you believe space should be militarzed?

6) How far can the government go in gathering information about our own citizens? Is warrantless wire-tapping or the use of secret court approvals ok? How about blanket internet or email surveilance?

7) Can you give a couple of specific domestic initiatives you would put forward for dealing with global warming? "Clean" coal can't be one of them.

8) Global warming is expected to cause sea levels to rise, maybe as much as seven yards, over the next century. Such a rise would innundate Galveston, Houston, New Orleans and much of Florida, plus Long Island and a lot other places. Are you concerned about this? Do you have a plan to deal with it?

9) Do you believe that global oil production is at or near its peak? If so, how do we deal with declining energy supplies? What changes in infrastructure, if any, might be needed? Is continued highway construction a rational response to this situation?

10) Do you believe in the absolute separation of church and state? Do you think it's ok for the government to be subsidizing religious activity?

11) Do you think atheists are un-American?

12) The Bush administration has played fast and loose with the constitution in a number of areas: Separation of powers, lieing us into a war, the right of Congressional oversight, habeus corpus, the right to a fair and speedy trial, an independant judiciary to name a few. What needs to be done to prevent these kinds of constitutional end runs in the future?

13) Do you believe Americans have a right to privacy? In this information gathering age that right seems to be under assault from every direction. Do we need a constitutional amendment that spells it out? What steps would you take to protect our right to privacy?

14) Do you believe a corporation is a person? WE seem to have a government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations. What can be done to assert some semblance of control over the corporate leviathons which seem to be a law unto themselves?

[Tesha]

1. K&R...

[tyedyeto]

2. I don't recommend very often but this one I do!!

So many questions have been about the past instead of the future.

[Rydz777]

3. Serious questions such as you pose do not pass the media

cut. To be used, questions must be
(1) suitable for very brief, superficial answers, such as, "Senator Biden, are you capable of stemming your verbosity?" or
(2) entertaining, such as (to Republicans): "What do you think of Bill Clinton returning to the White House?" or
(3) provide an opportunity for pandering, such as, "Do you think our network has been fair in its coverage of your campaign?"

[JeffR]

4. Just gave this its fifth rec. THANK YOU!

As far as debates go, my fifth grade teacher attempted to teach us a little about formal debating technique, and we staged a debate far more convincing than what I saw last night.

What depresses me more than anything are the endless numbers of silly, "I think so-and-so won" posts I've seen since. We're supposed to be an informed, politically aware community here. Anyone informed and politically aware should recognize that this wasn't a debate in any meaningful sense of the term.

The political system in America is broken, the media is broken, we're sleepwalking to the edge of the abyss, and all some people want to talk about is how Biden or Clinton or Edwards or whoever "won" the "debate", "scored big", and so on ad nauseam.

To hell with it.

edit: sp

[pscot]

6. Sleepwalking to the edge of the abyss

is what I'm trying to get at here. Are we really going to wait until most of Maryland's eastern shore is under water to get a serious conversation going? Are we going to leave this stuff for the rats and roaches to figure out? The attitude is positively midiaeval. How can we be so deaf, dumb and blind collectively? We're no better than a bunch of chimps, screeching and throwing shit at one another while our little patch of jungle is being cut down around us to build shipping pallets.

[JeffR]

8. Agree.

My theory, not scientifically verifiable, is that the Right is turning a blind eye because there's money to be made - a sort of economic last roundup - while the uncommitted center is indifferent. In their defense, they may be heavily pre-occupied dealing with life in Bushworld; ironically, many of them seem not to make any connection between Bushworld and Bush.

As to the Left, the apparent state of affairs now is akin to what it was in 1972. Paul Simon wrote about that mood eliptically, in many of the songs from his first solo album. One quote has stayed with me all this time:

I notice so many people, slipping away
And many more waiting in the lines
In the courtrooms today.

That brings back an era, and also goes a long way to describing the current one.

The nation has not been so utterly dysfunctional since the Sixties. The world needs another American Revolution. The Revolution of the Sixties failed. We cannot afford to fail again. But we're all in shock, connected but diffuse, every day having to assimilate more information about just how badly everything has been damaged. It's overwhelming, sometimes.

[cascadiance]

5. Blitzer had the opportunity to follow up Biden's note on public financing of campaigns...

... with some of the other candidates, but predictably chose to avoid it! Yes, CNN, etc. is avoiding the real issues! The corporatocracy still wants us distracted with other emotional things!

[IChing]

7. Blitzer is a major tool if not an operative-BTW- great questions

I didn't listen to the debate but I heard Al Gore won.

[OneBlueSky]

9. great start, pscot . . . each of these suggests other questions, and . . .

there are any number of others that could/should be included, e.g. . .

- What's your position on the use of depleted uranium weapons?

- How will you improve food safety in the U.S.?

- Will you support a REAL, thorough investigation of 9/11?

etc. etc. etc. . .