3 posts tagged “election”
Reason Magazine is a fun read. Even if you don't agree with its Libertarian point of view, it's hard to argue with their primary concern: freedom is good, and America needs more of it.
They recently posted an excellent entry on the coming elections, and how journalists of all kinds frequently lob soft balls at candidates.
Included in this entry is a list of 20 questions that the frontrunners of both parties need to be asked. These are questions that should make the candidates think, and on topics that the candidate probably doesn't have talking points to crutch them through answering them.
I'm going to repost the questions here, but you should still check out the article.
1) Former New York Mayor
Rudy Giuliani
"When you were mayor of New York, you made two attempts to extend your
term in
office. You opposed a term limits bill that voters passed; you publicly
speculated over staying in office after September 11, and only
reluctantly
stopped a third party from nominating you for a third term after the
state
legislature made it clear they wouldn't allow it. Given that the last
six years
have seen a vast expansion of presidential power, how can Americans
trust you
not to abuse the office and seek more and more personal
authority?"
2) Arizona Sen. John McCain
"You've backed
off on some campaign finance reforms, and you yourself are
opting out of
public financing for 2008. Could you explain why the other candidates
should
abide by the old campaign finance reforms, and by
McCain-Feingold?"
3) Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt
Romney
"When Sen. Hillary Clinton gave a mildly hawkish speech about Iran but
opened
the possibility of engaging with their leaders,
you
blasted her. ‘Advocating engagement displays a troubling
timidity toward a
terrible threat. The right strategy is not engagement, but economic and
diplomatic isolation.' Please enumerate which other countries you want
to
threaten instead of engage."
4) Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback
"You opposed President Clinton's 1999 action in Kosovo, and
said
at the time ‘I continue to implore the Clinton administration to
present a
clearly thought-out exit strategy from the hostilities in Kosovo.' Why
didn't
you apply this standard to the Bush administration over the last six
years?"
5) Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
"Your successor as Arkansas governor, Mike Beebe, is
considering
dropping the 'obesity report cards' you introduced. As
president, what
mandatory, federal programs would you introduce to schoolchildren to
get them in
shape?"
6) Texas Rep. Ron Paul
"You want to abolish the
Federal Reserve. What is your plan for grappling with the
international
financial instability - if not panic - that would follow this
move?"
7) Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo
"Five years ago
you
said ‘China is trying to export people' and continued, ‘It's
a policy for
them, a way of extending their hegemony. It's a government-sponsored
thing.' As
president, what measures would you take to stop Chinese people from
breeding so
energetically and dominating the world - and by extension, this
country?"
8) Former HHS Sec. Tommy
Thompson
"Could you briefly explain why every American should
get
a
computer chip implant?"
9) Former Virginia Gov. Jim
Gilmore
"In 2001
you
signed a proclamation celebrating European-American Heritage
and History
Month, only to rescind it when it was pointed out that David Duke
lobbied for
the holiday. If it was proposed by non-racists, would you support a
federal
European-American heritage month?"
10) California Rep. Duncan
Hunter
"You're perhaps the leading advocate for a fence on the Mexican border,
as you
won the funding for a border fence in California. However, that fence
was a
boondoggle that went far over budget and poured illegal immigrant
traffic over
into the Arizona desert. Does this call into question your solutions on
illegal
immigration?"
11) New York Sen. Hillary
Clinton
"Defending your vote in favor of the Iraq resolution,
you
said: ‘As a senator from New York, I lived through 9/11 and
am still dealing
with the aftereffects.' What was Iraq's role in the 9/11
attacks?"
12) Illinois Sen. Barack Obama
"In your 2004 campaign for Senate, you
approached
the issue of a nuclear Iran this way: ‘Us launching some
missile strikes
into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in. On the other
hand, having
a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse.'
How far
along would Iran's nuclear program have to get before an Obama
administration
launched missile strikes?"
13) Former North Carolina Sen. John
Edwards
"You have said you were mistaken to vote for the 2002 Iraq resolution.
But you
did more than that:
You
were a
co-sponsor of Sen. Joe Lieberman's war resolution, along with
Strom
Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and Zell Miller. Given the arc of your
flip-flop, why
should anyone trust your judgment on foreign policy?"
14) Delaware Sen. Joe Biden
"You were the author of the RAVE Act in the Senate. Can you explain why
glow
sticks should be considered drug paraphernalia, and as president what
you might
do to prohibit them?"
15) Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd
"When you were a congressman,
you
argued for ending funding to South Vietnam by saying: 'The
greatest gift our
country can give to the Cambodian people is peace, not guns. And the
best way to
accomplish that goal is by ending military aid now.' With that in mind,
don't
you have a credibility problem when you talk about ending the Iraq war
with
minimal repercussions?"
16) Former Iowa Gov. Tom
Vilsack
"Did
making
English the official language of Iowa cut back on the state's
influx of
illegal immigrants from Mexico?"
17) New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson
"Could you defend and explain
your
conduct in the Wen Ho Lee case, and why it doesn't disqualify
you from
holding another job that would deal daily with issues of national
security?"
18) Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich
"As a congressman, and
now
a committee chairman, you have made ‘media reform' a
priority. What do you
see as the president's role in regulating and limiting the media
available to
viewers?"
19) Former Alaska Sen. Mike
Gravel
"If you were prohibited from appearing at any debates or candidate
forums, would
you still be in this race?"
And the 20th question, a bonus question for any candidate who wants the extra points:
"You have to abolish one cabinet position. Name it."
Yes, that's more of a demand than a question. Easy to forget, but we're
allowed
to make those, too.
Well, I can't wait until Wednesday, and all of this election crap will be over.
I don't care what Republicrats say to each other, I'm voting Libertarian. Across the goddamn board.
You say it's throwing my vote away?
It's not. I'm not voting for somebody I don't like in order to keep somebody else I don't like from taking office. Do you think I should abandon my core principles just because the people who do represent my opinions will never win? That's insulting and stupid. If that's the case, then why bother voting at all? Why bother even pretending that you have a mind of your own?
I'm not voting for a Democrat just because I'm pro-choice and they are, too. Will Democrats ever actually try to legalize full civil union rights for homosexual couples? Will they ever actually try to pass a constitutional amendment protecting a woman's right to abortion? Of course not. Those are wedge issues. By pretending that a massive tide of anti-this or anti-that voters are poised to take those freedoms away, they create a need and an enemy - perfect ways to keep the votes rolling in and the campaign donations growing.
Take this crap about John Kerry, for instance.
He wasn't insulting the troops, dipshits. Do you really think he would commit complete career suicide? Do you think that he, speaking in favor of a Democrat running for an important office in an important election cycle, would actually say something so patently false and infuriating?
Of course he wouldn't.
He said that if you don't get an education, you could be "stuck in Iraq." This comment took place directly after a series of Bush bashings (saying that Bush is in a "state of denial and a state of deception"). The constant mantra from Democrats is that Bush is now "stuck in Iraq."
So, what's more likely? That Kerry, who already lost major points among veterans in the years following his own military service, and more recently got hammered by the Swift Boat smear campaign, would completely switch gears in the middle of a speech and start throwing insults at the very group of people that he himself once belonged to?
Or is it more likely that he was still insulting Bush for being "stuck in Iraq," citing the oft-repeated meme that Bush is stupid?
It doesn't make any goddamn sense for Kerry to be mocking the troops.
If a Democrat even suggests an ounce of ill will toward American soldiers, the conservatives make all kinds of noise about how much the evil liberals hate America.
It goes the same way with Republicans, too. For instance, any time a conservative even mentions race, he's labeled by the liberals as a racist.
So put down your outrage, force your knee to stop jerking, and think things through a little.
Kerry was making fun of Bush.
So apparently if you write a book that's, you know, fiction, it might cost you a whole ding-damn election.
It's not like he actually did any of the things that his pretend characters did in his pretend world.
I am not speaking as a biased douche, either - I don't believe that what Mark Foley did was all that bad, either (as long as what he did was simply send flirty, icky messages).
There's this thing called thought crime. Arresting people for possession of child pornography is, I think, an example of arresting on the basis of thought crime.
Why is child porn illegal? Because it exploits and abuses the subject, the child being photographed. Child abuse, especially child abuse of a sexual nature, should be really illegal.
But it should not be illegal to possess a record of the abuse. It's disgusting and awful and just about the least-appealing thing I can think of (you all know how I likes my women - I like them to be women), but should it be criminal?
One argument: a person who has child porn is a person who might be up to something else (like making some of his own).
Fine. Arrest him for that crime.
I fear for our country. Freedom used to mean something, I hear.