>Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 18:47:29 -0500
>Message-Id: <200010032347.SAA10814 at chomsky.casbah.org>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: If We Ran the Presidential Debates...
>From: Kendall Clark <kclark at ntlug.org>
>
>If the Monkeyfist Collective ran the presidential debates, they'd be
>different in three ways: first, no corporate sponsors; second,
>Nader, Buchanan, David McReynolds, and Harry Browne would be
>included; third, no softball questions.
>
>Here are some of the tough questions we'd ask Bush and
>Gore.
>
>Best,
>Kendall Clark
>
>If We Ran the Presidential Debates...
>By Kendall Clark
>
>
> We'd like to see Ralph Nader in the presidential debates. That would
> certainly do more to revitalize political discourse, and the
> presidential race, than just about anything else that's
> conventionally possible. But, since that isn't going to happen,
> Bijan Parsia and I decided to come up with a list of questions we
> would ask if given the chance.
> 1. Mr. Gore, do you find the U'Wa's threat to commit mass suicide
> if Occidental Petroleum, a company with which you have long
> maintained very close ties, robs the U'Wa of their ancestral
> lands in Colombia a matter of concern? What are you doing to
> make sure the human rights of the U'Wa are respected by
> Occidental?
> 2. Mr. Bush, do you find it appropriate that Texas has slipped to
> 49th in the nation in spending on environmental regulation,
> protection, and cleanup, while Texas has more heavy
> petrochemical industry than any other state in the nation? How
> can anyone take seriously your claims to value environmental
> quality when, before you became a politician, you were a failed
> oilman?
> 3. Mr. Gore, you and President Clinton defeated George Bush in '92
> saying that during the "financial excesses of the 80s" he and
> Reagan had allowed federal spending deficits to run amok. Can't
> George Bush's son say the same thing here to you tonight,
> namely, haven't both you and Mr. Clinton presided over a
> Corporate America run amok with insanely high profit levels,
> secured at the expense of massive job cuts, made possible in
> part by trade deals, like NAFTA and the WTO, championed by you
> and the President? Haven't you presided over the bulging of the
> American income gap to historic proportions? Are you prepared to
> defend the massive disparities in income that exist today as
> fair, just, or desirable?
> 4. Mr. Bush, do you believe that anyone who does not "confess with
> their mouth and believe in their heart" that Jesus Christ is
> "the Son of God" and "died for their sins" will burn in a
> literal "lake of fire" for all eternity?
> 5. Mr. Gore, do you believe that it was appropriate for your wife,
> Tipper, to repeatedly put her photojournalism career on hold for
> the sake of your political career? Do you believe that your
> neglect of her, and your family, while writing your book and
> then joining Clinton on the '92 ticket drove her into the
> nervous breakdown she subsequently suffered?
> 6. Mr. Bush, since you support the War on Drugs, and since you've
> admitted to recreational substance abuse, shouldn't you either
> have served time in prison? If not, shouldn't you publicly
> pledge tonight to do all that you can, as President, to end the
> racist and genocidal disenfranchisement of the black population
> in America through unfair sentencing disparities between rock
> and powered cocaine?
> 7. Mr. Gore, just how many children must die of starvation,
> malnutrition, or easily-preventable disease before you abandon
> your immoral, siege warfare against Iraq? Why shouldn't
> President Clinton, Secretary of State Albright and you face
> charges of crimes against humanity at the World Court?
> 8. Mr. Bush, given you and your party's views on homosexuality,
> including both Reagan and Bush's pathetically slow response to
> acknowledge and confront the AIDS pandemic, don't you find it a
> matter of concern that your running mate's aide-de-camp, as
> reported last week in the NYT, is an avowed homosexual? Can you
> really work with Mr. Cheney when he seems willing to tolerate
> what your religion teaches is an abomination?
> 9. Mr. Gore, given the growing protest movement in America against
> corporate-dominated, so-called "globalization," don't you think
> it's time you said something publicly in support of the brave
> women and men, especially the young people, who have suffered
> official repression in Seattle, DC, Philadelphia, and in LA? Do
> you support the massive violations of their civil rights that
> occurred in LA to insure an uninterrupted and bucolic Democratic
> Convention?
> 10. Mr. Bush, given that the defense budget, roughly $300B per year,
> contains more than enough funding to provide health insurance,
> adequate daily food, housing, and child care for every poor
> child in America, are you seriously going to tell the American
> people, once you're President, that we cannot afford to help the
> most vulnerable among us? Why aren't you willing to cut Pentagon
> budget in order to help poor, hungry, sick children?
>
> And then we'd ask some really mean questions near the end, leaving
> the audience with the image of both of them flustered as hell:
> 1. Mr. Bush, how would you express compassion to Karla Tucker
> today? How do you defend to the American people your mockery of
> her just days before you presided over her execution? Do you
> really think capital punishment -- which disproportionately
> hurts the poor and people of color -- is just, or do you just
> like it? What's with the Bush men, anyway? Between you and Jeb
> in Florida, presiding over "Old Smoky," the state's
> malfunctioning electric chair, and your dad, who presided over
> the slaughter of Iraqis on the Basra Road, you all kill an awful
> lot of brown and black folk. I'm a native Texan, Mr. Bush, is it
> something about Texas that I don't quite understand?
> 2. Mr. Bush, given that, as Texas governor, you repeatedly ignored
> international opinion, as well as US treaties, in order to
> execute people: how do you expect to with the respect of folks
> who find capital punishment barbaric and respect the rule of
> law; do you think these facts will damage your credibility on
> human rights issues; and could you list the other treaties that,
> as president, you'd feel free to ignore?
> 3. Mr. Gore, would you care if President Clinton raped Juanita
> Broderick? If, at any point in the past eight years, you'd
> received conclusive, positive evidence on this matter, what
> would you have done?
> 4. Mr. Gore, given that you had the largest role in this
> administration that any VP has had in any administration to
> date, and you are notorious for your close, personal and working
> friendship with President Clinton, why didn't you do anything to
> restrain his more self and other-destructive behavior?
>
>
>--
>Posted on Monkeyfist at http://monkeyfist.com/articles/677