Today
Submitted by James Protzman on Sun, 03/30/2008 - 5:05pm
Below is the email we sent to the Moore and Perdue campaigns yesterday about broad topics for tomorrow's debate. As you look over these, please keep in mind this comment from Brunette in one of the earlier "questions" threads.
Questions should be short. Questions should be challenging. But what makes a question "tough" isn't necessarily the philosophical difficulty of a given issue. In fact, the more complex the question, the easier it is for a politician to dodge it. Sometimes what is interesting and revealing is not a question that necessarily looks "tough" but one that is sufficiently succinct that it is difficult to dodge, and yet provides insight into how the candidate thinks.
The floor is now officially open to tightly worded questions in any of the four topic areas below. Feel free to repeat a question you've already posted, or perhaps to rephrase it. No guarantee that any will be used to open the topic, but then again, you'll be free to ask it yourself.
Here's that email we sent.
Well, we've had an interesting few days of comments and questions. So far I've tracked more than 80 questions sprinkled here and there on the site, and I have received another dozen via email. With all that in mind, here are the four topic areas we hope to explore with you:
1. Technology and its role in transforming government, including transparency and privacy issues
2. Military matters, including the OLF controversy and private security contractors
3. The environmental economy, including water policy, energy policy and climate change
4. Public and university eduction - what's not working and whyWe'll open each topic with a specific question every 15 minutes, but of course you should expect lots of other questions from readers along the way. As we outlined in our proposal, you're completely free to respond to questions as you see fit.
We're really looking forward to your visit. It's an exciting time and a big step for North Carolina. Thank you.
James and Betsy
A couple of housekeeping items. The front-page may look a little different tomorrow, especially during the debate. We're planning to block new blog posts during the hour of the debate, just to steer clear of any potential problems. We'll have an ancillary debate thread available the whole time for your posting pleasure.
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Public Schools
Judge Howard Manning, while presiding over the Leandro case, has said the largest failing in poorly performing public schools is a lack of leadership and not a lack of funding.
How would you fix that problem?
--Arcangelo
Control of state nonprofit organizations
Non profit organizations across our state receive enormous amounts of state funds with little surpervision of the use or abuse of these funds and the treatment of their employees. What changes would you make to insure that these agencies are "in compliance" for more issues than just the grant requirements ie. sufficient and proper services to their clients, proper treatment of employees, a state wide policy to provide anonymous protection for employees who report abuse and/or hostile workplace environments and who report misuse of state funding to the state funding agencies, and a contact person at the state level where the employees can report any type of abuse with anonymity for any type of abuse? Presently the employees are subject to little or no assistance at the state level and certainly no protection in reporting these abuses and these very agencies are operating "at will" with huge amounts of our state tax monies.
Someone has to be #1.
Some state will be a leader in the Green Economy and will be to alternative energy what Michigan is to the automobile.
Why NOT North Carolina?
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Negative campaigning
The campaign commercials of Bev Perdue and Richard Moore frighten and confuse me. I think, how do the candidates get inside my TV? I don’t know, it's just the way I think. But there is one thing I DO know. Negative personal attacks give the impression that the party is disorganized, and benefits the competition.
Attack ads
Why don't either of you realize that attack ads are passe- Jesse's ghost can't vote or influence us. These ads cause lose of respect by prospective voters and great ammunition for the Republicans. Why don't you take the high road?
Public Transportation
Lady and gentlemen candidates, I am just a simple caveman, but it seems ironic even to me that North Carolina’s high gasoline tax is the very mechanism by which the state funds the construction of more highways. This I DO know. Sometimes when I am driving in my Range Rover, or flying in a luxury charter jet to Europe, I feel guilty that I am not still riding a woolly mammoth, and then I remember that the woolly mammoth is extinct, which makes me feel even more culpable. If elected, what will either candidate's administration do to increase the availability of quality public transportation? Thank you.