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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (88534)	3/2/2007 10:48:19 AM
From: Crimson Ghost	Respond to of 173976

Tough Questions For Dem Hopefuls Margaret Kimberley March 01, 2007 Margaret Kimberley is an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report, where this column originally appeared. She also maintains a blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. What should you say if you bump into Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden or Bill Richardson? None of the Democratic candidates should be given a pass by the rank and file. Fundraising prowess plays too large a role in the nominations process, but it would be even more shameful if progressives shrugged off efforts to engage candidates and ask them hard questions about important issues. Fortunately, all of the candidates will have to debate one another and occasionally interact with the public. When they do they should have to tell us how they will restore democracy and end the terrible wrongs committed by the Bush administration. Here are ten questions they should answer before getting progressive support. 1. Will you end the occupation of Iraq? The invasion and occupation of Iraq is a terrible crime committed against the Iraqi people. More than 600,000 of them have been killed by the U.S. military, their resources have been stolen and Uncle Sam replaced Saddam as the Abu Ghraib jailer. Halliburton and other corporations have grown fat thanks to welfare provided courtesy of the American taxpayer. 2. Will Jose Padilla still be in prison? Will you close Guantanamo? Before George W. Bush became president, the United States government put suspects on trial. They had to be indicted and were then tried before juries comprised of civilian citizens. Even suspects in terror cases, whether American citizens or not, were entitled to due process. There were no "enemy combatants" driven to suicide by physical and psychological torture. 3. Will you enact a plan for universal health care? The health care system currently in existence is the most expensive on the planet, yet doesn't provide the best care—or any care at all—for millions of people. Insurance companies make enormous profits because they deny coverage to sick people. Only Americans are subjected to such an awful system. 4. Will your administration demand that Israel cease committing human rights abuses and waging war against its neighbors? Of all the presidents since Truman, Bush has been the worst proponent of letting Israel get and do whatever it wants. If young Israelis claiming to be art students attempt to penetrate DEA and FBI offices, someone should ask why. If Israel wants to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure and kill children with cluster bombs the United States should join in the worldwide condemnation. Only the United States government can force Israel to live up to its billing as the only democracy in the Middle East. 5. Will you keep abortion legal? The Christian right has never given up hope of overturning Roe v. Wade and superstar candidates Obama and Clinton have been less than resolute on the issue. Obama wants to credit anti-abortion activists because some of them are nice people who won't bomb clinics. Clinton calls abortion a "sad choice." Neither one gives hope of protecting a right that is supported by most Americans. 6. Will you reverse the Patriot Act and other attacks on civil liberties? The president has given himself the right to tap our phones, read our emails and find out which library books we read. A Democratic president must not only end these practices but make it impossible for them to be enacted again. 7. Will you rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast? The federal government is responsible for the destruction of this city and the dispersal of its population. It is an outright lie to say that "all levels of government" failed that city. There is no municipality or state, especially a poor one, that can rebuild a major city. The U.S. government must repair homes, rebuild businesses, hospitals and schools and bring residents back. 8. Will you decrease the prison population? The United States has a greater percentage of its population behind bars than any other nation on earth. In the near future fully half of those prisoners will be black people. A Democratic president should make a commitment to reduce the number of incarcerated citizens in every state and punish those with disproportionately large black prison populations. 9. Will you expose the criminal acts of the Bush administration? If a Democrat manages to win in November 2008 there must be no expression of kumbaya bipartisanship. Americans must be given a clear chronology of Bush evildoing that began in Florida in November 2000 when black Floridians eligible to vote were not allowed to do so. That was the beginning of a reign of terror on the American people that included wars of aggression waged in their name, threats of incarceration without trial and enormous tax cuts given to wealthy people and corporations. 10. Will you protect voting rights? Bush is president because of polling-place chicanery.Voting roll purges, ID requirements and "spoiled" paper ballots from black voters that end up in the round file all work to keep Republicans in power. What is the candidate's plan to end voting rights violations?