[Vision2020] Leadership

[Jeff Harkins]

Sunil,

Thanks for the post.

If you want to know about a candidate's position on waterboarding, 
etc., then you are well within your rights and political protocol to 
ask that question of a local candidate.

I reject the notion that we should restrict our candidates to 
"relevant" subjects they've already brought up.  We sponsor and enjoy 
candidate forums in our community precisely because the audience can 
raise issues of importance to them.

What I find fascinating about the responses to my posts back to Ms. 
Swanson is that the issue was raised because she claimed:

"It seems that Jeff Harkins and the conservative candidates continue 
to advocate an economic model that no longer works - (B. J. Swanson, 
Oct. 30, 2007)"

My response was well within relevance and protocol for our local 
election.  I await a response from Mr. Ament, Ms. Pall, Mr. Lamar and 
Mr. Holmes. One of their supporters raised the issue.

Is she their spokeswoman on economic policy for the local level?

At 06:03 AM 10/31/2007, you wrote:
>If we're going to turn this into a 'wrap ourselves in the flag' exercise and
>launch into irrlelevancies not yet raised by the candidates themselves, then
>I want to know where they all come down on waterboarding, permanent
>detentions, the suspension of habeus corpus, secret prisons, and the war in
>Iraq.
>
>Or we can let the candidates discuss the relevant subjects they've already
>brought up.
>
>Sunil
>
>
> >From: Steffen Werner <swerner at uidaho.edu>
> >To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> >Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Leadership
> >Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:10:40 -0700
> >
> >I don't think that a discussion of basic economic theory is what will
> >move this discussion forward to a constructive and meaningful
> >exchange about local issues.  BJ unfortunately started her post with
> >a general statement that Jeff then responded to scholarly - but
> >unfortunately this focus is missing the main point that followed in
> >BJ's post.  I think all of the candidates running for office in this
> >local election (and probably most around this country) have no
> >objections to our basic economic principle of a free market economy.
> >The candidates also all share the same sense of duty when it comes to
> >making payroll (Tom has quite a few people working for him, none of
> >whom have filed complaints against him for not doing so - Linda the
> >same).  So - the real issue in this context is a rather small one
> >given the big issues raised (and probably not worthy of a Nobel, but
> >still relevant here in Moscow):  How much oversight should the
> >community, represented by the city council, have over proposed
> >business development?  Should this be relatively unfettered with very
> >lax oversight, or should it increase oversight if a development might
> >have a large impact on the community?  I think that this is a
> >reasonable discussion to have - and neither side of this discussion
> >is anti or any growth automatically just by preferring one over the
> >other.  Coming from a system (Germany) where there is a lot more
> >oversight and zoning restrictions than here, I find some of the
> >recently voiced positions quite baffling.  If probed I can give some
> >interesting examples in another post. So - why don't we focus on the
> >local issue at hand, instead of going off on a tangent (even though
> >that might make for better sound bites)
> >Steffen
> >--
> >Dr. Steffen Werner, Associate Professor
> >Dept. of Psychology and Communication Studies
> >University of Idaho
> >Moscow, ID 83844-3043
> >
> >=======================================================
> >  List services made available by First Step Internet,
> >  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >                http://www.fsr.net
> >           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> >=======================================================
>
>
>=======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>=======================================================