The first presidential debate is scheduled for this Friday, starting at 9:00 p.m. EST. Watching the presidential and vice presidential debates in the coming weeks is a great way to learn more about the candidates and their stances on issues that are important to women and their families. This week, AAUW sent an alert to our Action Network encouraging our members and supporters to participate in DebateWatch, a voter education program of the Commission on Presidential Debates that brings people together to watch the debates and talk about what they’ve learned. Hosting a DebateWatch party is a great way to engage family, friends, and your community in the upcoming elections, and it’s the perfect opportunity to hand out and discuss AAUW’s newly released Congressional Voting Record for the 110th Congress and voter guides.
You can also check out MyDebates.org, the official online component to the 2008 presidential debates. On this site, a product of a partnership between CPD and MySpace, you can take the issues quiz to see which candidate you agree with, see national stats based on other users’ responses, track the issues important to you throughout the debates, and watch the debates live.
After the debate is over, check out the background and validity of some of the candidates’ statements throughout the campaign season on sites like PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org.
You can also use MyDebates.org to submit questions for possible inclusion in the next presidential town hall debate on Oct. 7. If you could submit questions for all the debates, both presidential and vice presidential, what questions would you want to ask the candidates? What kind of answers are you looking for?
What about the retired people who have their 401 K in stock and can’t get their money out because if your on social security you are only allowed to make 35,000 a year any more than that and your tax go up as high as 85 per- cent so all you can do is watch what you worked for all yor life go away? Then all I hear about is bail out the banks instead of help the people.
Some in the government, like Barack Obama, are seeking to limit the American peoples’ access to on-demand, short term financial assistance. Some cities and towns are trying to impose restrictions on where these legitimate businesses can set up shop. Even worse, several states, including Georgia and North Carolina, have successfully imposed all-out bans on the industry, with several more attempting to follow suit. Citizens all across the nation are seeking to have their voices heard by fighting legislation that would obliterate the payday loan industry nationwide; misinformed political officials are pushing for a complete ban in the name of personal political gain, regardless of the hundreds of thousands of potential lost jobs in an already turbulent economy.
Questions to candidates:
Should all congress persons who received money from Fannie/Freddie be required to return it plus interest since its receipt was inappropriate?
Should retiring congress persons not be permitted to work there retroactively since doing so is a reward for past favors?
We hear what is going to be done for the middle class families and the ones who make over $250,000, what about the middle class single people????
All: Shaping Youth did a deconstruction of the various media literacy questions we should keep in mind to teach KIDS how to refine their critical thinking skills when it comes to ‘asking the right questions’ in the political arena…I’m about to compile another post on the new ‘MySpace for politicos’ just launching with a youth angle called “My Political World.com” too, so I guess my questions to ask the candidates are what the YOUTH that are inheriting some of these messes to clean up should expect from each candidate in terms of leaving a legacy with a positive ‘footprint’ rather than a toxic one. (figuratively and literally)
btw, here’s my media literacy post with embedded links to a wide array of kids’ civics lessons grazing kids’ awareness, using social media/marketing as a microphone to reach the next generation…
StageCrafting Conventions: Media Literacy Tips for Kids:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=2120
Amy Jussel
Founder/Exec. Dir.
http://www.ShapingYouth.org
As a retired Air Foce member who served in Iraq twice. I’d like to ask both candidates to explain why elected officials quitely stood by and watched greedy CEOS run their companys into the ground with money that wasn’t even theirs? While we are at war no less and while young americans are risking their life to protect the greedy life style of the rich and shameless. Secondly, what would they do differently than President Bush did to foster a more united nation?
Beckie, of course those programs that need it most will be cut first. I can remember back to a post on this blog about the Bush administration’s FY2009 budget proposal and the social programs that were slashed. At that time the budget deficit was $4.3 trillion dollars. With the continuing war in Iraq, the “stimulus” payments, and now the Wall Street bailout, I can’t even BEGIN to think how large the deficit will be. So much for smaller government, huh? Will our children be facing the next American Depression and how will the next president — Obama or McCain — pull the country through these tough economic times.
I would ask both candidates how they are going to pay for this huge bank payout of 700 billion. I would hope that schools, libraries and programs for universities would be the last to be cut.