How to Ask Questions of Political Candidates

Political candidates love to meet and greet voters face to face, and it's a great opportunity for voters to ask the candidates how they stand on a specific issue. But some candidates are very good at telling the individual voter what they want to hear, rather than what the candidates actual opinion is, and therefore how they are likely to vote on the issue.

For example, when a voter asks a candidate, "What about supporting the Second Amendment?" the candidate knows that he has to give some sort of pro-gun rights answer to that voter to increase the chance of that person voting for him .

Likewise, when another voter who asks the same candidate, "Why can't we just ban handguns?" that same candidate knows that depending on his real opinion on that issue, he can either open up to that voter and wholeheartedly agree with them, or at least soften his stance on the issue in order to appease them.

Matchsticks under the fingernails may be one way to get a truthful answer from a candidate, but there is a better way. And it's all about how the question is asked: "What about guns?" gives no indication how the person asking the question feels about the issue. Therefore, the candidate cannot fabricate an answer, he might as well say how he really feels and risk giving an answer that the voter disagrees with.

This approach can work with any candidate on just about any issue. Try it and watch them squirm as they try to figure out an appropriate answer. It's fun, and often very interesting.

Terrorism Against the West - A Chain of Events

August 7, 1998 I was sitting at work, checking the news online when the news broke that two US embassies in Africa had been bombed by terrorists; one in Kenya and the other in Tanzania.
In January 1999, a US Government accountability review board report stated concerns over the "Inadequacy of resources to provide security against terrorist attacks ... and the relative low priority accorded security concerns throughout the US government ..."

The embassy bombings reminded me of the bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983 when 241 Americans were killed by a suicide bomber who drove a truck carrying six tons of TNT into the barracks.

In October 1985, the cruise ship Achile Lauro was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in the Mediterranean Sea. The hijackers demanded that 50 Palestinians be released from jail in Israel. They murdered an American tourist in his wheelchair and threw his body overboard.

On Dec 21 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded aboard Pan Am flight 103 above Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground. One of the terrorists responsible for the bombing was later tried and imprisoned in Scotland, but later released on humanitarian grounds because his doctor thought he only had three months to live. He's still alive and living in Libya.

At the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, terrorists exploded a truck bomb in the basement of the North Tower, killing six people and injuring 1,042.

On October 12, 2000, the US Navy warship, USS Cole was attacked while it was refueling in the port of Aden in Yemen. A small boat carrying suicide bombers and an estimated 1,000 pounds of high explosive approached the side of the ship and blew up, causing a huge gash in the hull, killing seventeen sailors and injuring 39 others.


On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four US airliners and flew two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth aircraft--thanks to the bravery of the passengers and crew, who fought back against the hijackers--into a field in Pennsylvania.

Madrid, Spain, March 11, 2004, in the worst terrorist attack in Spain's history, terrorists bombed four commuter rail lines into Madrid, killing 190 people and wounding 1800.

London, England, July 7, 2005, four terrorists blew up three London Underground trains and one bus, killing 52 civilians and wounding approximately 700 more.


On November 5, 2009, Nidal Malik Hasan, a US Army officer stationed at FT. Hood, Texas shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others. He survived being shot by a civilian police officer, who then arrested him. Today, a military court will determine whether to put the accused officer on trial.

Today, the civilian trial begins in New York City of a man accused of being involved in the bombings of the two American embassies in Africa. The judge has thrown out the prosecution's star witness.

I'm sure that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the West's support for the Pakistan government in it's efforts to neutralize the threat of terrorism from within its borders have all helped to reduce the threat of more terrorist attacks in the west. But it isn't enough. It seems to me that the average person in the street has not really woken up to the fact that there are no front lines and that this is not a conventional war. The only time the average person really thinks about terrorism is when they have to take their shoes off at the security checkpoint at the airport. That is not enough.

There are two important things to remember:
1. Everyone is a combatant.
2. Whatever methods and tactics prove successful overseas, sooner or later they will show up here in America.

Are we ready? Are we in Condition Yellow?

Johny Winter On Tour

We got a chance to see legendary rock and blues guitarist Johnny Winter in a little bar called the Belly Up in Aspen, Colorado the other night. It makes such a nice change to sit and have a beer twenty feet from the stage instead of sitting in a huge, impersonal auditoreum surrounded by thousands of people. Johnny and his three-piece band (rythm guitar, bass, and drums) played for a solid ninety minutes with only one slight pause while he changed guitars. He kicked of the session with a rockin' rendition of Freddie King's "Hideaway" and just blew the audience away through the rest of the set with 50s rock 'n roll numbers like "Bony Moronie" and blues standards like Freddie King's "Tore Down."

























And what would a Winter gig be without his version of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61"--which Johnny and the band played at double time, without missing a beat! Not bad for an old guy who has to sit on a chair for the entire gig; but his fingers are still lightning fast and his playing looks so effortless. Not surprising though, from an artist who regularly makes it into Rolling Stones Top 100 Guitarists list.

Keep on rockin', Johnny!