More debate stuff

Rachel was another attendee at the Clear Lake Candidate Forum. She wasn’t too impressed with Tom DeLay.

Rob, from whom I found the above link, notes that you can hear a debate between Richard Morrison and Michael Fjetland here on KPFT.

Speaking of Fjetland, he sent out his view of the debate via email. Click the More link to read it.

And Richard Morrison collected another newspaper endorsement, from the Brazoria Facts. That has nothing to do with the Clear Lake forum, but what the heck.

After telling the Galveston Daily News that he would not attend the Clear
Lake High School debate team candidate forum, co-sponsored by the (Military)
Reserve Officers Association, to his credit Mr. DeLay did appear Tuesday night.
It was last minute — so I made a last minute call to the TV media, who
came.

It was a packed house. They had me next to Mr. DeLay (who was on the far
right) and the two Morrison’s on my left and far left. Symbolic?

The kids did a great job putting it together. The form was similar to the
Presidential debates. No candidate knew the questions until they were asked.
Several audience members also had questions that were read.

I said that as a former GOP primary candidate, I represent the 40%
Republicans who refused to vote for Mr. DeLay in Ft Bend in March 2004, plus the 35%
of the population who consider themselves independent thinkers. (Yesterday at
the polls, I was running into Republicans who were voting only for Mr. Bush
and no one else, or voting for all Republicans except DeLay).

One question was on education. I said that Congress should not have
penalized teachers’ pensions. Then it gave itself a pay raise! Mr. DeLay said
Congress should not get involved in education. I said that we need to restore
teachers’ pension rights – we lost many good ones as a result of that unfair law.

Mr. DeLay fired primarily at the Democrat and myself – at one point DeLay
said to me: “appearing on TV does not make you a terrorism expert.” My
response was that I was warning about terrorism coming to the U.S. –on TV– during
the first Gulf War (long before 9-11). I first went to the Middle East when
the Democrat candidate was about 10-years old. If that doesn’t make me an
expert, what does?

I asked Mr. DeLay why he let Congress cut off NASA’s X-38 funding when it
was 99% complete and ready to go. How does this help NASA? I also asked why the
richest nation in the world is sending up astronauts in 25-year old Shuttles
while giving $136 billion in tax cuts to foreign gamblers and importers of
Chinese ceiling fans –when Congress should have updated the shuttles a decade
ago.

I said that we have to stop giving companies tax benefits for outsourcing
jobs. We can’t outsource our future.

The issue of health care came up. I said that we needed to drop health care
costs by legalizing the import of prescription drugs. Even the Bush
administration has changed its mind and has decided that Canadian medications are
safe. They are now trying to get flu vaccines from Canada. Right now members
of Congress have guaranteed access to flu shots while the public does not. If
I were in Congress I’d reject the shot and have the entire stock sent to the
nearest hospital and given to the very young and very old. We don’t need
special privileges for Congress, especially in times of shortages. For that
reason I have not attempted to get a flu shot this year.

Early voting is now going on. I ask for your support (including last-minute
donations) and your vote – to give Congress its third independent and first
Congressman with the global skills and local focus — who will work with both
sides of the aisle to find American solutions.

More details can be found at my website. Or call me direct at 713-213-5080
as some already have. I will answer your questions personally – you won’t be
dealing with a staffer.

Michael Fjetland
P.S.
Don’t forget that KPRC, Local Channel 2, will be airing 3-minute candidate
presentations this Saturday, October 23, between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. It’s a
public service act on their part and they deserve recognition for it. If you miss
it, it will run again October 31 from 4 – 5 p.m.

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