Questions for politicians and political leaders

Many of today's political problems could be solved if people would get off their couches, grab their video cameras, and go ask politicians tough questions to their face at their public appearances. Those tough questions would point out flaws in the policies those politicians espouse, call them on their lies, and generally hold them accountable. Their answers to those questions can then be uploaded to video sharing sites so thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of people can see them.

If politicians knew that regular citizens would expose their lies and call them on their flawed policies to their face on video, fewer of them would lie and fewer of them would offer flawed policies. Please note that I'm discussing questions, not just rants. I'm also not suggesting asking questions about relatively minor personal matters, hypocrisy, and so on. Note also that I'm referring to "prosecutorial-style" questions, which is quite a bit different from what's to be found on cable TV.

Don't count on the mainstream media to ask those type of questions: they've rarely shown an interest in actually pressing politicians on issues, and almost all of them have no knowledge of specialized topics.

Regular citizens have to ask these questions. And, if for some reason you can't do it, then at the very least you can urge others to get involved.

Some possible questions are among the posts listed below. A couple examples of what not to do are here. Some examples of questions that were asked are here. And, if you want to come up with your own questions, here are some tips.

And, here's the outlines of an action plan:

1. Find a few friends and start a local group. Your focus can be on one or more local politicians or on any national politicians who come to your area.
2. Find others to join the group; use Facebook, Craigslist, local newspaper and other forums, etc.
3. Compile a list of future public events that politicians will be attending in your area.
4. Recruit one or more people to ask questions; if you can find a trial lawyer or similar that would be great.
5. Find some questions; feel free to use the ones in the posts below or use the guide linked above. I'm also willing to edit questions for maximum effectiveness.
6. Get a video camera, a Youtube account, and Windows MovieMaker.
7. Go to the event and ask the question.
8. If you get a good response, upload it to Youtube and promote it via blogs, forums, Digg, Reddit, etc.

Last modified Mar 28, 2009
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

More questions for DHS' Janet Napolitano - 11/13/2009

... it; for an action plan see the question authority page. Even if you can't ask a question yourself, you can at the least promote that plan. Here's one question, more to follow: 1. "On 11/13/09 you said that the DHS has - quote - 'held stakeholder meetings with more than 1,000 people and organizations across the country. The businesses, community leaders, labor leaders, faith gr...

Ask Janet Napolitano questions in Washington DC: Friday, November 13, 2009 - 11/09/2009

[UPDATES BELOW] This Friday the 13th of November 2009, Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security will be speaking at the Center for American Progress, and there might be some form of question and answer session. If you're in Washington DC and can go there and ask her one of my questions - or a tough question you can provide - I urge you to do so. If you do get to ask the questio...

How to make Michelle Bachmann's plan to block Obamacare work - 11/05/2009

... I've been promoting the question authority plan, and in this case I wanted people to go to townhalls and ask tough questions on video about the immigration-related issues of Obamacare. That post is from August 14, 2009 post, right in the middle of townhall season. If any of the tea partiers had asked one of those questions or had otherwise tried to follow my plan, they could have had a major...

Ask Doug Hoffman these immigration questions - 10/31/2009

... supporters can see it; see the question authority summary for an action plan. For Owens supporters, getting a video like that would reduce Hoffman's position with his base. For Hoffman supporters, getting a video like that might encourage him to drop his apparent Bush/RINO-like position on this issue. A few questions follow, and see the immigration questions for Republicans for more:

Little Green Footballs has ObamaCare questions - 8/25/2009

Someone associated with Little Green Footballs has compiled a list of questions about Obama healthcare here. There are several dozen questions and they're encouraging their readers to go ask them at townhalls and the like. Unfortunately, at post time, there's only one that's marked as answered: whether illegal aliens will be covered under the plan. LGF says they won't be covere...

Ask better questions about illegal aliens receiving healthcare at townhalls - 8/14/2009

Apparently some of the questions at recent townhalls have been about illegal aliens receiving Obama healthcare. Unfortunately, if the report at [1] is accurate, the questions have been weak and may have actually helped the Democrats rather than revealed what they intend to do. As detailed by Obama himself, the Democrats do intend to give UHC to current illegal aliens by changing their status first...

Weren't violent confrontations at healthcare townhalls part of the plan? - 8/08/2009

... on my two-and-a-half year old question authority plan. If they'd done that, instead of angry rants, the flaws in the Democrats' plan - and the inability of those pushing their plan to plan for contingencies - would have become obvious to millions of people via Youtube and other sites. We could have had a civil debate and raised the level of discourse in the U.S. Obviously, that didn...

"Operation Embarrass Your Congressman": OK, but better questions please - 8/02/2009

... year old plan outlined in the question authority summary. Since February 2007, I've spent countless hours urging people to go to appearances by politicians and ask them tough questions on video, all without much of any help and without success. I don't know if they got the idea from me or not, but in any case I can't quibble too much since if they actually follow through that might...

How to stop Cap and Trade the smart and effective way - 6/26/2009

[Note: this site doesn't follow these issues; we'd probably oppose Cap and Trade but we haven't looked into it. This is here for those who follow those issues and who want to do something effective.]

Ask Obama questions in Albuquerque on May 14, 2009 - 5/11/2009

Barack Obama is conducting a town hall on May 14, 2009 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. You can sign up for tickets at whitehouse.gov/newmexicotownhall-5-14 but you have to do it before 5pm today. The goal of getting a ticket would be to ask him a tough question designed to make him look bad. It's vitally important to do that in the right way; Glenn Reynolds illustrates how to do things in the wro...

Baby steps: Instapundit finally pushing my two year old idea to ask politicians tough questions on video - 4/19/2009

... or other politicians; see the question authority page for the overview and an action plan. Basically it's a Joe the Plumber type of idea, albeit with JTP replaced by "Pete the Prosecutor" or "William the Wonk".

Jan Schakowsky: tea parties are "despicable". Here's how to affect her political career - 4/18/2009

... the basic action plan in the question authority summary. One of the best questions you can ask is the one in the DREAM Act summary; Schakowsky isn't a co-sponsor of the 2009 version, but she did co-sponsor the 2007 version. If she tries to bluff her way out of it by claiming that there's some difference between the 2009 and 2007 versions, point out that both will have the same impact of...

Sen. Blanche Lincoln thanks you for your input on the SAVE Act, will be in touch - 4/11/2009

On the attached video, Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln responds to citizen input on the SAVE Act and her related push to increase volunteerism. This is part of the Youtube effort called "Senate Hub" in which users submit questions which are then answered by various senators (youtube.com/user/senatehub). At post time there doesn't appear to be much happening there; no questions are ...

WeAreChange "reporter" arrested for trying to ask Mayor Mike Bloomberg a question? - 3/29/2009

From this: WeAreChange founder and activist Luke Rudkowski was arrested at the Hilton Hotel on Manhattan [March 28] for attempting to question New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about his refusal to pay for the health care of 9/11 first responders. Rudkowski had Infowars press credentials and a video camera when he was singled out by Bloomberg’s security in the lobby of the hotel located at W...

White House is "Open for Questions": wants questions for March 26 online town hall - 3/24/2009

On Thursday, March 26 2009, Barack Obama will be holding an online townhall meeting during which he'll answer the most popular user-submitted questions which they're now soliciting at whitehouse.gov/openforquestions The questions have to be about the economy, and this is similar to what they did at change dot gov. Some questions I submitted for that are here, and the results of their pre...

Ask Obama questions in Orange County. Tickets available tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 10am in Costa Mesa - 3/16/2009

Do you live in Orange County, California and can you get to Costa Mesa TONIGHT? If so, please go to the OC Fair and Event Center at 88 Fair Drive and get tickets to a townhall that Barack Obama will be conducting on Wednesday. Per this, you should Enter at Gate 1 or Gate 10 and park in Lot A. After getting tickets, get ready to try to ask this question. Try to get video of his response; although t...

Regional White House Forums on Health Care Reform visiting California, Iowa, MI, NC, VT; ask questions - 3/06/2009

Later this month and in April, the Barack Obama administration will be conducting "Regional White House Forums on Health Care Reform" in California, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Vermont [1]: In keeping with the Obama administration’s commitment to a transparent, accountable government, the forums will be an opportunity for Americans from all over the country to voice their concer...

Colorado: discredit Peter Groff over in-state tuition for illegal aliens (bill passes Senate committee) - 3/06/2009

Colorado state senator Chris Romer is pushing for that state to give in-state tuition to illegal aliens, and yesterday his bill passed a state senate committee (link). CO senate president Peter Groff is quoted as saying: "For me, this is a moral issue, that we should not shackle the future of children because of the sins of their fathers." If you oppose this bill, one of the best ways to...

Luis Gutierrez' "National Family Unity Tour" to pull heartstrings in support of illegal immigration; ask him a question - 2/25/2009

Rep. Luis Gutierrez is conducting a nationwide tour where he and his friends will be visiting churches and conducting townhall meetings from coast to coast to push for comprehensive immigration reform. The schedule is below, and what I need you to do is organize a local effort to go to one of these events and make him look bad on video by asking him a tough question designed to show that he's...

Ask this stimulus bill question (illegal aliens taking jobs from U.S. citizens) - 2/15/2009

Please go to a public appearance of a political leader who supports the stimulus plan and ask them the following question. Feel free to modify it to match your speaking style, and if you can find a quicker way to state this question please leave it in comments: Version 1: Obama says that the stimulus bill will save or create millions of jobs. Whatever the exact number, there will still be millions...

How to stop the stimulus bill: ask tough questions (and I'll help) - 2/09/2009

If you want to stop the stimulus plan, the most effective way is to publicly embarrass one of its nationally-known supporters on video by asking them a series of tough, "prosecutorial-style" questions. When uploaded to Youtube and similar sites, that video would get hundreds of thousands or millions of views. It would have an impact on the career of the person who was asked those questio...

Immigration questions for Republicans ("reform", amnesty, etc.) - 1/21/2009

Here are some non-politician-specific questions for Republicans or conservatives regarding amnesty, comprehensive immigration reform, illegal immigration, and so on. More questions will be added to this list over time. Please go to public appearances by politicians or political leaders, ask them these questions on video, and then upload their response to video sharing sites. Create a flier to be h...

Change.gov Round 2: Ask Obama stupid questions, get stock responses - 1/13/2009

Barack Obama's change dot gov has released their responses for the second round of their scam where they encouraged people to submit and vote for questions that Obama would answer (change.gov/newsroom/entry/open_for_questions_round_2_response). As with other popular voting systems, it was designed to fail, with weak questions being voted up while tough questions (such as the ones I submitted)...

Andrew Revkin/NYT: 11 weak science questions for Obama (dot Earth) - 1/02/2009

Andrew Revkin writes the "dot Earth" blog for the New York Times, and he offers "11 Questions for Obama’s Science Team" (link). As one might expect, all of the questions are to one degree or another variations on, "Comrade Lysenko, tell us of the wonders of your system." About the only slightly tough question concerns ethanol. None of the questions challenge fundame...

More immigration questions for Barack Obama (change.gov Open for Questions) - 12/29/2008

Barack Obama's change dot gov is starting round two of their "Open for Questions" scam (why it's a scam is explained here) where they solicit questions from the public at change.gov/openforquestions. In addition to re-submitting a question I asked in the first round, I just submitted four more. As before, I was greatly hampered by the 250 character limit, causing much editing. ...

A tough question about the DREAM Act - 12/28/2008

Please go to public appearances by any political leader who supports the DREAM Act, ask them the following question, and then upload their response to video sharing sites: You support the DREAM Act, a bill that would let illegal aliens take discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens. No matter how you do the math or whatever words you want to use, the bottom line is that the DREAM Act...

Questions for Barack Obama about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - 10/06/2008

Please go to a Barack Obama public appearance, ask him one of the following questions (derived from a McCain campaign missive [1]), get his response on videotape, and then upload that to Youtube. If you can get a "good" answer from him it would have a devastating impact on his campaign. "Senator Obama: You got over $100,000 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and...

Three questions for the American Civil Liberties Union (Kevin Keenan) - 5/22/2008

On April 24, 2008 I sent an email to the American Civil Liberties Union's San Diego chapter, directed to their president Kevin Keenan. I listed a few questions I had for them concerning the fact that they're collaborating with the Mexican government to in effect block immigration enforcement. Needless to say, I haven't heard back. (Note: See the first link for the details on the col...

Dr. Richard Land wants to hear from you about immigration matters - 3/29/2007

Dr. Richard Land is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and earlier today he appeared with Senator Teddy Kennedy and others at a Washington DC press conference to support immigration "reform" (aka a massive amnesty): "...We also have a Biblical mandate to act compassionately for those that are in needm, Matthew 25... To love our neighbors as ourselves. Matthew 22. And ...

Independent, in-depth coverage of immigration, politics, and media bias since 2002. Also: multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...


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