issues that are important to me:

- alternative energy development. Gas prices are set by market conditions and current business practices (in case you're wondering, Just In Time is a lousy model for things like energy). But we can and should discuss alternatives and appropriate regulation.

- "bold assault on poverty", as the president so nicely called it. If we refuse to regulate decent wages (rolling back Davis/Bacon was a hideous thing to do), and we pursue removal of middleclass taxcuts like mortgage interest (which is what the POTUS' task force is recomending), we are going to plunge the country into despair.

- universal health care. Period. No in-betweens.

- education funding; and why teachers are supposed to be "accountable" for all of society's ills, when the pentagon isn't.

Your'e a democrat?

Mr. Support our troops ( or is it miss?),

Laura McLean is a democrat. But this topic is about the next debate. What issues do you think the local clubs should get together and debate?

Brian,

I heard John Edwards just took a job on Wall Street:

Not in My America!
Not in My America!

Tim

Tim,

So, you think we should debate John Edwards? I don't think democrats se anything wrong with wall street just like republicans don't see anything wrong with education.

What would you really like to see debated?

How about why we are one of the highest taxed states, yet our services aren't up to what other states receive?

Scott

I'd like to see a debate on the two income trap and it's effects on American families.

I'd also like to see a debate on how large personal credit card debt will effect the future of upward mobility in America.

Scott

I agree: credit card debt is a very important issue; particularly given the new moral-bankruptcy law.
Also; yes- the amount of tax we pay in this state v. the services returned.
I know it's a sacred cow, but we really do need to take a good look at certain prop 13 provisions. Our funding for education has gone steadily downward since Sacramento took control of distribution.
Another huge issue: our youth and the methamphetamine crisis. Unless you've been touched by it personally, you probably don't understand the dearth of services and the need for them. There isn't any way for a family to save an addicted kid's life without professional help, and yet insurance companies often exclude meth addiction treatment. And private programs are extremely expensive.
It's really a horrible state of affairs.

I agree on Crystal meth. The amount of crime attributable to this scourge is growing. I think we need stronger DEA presence in enforcement and a stronger commitment to public education.

Laura:

At what point is the person making choices responsible for their actions?

Second, I'm interested in your thoughts in JIT's effects on energy spending. I have never heard that argument before.

Scott

Scott:

re: JIT and energy (or any necessary public resource). I developed this view listening to friends working in energy trading and transportation over the last 15 years or so.
Utilities used to store energy in sufficient quantity to get them through short term price increases or supply disruptions. Heating oil, etc.
When the industry moved to JIT, because business trends taught everyone that it's too expensive to store inventory, the utilities made themselves vulnerable to market fluctuations, which in turn impact consumer prices. Immediate needs mean high market pricing, and the utitlities have no choice but to buy what they can, from where ever it's available. And we pay the price.

regarding personal responsibility:

Everyone is, of course, ultimately responsible for their own choices.
But having said that, I don't see how it is helpful to our society to let kids with horrible addictions feel their way through alone.
It is highly likely that a 15 or 16 year old with a meth addiction will become a criminal problem if left untreated. If they don't die first. Or they will become a burden on the system: sick and uninsured and on the streets. And you probably don't want them hanging out at your favorite shopping malls; they're too depressing and awful and unpredictable.

We can support our communities by supporting our youth, or we can let them hang. Letting them hang isn't working, and neither is the "War on Drugs".

Really: unless you've seen this addiction, you have no idea how heartbreaking it is. It's not like anything else I've seen.

You're JIT argument is well taken. Never thought of it as a contributor, but our supply chains are highly suseptible to what you are saying. Highly decentralized supply chains will be subject to higher prices in a volatile marketplace. CPI numbers came out on friday stating inflation is at it's highest level in 25 years. Pretty scary!!!

We need to get our fiscal house in order or Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia will dump our treasuries and this will send the world economy into a tail spin.

I have been fortunate in my to not see this addiction up close and personal, but I do know that since we as a state opted for treatment programs for drug offenders, we have seen increases in property crimes.

I am all for rehabilitating, but think when someone has gone to treatment 3 times and has failed and is now into property crimes to feed the habit, it undermines the freedom of the rest of us who don't do drugs because it destabilizes our communities. These are my initial thoughts, but would love a real discussion on the war on drugs.

Do you have any numbers that show rehab works in the cases you are referring to?

Have a great one... I hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna steal your JIT argument when I debate friends... :)

Scott

Scott,

I thought the law was for first time non-violent drug offenders.

Here is the official analysis for prop 36. It doesn't say 1st time offenders only.

Official Summary: Requires probation and drug treatment, not incarceration, for possession, use, transportation of controlled substances and similar parole violations, except sale or manufacture. Authorizes dismissal of charges after completion of treatment. Fiscal Impact: Net annual savings of $100 million to $150 million to the state and about $40 million to local governments. Potential avoidance of one-time capital outlay costs to the state of $450 million to $550 million.

Scott

Scott, I thought it was for first time offenders. I guess I should research it more.

Tim, I haven't heard what you think our community should debate.

Arleigh, you alive? What do you think would be a great topic?

Brian Dennert

I don't want to hijack the Brian's thread on debate issues, so yes, maybe there's another space to talk about the drug issue.

Regarding rehab/recidivism/crime, though, I'll just say this: from everything that I can tell right now, the question is not whether rehab is needed, but whether we're putting our money where our mouths are. If an addict is given an hour a week of therapy and a couple of drug tests, that isn't a realistic rehab. If we're serious, we need to provide intensive behavioral therapy and monitoring.

And re: crime: crime should be prosecuted whether or not it's drug related. I just believe that proper intervention in a young person's life may prevent them from committing property crime as their lives spiral out of control.

I'd like to see a debate on whether the trial of Saddam Hussein is a good thing for the world.

Scott

I think it's a great topic because a great deal of folks don't think we should be there over 50% by recent polls.

Here's their logic...

We shouldn't be there, but the Saddam Hussein trial is a good thing for the world.

Not real consistent, is it?

Scott

Brian:

At what point would you accept the use of force to remove a vicious dictator? Does the US have to be attacked first?

Scott

Brian:

I asking what the policy for war should be from your perspective not what options are available for the US.

If a nation has death camps and is eliminating a portion of their populaiton, do YOU think the US has a moral obligation to stop it using military capabilities if need be?

Scott

Scott,

I do believe the world has a duty to protect human rights.

I guess I will answer your question with another question.

Of all the human rights violaters in the world which ones would you have the US Military attack in the next few years? Please provide a list.

And does this include China which many people accuse of ethnic cleansing in Tibet? Do we have a moral duty to attack China?

If we have a moral duty to attack these nations will you sign a hastily created pledge that I write on a bar napkin not to buy products from countries that have death camps?

Brian

PS- Are you sure smart growth vs. property right sor something fo that nature wouldn't be a much more interesting and informative topic?

Scott,

I do believe the world has a duty to protect human rights.

I guess I will answer your question with another question.

Of all the human rights violaters in the world which ones would you have the US Military attack in the next few years? Please provide a list.

And does this include China which many people accuse of ethnic cleansing in Tibet? Do we have a moral duty to attack China?

If we have a moral duty to attack these nations will you sign a hastily created pledge that I write on a bar napkin not to buy products from countries that have death camps?

Brian

PS- Are you sure smart growth vs. property right sor something of that nature wouldn't be a much more interesting and informative topic?

Brian:

I knew you would come back with another question toward me. Do you think it's weird the President is arguing from a Human Rights standpoint as the rationale for war. I thought the Clinton doctrine of liberal interventionism was dead, but apparently not.

I will attempt to answer your question, but you have skirted mine. Human rights raises a lot of problems for realists in international thinking. I tend to try and bring in both idealism and realism to the way I look at the world.

1. Is the country expansionist?
2. Is the nation pursuing or developing WMD?
3. Does a nation-state treat it's own people poorly?
4. Is their ethnic clensing or death camps in this country?
5. Is this country not economically integrated with the US?

If you answer yes to all these questions, then I would support preemptive policies through the United Nations or unilaterally if need be.

At the end of the day, I simply felt taking out Saddam was a good policy despite being told in 2000 when I interned at the State Department that taking him out would leave a power vacuum in Iraq and would destabilize the region, which it has...

I do feel North Korea poses a grave threat to the US as does Iran and Syria. The real question is are they expansionist?

China is difficult to answer in a short blog topic.... But, I can answer that as well if you really want to know.

I'm really just trying to be your 1,000 comment.

Scott

I need to clarify something from my last comments. As soon as I posted I knew it was wrong. In 2000, I interned at the state department and it was a great opportunity. This info didn't come from state, it came from an article in Foreign Affairs Policy Journal that I read as part of my studies while I was there. The thinking at the time in the article was that taking out Saddam wasn't smart because there was no real alternative, which is kind of what we have seen

Sorry about that.(Now, I feel for Wagner)

Scott

Tim & Arleigh as the same person.... Interesting, and intriguing...

OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THaN THEY APPEAR!

Will we EVER know?

Ultimately, it would mean Arleigh campaigned against himself last November!

Tim

Or it was a trick so that people didn't catch on.

Tim/Arleigh can you provide a picture of yourselves together to defeat this rumor?

Cathy Carlson from TO here: Brian, is that Tim/Arleigh image like the parasitic two-headed Voldemort in the Harry Potter movie? Thanks for my best laugh of the day! See, Republicans are still reading your blogs. I share the "Best of Brian" around town.

Yours truly, with Republican love,

Cathy

For readers not in the know, Tim and Arleigh don't really look alike, and they seem to hardly agree.

Cathy, thanks for the kind words. Do you really like my blog? Anyways, whenever you have some local news or an event coming up let me know and I will publish it.

Brian Dennert

Dennert rules!

A timely issue... how about public financing of campaigns?