1. Like Vietnam and Korea, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be long remembered by any but those who served there. What will you do to stop these wars and the bleeding and the expense?

2. What are your thoughts on trying to solve our environmental, energy and unemployment problems all at once, so to speak, by creating a "Manhattan Project" along with a civilian workforce to install the technology across the nation? For example, solar water heating could be used in many areas of our state. The equipment is not cheap, but could be if produced in greater quantity, and the labor is highly priced. A total install is about $6500. Think how many people we could put to work and how much energy saved and how much pollution avoided...

3. What will you do to rid us of the egregiously complex, loop-hole-riddled and time consuming tax system we currently use?

Thank you.

Elaine I understand you have a lot of obligations and answering BlueNC'rs questions must rank low on the list but, so far at least, your responses haven't done anything to stir my enthusiasm.

To beat Burr you're going to need not just votes (you already have mine) but a enthusiastic hotbed of grassroots support.

Though I'm no expert, have little campaign experience, my gut says running from the top isn't going to cut it. There might not be thousands of active posters, like a DailyKos, on BlueNC but the community here has shown that they can be a valuable asset in a national campaign - here is the kind of place you can engage those activists and get them ready for what lies ahead.

I asked earlier about corporate power, your thoughts on if it needs to be reined in or redefined. While BP's negligence and arrogance serves as a helpful backdrop for framing the question, I ask this not just because of recent events but because of the many progressive proposals from health care to banking regulation to strengthening our communities to avoiding criminal culpability for their messes that have been derailed by the exercise of corporate power.

With the Supreme Court's solid endorsement of a political system bought and paid for by monied interest, it lies with the legislature, and especially the Senate, to tame "the beast".

To get the ball rolling, I would like to see a redefinition of the "personhood" of corporations, the reduction and elimination of the many tax loopholes and subsidies that corporations command, steps to reduce corporate political influence (which goes hand-in-hand with redefining corporate rights) and a regulatory regime that holds corporations and corporate officers as liable for their actions as a common citizen.

Again, you got my vote - by default - but if you want my enthused support, you're going to have to be more specific and direct with your answers.