We have a local radio show in Grand Forks, ND that gets some great guests once in a while. I have appeared on it 3 times in regards to Y2K preperation. I just got a call from the shows host saying they have a phone interview with John Koskinen monday morning at 9:15 am CDT and want me to be on too to ask some questions. You might be able to listen in at www.kcnn.com.

Anyway, if you could ask him a question what would it be? I'll read this thread tommorrow morning before I go on the show!

-- Kevin Lemke (klemke@undalumni.org), August 01, 1999

Answers

Kevin,

Ask him how many pounds of rice and beans will be on hand in the new bunker that he and the other fed's will be in during the rollover...

don

-- don (mmtgman@aol.com), August 01, 1999.

Tell him if he doesn't start telling the whole truth, we'll replace him with Gary North.

Then we'll see some wild press conferences!

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), August 01, 1999.

Something real neutral, like: "Mr. Koskinen, if in fact the banks were nowhere near Y2K compliant, if in fact the power industry looked like it was going to give up the ghost, if in fact famine looked probable, if in fact all the martial law type training activity was about Y2K disruptions rather than terrorism ... you would TELL US, right? You wouldn't FIB about any of this, would you?"

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 01, 1999.

Koffinsky, do you believe you will ever be forgiven for betraying the unsuspecting children of America?

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 01, 1999.

How about asking why countries, cities, government agencies and big corpoorations are building and stocking bunkers so key people can weather any Y2K disruptions, and that is just "contingency planning", but individual citizens are told only to prepare for a 2 - 3 day storm and urged not to "hoard"? Why is it "contingency planning" if a city, CEO or agency does it, and "hoarding" if individuals do it?

Actually, we know the answer, it is because of the possibility of bank runs. But ask him...since they have allowed the risk of bank runs and market collapse to keep the media and government from getting the message to the people that they need to prepare as individuals and communities to be self-sufficient, how does the government plan to deal with the high percentage of unprepared people caused by their don't-worry-be-happy media policy?

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 01, 1999.

Ask him, In light of his statement that Y2K will not be over on 01/01/00 but will last into the next year, how many days (weeks) we should now prepare for..

I want to know...

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), August 01, 1999.

ask him if doomers@suck is on his payroll

-- name the (other@trolls.too), August 01, 1999.

Ask him if you can have some money to fix your tinfoil hat...

-- Y2K Pro (y2kpro1@hotmal.com), August 01, 1999.

...does he ever lurk here? Post? Under what name? His favorite doomer? Troll? How does he unwind and get y2k off his mind?

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), August 01, 1999.

He's not computer-literate. He's just a PR lip-flapper. His henchmen do lurk here.

-- no wonk (gov@gov.gov), August 01, 1999.

"How does he unwind and get y2k off his mind?"

Mud-wrestling!!!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 01, 1999.

Ask him: If bank runs DO start, what course of action will be taken?

How many barrels of oil do we have RIGHT NOW in reserve? Any plans to increase that amount?

If massive failures occur in other countries who "roll over" before America, will the public be informed? Who will inform us?

How many days worth of food does HE have, and where will HE be at 12:00 midnight on the "big" day?

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), August 02, 1999.

Look at the North site,

ask him any one of the 50 or so questions in North's "open lette" - well worth a read...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 02, 1999.

Please ask Mr. Koskinen for me: Mr. Koskinen, I wonder how differently the government and business response to Y2K would have been if it had been based on the premise that the public is the solution and the resource to solve Y2K disruptions instead of the widely publicized government premise that "the public is the problem." Tell him great leaders never viewed their citizens as the problem. Leaders who do never do anything great. Can you imagine the great wall of China ever even being imagined, much less built by a leader who looked at the people as a burden rather than a great creative force.

-- Ann L Fisher (zyax55b@prodigy.com), August 02, 1999.

There are very few report made public about the Y2K compliancy of the I.R.S. Is the government making any continquency plans for potential problems at this agency? If so, what are those plans?

-- B. K. Myers (B.K.Myers@cwix.com), August 02, 1999.

Kevin,

You might want to ask John Koskinen about the status of the 43 "high impact" government programs. An OMB report from June said that only two (2) out of the 43 were compliant at that time. Some are scheduled for completion in December, and some have no estimated completion dates at all...

You can find out more about these 43 "high impact" programs at these two links:

http://freedom.house.gov/y2k/news/pr990615.asp

http://freedom.house.gov/y2k/grades/highimpact9906.pdf

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), August 02, 1999.

Please ask him about the US Postal Service, how will they deliver if we have fuel disruptions due to lower or no imports? If government contingency plans say welfare and social security checks will get printed, how will they be delivered?

-- Sammie (sammie0X@hotmail.com), August 02, 1999.

Where are the US chemical and weapon storage facilities and what is their y2k status. What has been done to notify the population in their vicinity of the levels of risk and what evacuation plans have been established and how and when have these plans (if existant) been practiced?

-- catherine plamondon (souldancer@pop.spkn.uswest.nety), August 02, 1999.

Good thoughts. Good questions. (Love the tinfoil hat remark. Made me laugh after finishing work at 1 a.m.)

Bottom line (in my humble opinion) is this:

Ask him what would happen to the economy if all Americans prepared for a "three day storm."

(Meaning--no heat, no sanitary water, no electricity for three days--in the middle of a North American Winter)

When he waffles (and he WILL) ask him the question again.

Keep asking the question until you receive the correct answer.

The correct answer is--by the way--there would be economic problems if 200 million plus Americans did that.

Get him to admit that the Clinton administration is trying to "protect" the economy.

Get him engaged in a discussion like THAT, and your show just might make the wire services.

Good luck.

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), August 02, 1999.

I would first give him this hypothetical scenario and then ask a few key questions. Scenario: Your know for a fact that your house is going to catch fire in approximately five months but you do not know where exactly it will start burning or how quickly it will spread. You just know for a fact it WILL catch fire. You also know that you cannot move from this house to avoid this fire because no matter where you (or the rest of your family) move to your house is going to catch fire. Under these circumstances, how would you prepare? How many fire extinguishers would you buy? Would you have an expensive sprinkler system installed? Would you VERIFY that your local fire fighters would be able to respond to your house in a timely fashion? Would you teach your family as much as possible about fighting fires and then make sure they were equipped to do so? Would you make sure your neighbors would be able to help you appropriately? etc.

-- claude (cjwarner@yahoo.com), August 02, 1999.

Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

Assume that some people will follow your recommendations and stop preparing once they have enough provisions on hand to last them just three days. Assume others have already prepared for more than a three day comfort zone, according to their own independent assessments of risk. If disruptions were to last further on into the year, as you've predicted, and stores thus eventually run out of necessities, as some responsible analysts expect, would the non-preparing people be provided for? Is the government already hoarding supplies or fuel in order to accomplish this? Couldn't that cause shortages?

What is the purpose of the new local and federal emergency seizure laws? What happens to families who refuse to share their provisions? Do they get shot on the spot, or what? What's to stop ordinary thugs with guns from posing as federal seizure agents? Is there some way we may distinguish them? How would a value be placed on what is confiscated? Will we get a receipt? Would receipts be transferable?

If the only kind of problems that anyone should expect will be "local" problems, just who, exactly, should be breathing a sigh of relief about that? By "local" do you mean local to you, i.e. the much-publicized Washington, D. C. problems? How can problems in Washington, D. C. infrastructure help but "locally" affect the Federal Government, and thus, by extension, all of us?

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage.neener.autospammers--regrets.greenspun), August 02, 1999.

Question for John koskinen

Knowing that it is to late to prevent y2k from negatively Impacting the economy,Food supply chain and our nation's defenses how does the administration plan to mitigate the risk of nuclear confrentation between the super powers ?

What are the international plans for recovery?

Will the world govt's be able to order all aircraft grounded before jan 1 until it can see if planes are safely transistioned?

Will the govt act responsibly in shuting down all toxic and nuclear facilities early enough to prevent catastrophic life threating environomental releases against the wishes of the big transnational corpororations?

Would he be willing to answer questions by experts like ed yourdon, cory hamaski, Rick cowles and others in a publized national y2k townhall and set the record staight about y2k. Purpose being to bring the facts to light about the seriousness of y2k,and prepare the public for the failures that could orrur. also to prepare them,that repair time may be lenghty and it is not possible to forcast it with data currently availible.

do you have a plan to rally the american public to work together in the time remaining to soften the impact of the disruptions that we anticipate y2k will cause?

Is there a national public y2k plan?

Will one be drafted and issued via newspapers and the internet to inform the public what the drill will be if the infrastructure breaks?

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), August 02, 1999.

Ask him where he and his family are going to be on 12/31/99. If they are going to be in Washington, D.C., where are they staying?

What is HIS worst case scenario (as opposed to the Administration's)? After all, even Senator Bennett admitted that he was storing water.

Has he reflected on why he was given this position? And how convenient his "head" will be if there is a call for assigning blame because the Administration deliberately understated the problem to avoid panic?

Ask about martial law and what he sees as the state of the United States at various timepoints (day 1, day 7, day 30, etc).

-- Greg Lawrence (greg@speakeasy.org), August 02, 1999.

K.L. You could throw his own words at him, "...we have no indication that there`re going to make it." (J.K. on U.S. railroads,6-8 months ago)

-- bud (bud@computersedge.com), August 02, 1999.

Kevin,

It might be interesting to ask him "why hasn't the media picked up on this story?" This has all the markings to be the story of all stories and yet where are the "Woodwards and Bernsteins?"

And, if he is so interested in bringing awareness to towns across the country why doesn't he challenge the media to more coverage?

The media obvilously has its hands tied by senior management and the laywers, but maybe a plea of "help" from Kosky might shake free a few stories that actually tell the truth.

Who better than the media could dissiminate enough information in a tight turnaround to create some change?

If he really wants to make people aware, ask him if he thought it would be a good idea to use the media for this job.

I would be interested in how he evades your question.

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

Keith Nealy Producer Hawaii 2000

-- Keith Nealy (keithn@aloha.net), August 02, 1999.

Why do so many cities have bunkers to endure a three day storm? Why is he intentionaly trying to start a panic at the end of the year with his happy face stance?

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), August 02, 1999.

If this thing can be fixed why can't they fix the most important part of the govt's income. If they could fix the IRS they would have. They either can't fix it or they don't want to. In either case if the politicians can't control their income what makes us think they can fix the power grid or anything else for that matter?

-- Jon Dough (wildmn525@aol.com), August 02, 1999.

Mr. K, if you were a diabetic and would die in days without medication, how many weeks' supply would you have on hand on January 1 next year? No qualifications, sir, please give your answer only in number of weeks.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), August 02, 1999.

Ask him if He's ever been hit by a THREE DAY HURRICANE or a THREE DAY BLIZZARD.

-- pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), August 02, 1999.

Ask him about MARTIAL LAW.

-- mabel (mabel_louise@yahoo.com), August 02, 1999.

Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

I woke up too late and missed the show. Is it available audio or transcript? Would someone please transcribe and get permission to post it here or put a link to it?

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage.neener.autospammers--regrets.greenspun), August 02, 1999.

Whatever you ash him, please come back and tell us what he said.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), August 02, 1999.

Whatever you ask him, please come back and tell us what he said. Thanks.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), August 02, 1999.

I just got done with the radio show, about 1/2 hour of talk. I will try to get a transcription of it up on the site in a couple of days.

More spin is the bottom line and setting the states up for the blame instead of the feds when things go bad.

-- Kevin Lemke (klemke@corpcomm.net), August 02, 1999.

I know this is late, but I fully concur with Linda. Why is it O.K. for large organizations, governments, businesses, etc. to make contingency plans by stockpiling supplies, parts, fuel, etc. but not for individuals, families, communities, churches, etc. This should be the question that the media should be asking all officials in charge, because it is the only one that will expose them because it is an obvious double standard and should not be tolerated!

-- Jim (x@x.x), August 02, 1999.