We need a radical.
Not a liberal, not a conservative. A radical.
We can't be discussing social programs now. It is too late for that, the patient (us - the U.S.) is cancer ridden and we need to do chemo before we can work on quality of life.
America is so close to being a third world nation now it brings a tear to my eye.
Forget Democrats, forget Republicans, America needs a Radical. An anti-government, anti-big business radical.
Pretend Kerry becomes President if the fraud is proven and reversible. Like he went from soldier to peace activist in the past he needs to go from Senator to a rabid reformer.
He needs to admit and act as if America had suffered the last 4 years under an illegal rule. Arrests should be made, pardons given only if public recitation of crimes they committed (if they provide proof... no witch hunts). Some cases are unpardonable. The soon to be Attorney General Gonzales and Rumsfeld need to go down for their torture work, and the world needs to see this.
He needs to needs to point out the folly of words vs. action. Point out the abortion under Bush was up and work to bring abortion rates down, give aide and comfort to counseling and adoption services, give aide to halfway houses that take in single pregnant moms, promote adoption as an alternative, promote contraception as a preventative, and for just a little money reverse Bush's abortion trends and get this monkey off of liberal's backs. Oh and first thing he needs to do as President is revoke Bush's first act as President and allow international aide to organizations that mention abortion.
He needs to lay waste to the government. Political appointees are out, everywhere. Wonks are in. People who can do the job and are qualified, that is the new qualification to work (not the ability to say "Yes" and "Thank you sir, may I have another!"). Programs must die heck even agencies must die, weapons programs that are for the cold war must die, contracts that were done for cronies of any party must be deemed invalid and broken. It doesn't care if it is a democrat or a republican that loves the "Bureau of Rural Electrification," its lost its reason for existence decades ago - get rid of it. Much of the tax cut needs to be ended. The deficit must be wiped out - not on a ten-year plan, but immediately. The dollar is being destroyed, if it is we really can't do much.
He needs to set national, verifiable, auditable voting standards. Our status of a democracy is in serious doubt. The Senate and House's legitimacy will be in doubt if fraud is proven, use that to push this and other reforms through.
He needs to destroy corporate media, re-establish equal time rules for news broadcasts, re-establish limits on the number of ownerships of stations, and the number of stations and newspapers in one market. But teeth into the FCC, besides looking for breasts, perhaps the FCC could look at what it is supposed to look at, how the stations work to help the public good. They are using our air; let them run some educational programs, PSAs, and local programming. If they still want to air "reality TV" crap, fine, but it is our air, give us something for it.
He needs to appoint a scary ass monkey to the SEC. Anyone who has any funny business in its books should get feces thrown at it. Heavy fines. If laws were broken to increase profits the fine exceeds the money made from the scheme. Any and all means of punishing the directors who made such decisions need to be implemented. You want to help small business? Try to make big business play by the rules. A big businesses sole advantage needs to be economies of scale. That is it. No contracts with governments they don't deserve, no regulatory advantage, no welfare. Nothing.
He needs to ignite a Culture War. There are problems with our culture. Attack the ones that both sides say they agree on, but don't. Attack sore losers, and even more so, sore winners. Attack mendacity... everywhere. Attack passing the buck and shoddy education. Ignorance is not okay or cool. Make education a plus and not something to be looked down on. Attack greed. Attack the belief that fair play is for sissys.
He needs to have audits and investigations galore. Root out any funny business or inefficiencies. Go all the way down to state and local agencies. If you don't have jurisdiction or if you can't reform them - shine a spotlight on them. Say "Looky here! Jeb's got a second book of expenses"
He needs to make America's government transparent. Release George Bush the elder's books. Admit to and apologize to America's previous mistakes. Respond quickly to FOIA requests. Expand FOIA. Hide behind "interests of national security" only if it is in the interest of national security, and make qualifying for that mean going through a rigorous test... not have Gonzales or Ashcroft going "hmmm... that makes the President look like a greedy evil dork, that isn't in the interest of national security."
Go to Iraq (well, maybe not in person), and announce "look here are laws and rules that were put in by our illegitimate President and his friends. Here's a law about how oil contracts are done and whom they go to. Here's a law about seeds and their ownerships. Here's a whole boatload of pillaging that was set into law." Get those laws revoked. Fine and punish companies that made illegal gains. Get money into the hands of Iraqi's. Actually try to rebuild the nation. Violence will ebb (slowly). International aide will come (slowly).
Admit Social Security has been used as a tax. And a regressive tax at that. For years the social security has been the government's slush fund. The budget numbers you hear have always been lies. The social security surplus has been subsidizing the government. It is only at risk because the government isn't going to pay it back. Kill its use as a slush fund. Make the payroll tax progressive. Incoming supports outgoing and that is it. If social security is running a surplus, cut the payroll taxes. If there isn't enough to cover the baby boomers when they retire increase the payroll tax and decrease the benefits. No more promises as to what it is and isn't. It is a safety net only, you need to save if you want anything above the minimum needed to live on in retirement.
Internationalize the war on terror and out flank the enemy. Really join our allies. Really join them in undercover work and infiltration, and occasionally on the military incursion, but don't leave it at that, work on mid east peace, work seriously to lift the world out of poverty and illiteracy. Quality of life and education are the biggest enemies of terrorism and radicalism (here as well).
Sorry to interupt the more thought out posts with my tirade, but I wanted to post this as soon as I wrote it, and blogger seems to be bloggered so instead of posting it on my site I posted it here. Hopefully this will eventually show up on This Century Sucks.