The First 100 Days

Today must have been a day to look at what you would do if you won the Presidency since everybody rolled out their ideas. As per the usual in this campaign Obama came out with the one really good idea while his opponents pandered in ridiculous fashion (especially McCain).

I can see Obama and McCain coming out with these ideas, after all they're going to be their party's nominees barring serious cheating and backroom dealing by Hillary. Of course we now know that Hillary's a bit of a drinker so maybe she was on the sauce when she decided she could still win and released her 100 days idea. Okay I kid, I kid... that was low.

Obama's camp came out with the words I think everybody minus the surely mentally handicapped 28 percenters have been waiting for: "Obama would ask his AG to "immediately review" potential of crimes in Bush White House".

That's right they are all criminals and they all need to be prosecuted. For War Crimes. For breaking domestic laws and for what they have done to our Constitution. They have admitted they committed federal crimes by breaking the FISA laws and by committing torture... what more do we need?

I think it's hilarious that Republicans who afraid like hell that they could be prosecuted for what they have done have used and gotten the media to use the talking point that "that is all in the past" and that they are "looking to the future" or better yet that they are "forward thinkers".

Under the guise of that logic I can take a gun, shoot you dead and in 5 minutes say, "that was in the past, we will look to the future now and do things right from here".

They have been all over the place spouting that shit about Iraq. And for years that strategy has worked. By not acknowledging how their policies or crimes affected the past we have been doomed to repeat them in the future.

A good chunk of those involved with the Iran Contra Affair were pardoned or let off the hook by Republican Appointed Judges and now they work for this Bush Administration, committing new war crimes and continuing to inflame an entire region against us for decades to come just as they did throughout the 1980s.

If anything this is proof that the past DOES affect the future and for the sake of preserving any shred of value of the most important document in the history of our nation, the Constitution and in the face of saving our world standing and credibility to other countries we need to prove that we are what we claim to stand for and go after these violations of democracy, peace, freedom and justice.

How dare we challenge anyone else on such questions if we cannot take responsibility for our own actions and jail those who broke our own laws?

But since everyone is in the "If I Were President..." mood, I figure I have as much of a chance as Hillary does to win so I will issue a list of my first actions as our nation's leader.

1. Fire the entire Justice Dept. and replace them with defenders of the Bill of Rights and Constitution.

2. Repeal all Presidential Pardons imposed on any member of the current Administration and prosecute Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, et al for their war crimes, breaking of the laws of the Geneva Convention and breaking of FISA laws.

3. Cut Pentagon Spending to a third of what it is currently. Eliminate funded projects like a missile defense system or a "gay bomb". Eliminate funding for cold war projects. Keep all Military spending for troop bases and increasing troop levels. Increase military pay and benefits (especially health care). Make sure our troops have proper body and humvee armor.

4. End the Iraq War immediately. Withdraw all troops within 6 months in 20,000 troop intervals. Give all returning troops a 6 month rest at home. Withdraw all contractors immediately and remove any legal immunity they might have had under the provisional authority if Iraq's government hasn't already. Re-allocate all National Guard Members to their local posts on their normal on-call basis. Take about 50,000-80,000 active duty personnel after their 6 month rest has ended and send them to Afghanistan to stabilize the country temporarily and hunt for Bin Laden.

5. End all Financial Aid to countries that aid terrorists (Pakistan & Saudi Arabia I am looking at you).

6. Nominate Jonathan Turley as the new A.G. to prosecute Bushco and defend our constitution.

7. Repeal NAFTA and all Free Trade Agreements. Sit down and renegotiate country by country making certain to include minimum environmental, health & safety and wage requirements from workers of those countries.

8. Repeal tax benefits for corporations which have shifted over 10% of their workforce overseas.

9. Eliminate Bush Tax Cuts for top 1%, maintain cuts aimed at middle class. Eliminate offshore tax shelter loopholes.

10. Push for a law that limits a CEO's pay to a proportionate amount of a shareholder's earnings and average employee salaries at that company. (Do it under the guise of protecting the market and the shareholders which would be true and have more traction than defending the average worker in this country for some reason)

11. Institute a strong pro-regulation FCC that forces media monopolies like News Corp and Clear Channel to break apart. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

12. Offer a Universal Healthcare plan that eliminates HMOs entirely. Through the government, similar to a social security tax, offer healthcare that covers everybody similar in ways that England and Canada does it.

13. Remove the Social Security cap. This will eliminate all funding shortfalls and stabilize it for all generations in the future.

14. Institute a carbon tax and reinstate requirements for smokestack filters, superfund cleanups and increase automobile emissions requirements similar to what California has tried to pass.

15. Require all automakers to reach 50 MPG by 2015 or face suspension of operations.

16. Ban Ethanol as a source of fuel. Work on an energy policy that offers large benefits to utilities to buy large plots of unused land in the Southwest and put up huge solar farms that could power the entire country at a fraction of current cost. Switching to solar electric power with Wind farms as backup sources could then provide the opportunity for automakers to work on a full switch to electric cars where owners can just plug in and recharge overnight or while they are parked.

17. Eliminate any attempts to drill in ANWR and push through Polar Bear protection acts.

18. Buy up loose Nukes in the Ukraine and sign a treaty with Russia, China, Pakistan, India and all nuclear weapon bearing countries to eliminate nuclear weapons stockpile to 10% of current amount by 2012.

19. Enter into new Kyoto Treaty that includes all developing nations across the world and creates a clear mandate for our own country as well as heavy polluters such as China to do our part to save our planet.

20. Release all "classified" information still remaining pertaining to the Assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, MLK and everything pertaining to 9/11. This may release all sorts of new information and may even incriminate some that are still alive but it's time to stop lying to or deceiving the American people on what the truth of these matters is.

21. Push for passage of a law that makes all campaign financing public. Each candidate that declares will be given a certain amount of money similar to a salary cap that they can spend during their primaries and then during the Presidential race. The FEC will keep strict tabs on usage of the money and any left over will be returned to the FEC fund. No candidate can inject their own money into a campaign. 527s would be barred from media advertising (although they can organize grass roots campaigns).

For a candidate to receive funding for House or Senate campaigns they need to reach a certain number of signatures to be allowed on the ballot and receive the funding. For National Presidential Candidates they must receive the pre-requisite number in all 50 states. The media must offer heavy discounts on ad time to allow for fair exposure for all candidates and cannot reject a candidate's ad (yes even Fox News has to air Democratic Candidate Ads). News shows cannot re-air the full version of any candidate's ad as to not give free runs of that candidates' media and thus circumvent the financing rules. Any newscast or station that does this will be heavily fined.

22. Offer College Scholarships to every American Student that finishes school and then volunteers to work two years in the private sector in urban areas that need them the most.

23. Reduce or eliminate wasteful Government Grants that do not benefit small business owners or poor/middle class Americans.

24. Increase the focus on Science in our country. Load the EPA and NASA with Administrators that believe in science over pandering to their bosses. Push the EPA to regulate very heavily on companies that abuse the public's trust and damage our environment. Make a renewed commitment to space exploration including renewing the Hubble Telescope project.

25. Illegalize ARM loans and force all mortgage companies to work off of FIXED loans in the future. Open up bankruptcy laws to protect homeowners who are nearing the end of the foreclosure process a way to not be crushed by the credit hit forever. For those just entering the foreclosure phase force mortgage lenders to change all loans to a reasonable fixed rate within a certain percentage of the Fed's Interest Rate and do a Government Assumption on the debt that would be owed to other countries because of such a move.

26. Legalize Marijuana and sell licenses to companies to produce and sell the product. Treat it the same way as alcohol with age limits, public inebriation laws and driving laws (if suspected a blood test should be required to eliminate fines). Also make the use of THC as a chemical illegal and make it illegal to use home grown or "loose" marijuana. By regulating it you can tax it in a way that helps pay for programs that help people (ie health care) and you stop the flow of dangerous laced chemicals from outside the country.

Tobacco companies can enter in the bidding and possibly begin to halt the production of some nicotine bearing products with marijuana products replacing them as profitable cash cows.

I would also mandate that all states and federal prisons should release anybody charged with marijuana possession crimes and anybody who has had these charges on them should be given a process to have these charges retroactively expunged from their records. Marijuana distribution charges will be debated since future distribution by regular citizens will still be disallowed.

27. I would mandate an end to "public voucher" programs and heavily increase government financing to repair schools in disrepair, fund programs such as music and art, and eliminate NCLB rules that teach kids to pass a test, not to learn effectively.

28. I would increase Government contributions to NPR and mainly PBS so that they can continue to provide educational programming without the corporate spin of their corporate-owned counterparts.

29. I would illegalize private companies from producing voting machine equipment and have a nonpartisan government oversight group to make sure that we're incorporating a machine that allows for paper receipts to validate vote totals and to make sure every voter has a record of how their vote was recorded personally.

30. I would eliminate the Government's No Fly List since it seems to be full of random names and political enemies and does no good at all.

31. I would set a law that forced all lawmakers to DIVEST from any stock or dividend holdings before taking office. I would also bar all lobbyist gifts PERIOD. Congressmen and Women should be paying for their own flights, meals and trips without a corporate sponsor. Between this and public campaign financing this takes a lot of the unfair corporate influence out of Washington.

32. I would ban any government outsourcing of government jobs. This is OUR government isn't it? Why are people from other countries doing our jobs?

33. I would create a Public Works program that would employee engineers through the college scholarship program and a mix of workers with lots of construction experience as well as little to no experience to rebuild roads, bridges and public utility infrastructure. Putting people to work for America and building resumes, experience and bank accounts in the process.

34. I would eliminate the DHS and other security agencies and merge the CIA and NSA into one operation run by non-partisan civilian leadership. I would order a cease and desist on spying on American phone calls outside the accordance of FISA law.

35. Illegal Immigration - I would give those already here a path to citizenship by putting them on Work Visas and requiring them to take citizenship courses. I would require part of those citizenship courses to require ESL classes to teach them English so they can better acclimate to society. I would increase fines and put in serious enforcement mechanisms to prevent large corporations from hiring these workers. One of the largest reasons that they come is the lure of corporations unwilling to pay American workers the minimum wage.

I do think that social services should only be offered for legal immigrants or those on a work visa. By increasing the amount of those with a work visa, more people are covered but by coming here illegally you are skipping your turn and your right to certain benefits that American taxpayers pay for. Under the Visas the immigrants are paying taxes so they deserve benefits. We should only cover emergency situations and if there are illegal immigrants that report to hospitals they need to be treated and then handed over to the INS where they would be deported. If they have family legally here in America they can be given a special spot in line for citizenship. I know this is a hard subject but we have to be fair. For those people that waited in line and became legal citizens they had to go through a tough process to become Americans and it's not fair to them nor regular citizens to see all of their tax dollars going to supplementing social programs aimed more towards helping illegal immigrants than regular Americans these days (especially when you consider how stretched thin state budgets are right now). You also want to be fair and civil with people that want so badly to be a part of our country that they would risk imprisonment to do so.

36. I would legalize Gay Marriage. Or at least attempt to by putting forth a bill that proves its legality due to the Equal Protection Clause. There's no reason nor room for discrimination towards Gay people. Homosexual xenophobia is no different than any other civil rights struggle of our time and we must meet the challenge the same way as with others, by relenting and giving equal rights to those who have been oppressed.

I'm sure there is more (and I'll add to this later I am sure), but of course I would never be allowed to be President. I would be killed (See: Bobby Kennedy) or marginalized (see: Dennis Kucinich).

The corporate media and the military industrial complex would never allow for such a budget or such Theodore Roosevelt-like Corporation reigning in to transpire.

But we can all dream of a future where this were all in play and the country would be on a more equal footing for all of its' citizens once again, can't we? Or have 30 years of Reagan-Clinton-Bushes ruined America forever?

-Rp