Midnight On the Firing Line
I confess to a certain amount of euphoria. It is appropriate and well-deserved after the blundering nightmare of creeping fascism that has typified the last eight years. But it will wear off, and what will remain is cautious optimism. I am going to jump to that stage a little early to look ahead at the coming Obama Presidency. There’s a hell of a lot to do, much that must go right, and many things that can go wrong.
Let’s begin with Obama himself and take a look at his history. Contrary to wingnut memes that have been forcibly embedded into the media over the last several months he is an extremely accomplished man who has consistently demonstrated a measure of intelligence, learning, judgment, temperament and leadership that the Founding Fathers themselves would have regarded with approval. His work and education at Harvard, his teaching and community organization in Chicago, his work in the Illinois State Legislature and the United States Senate were all logical outgrowths of an upbringing that endured hardship and tragedy but was supported by a strong and loving family who valued hard work, learning, and community. That’s what we the people have sent to the White House, in the form of the first president in eight years to win the Oval Office by actually being elected.
As of today, Electoral Vote has Obama at 364 electoral votes and McCain at 163, with 11 more as yet undetermined. That is a landslide of epic proportions that carries an undeniable progressive mandate, one to which most Republicans - and possibly some Democrats - will be bitterly opposed. President Obama’s first hundred days in office will have to be an unyielding charge toward important key goals. I have a modest set of proposals for our incoming President…
First - Close the illegal prison at Guantanamo Bay. Begin to scrub out the bloody stain it has left on our nation’s honor by bringing any prisoners who may be guilty of actual crimes to trial in open court, releasing and if necessary compensating the many people there who are clearly guilty of nothing whatsoever, and granting political asylum to those who cannot return safely to their country of origin.
Second - Restore the FISA courts to their pre-2001 status and allow them to do their gorram job. Immediately halt all extra-FISA activities implemented by the Bush Administration, including and especially torture, extraordinary rendition, and domestic wiretapping.
Third - Dismantle the Department of Homeland Security. And then decapitate the corpse, burn the body and scatter its ashes into the wind. And I’m not kidding. Seriously folks, the Bush Administration and the congressional Republicans, proud champions of small government, birthed a shambling dysfunctional bureaucratic monstrosity that even the Soviet Fucking Union could not have created if it tried. No bureaucratic undertaking of the Democrats has ever even come close to this power-mad, resource draining horror, even with decades to grow; the Republicans did it in two years. Kill it and drive a stake through its heart.
Fourth - Stop treating Iraq as something to make up slogans for and start pulling our troops out. Get them rested, treated, retrained, re-supplied, and ready for the criminally unfinished job in Afghanistan.
Fifth - Launch investigations in Congress. Lots of them. Start legitimate and PUBLIC inquiries into the political partisanship of the Justice Department, the civil service, the nation’s intelligence services, the administration of public agencies, and the handling of elections in the Bush years.
Sixth - Revisit the Kyoto treaty. I don’t propose to simply ratify it as it stands; much has changed in the decade since it was introduced, and much is still changing. But it’s a good idea, and it should be gone over carefully to see if we can make something practical and widely applicable out of it.
Seventh - Engage the European Union and Russia in an adult manner (as opposed to the moody, pouty egotism of Dubya) with regard to energy and security policy. That will help a hell of a lot with Four.
Eighth - Roll back Bush’s tax cuts for the vampires royalty nobility mistress-beating wealthy. That may not be possible in the first hundred days, but he can get the legislative ball rolling for when it comes up.
I could ask for a lot more than this, but I’d be thrilled beyond measure if even half of it goes through. And it can, if we citizens demand this agenda of our President and our Legislature.
And we can.
Yes, we can.
Let’s begin with Obama himself and take a look at his history. Contrary to wingnut memes that have been forcibly embedded into the media over the last several months he is an extremely accomplished man who has consistently demonstrated a measure of intelligence, learning, judgment, temperament and leadership that the Founding Fathers themselves would have regarded with approval. His work and education at Harvard, his teaching and community organization in Chicago, his work in the Illinois State Legislature and the United States Senate were all logical outgrowths of an upbringing that endured hardship and tragedy but was supported by a strong and loving family who valued hard work, learning, and community. That’s what we the people have sent to the White House, in the form of the first president in eight years to win the Oval Office by actually being elected.
As of today, Electoral Vote has Obama at 364 electoral votes and McCain at 163, with 11 more as yet undetermined. That is a landslide of epic proportions that carries an undeniable progressive mandate, one to which most Republicans - and possibly some Democrats - will be bitterly opposed. President Obama’s first hundred days in office will have to be an unyielding charge toward important key goals. I have a modest set of proposals for our incoming President…
First - Close the illegal prison at Guantanamo Bay. Begin to scrub out the bloody stain it has left on our nation’s honor by bringing any prisoners who may be guilty of actual crimes to trial in open court, releasing and if necessary compensating the many people there who are clearly guilty of nothing whatsoever, and granting political asylum to those who cannot return safely to their country of origin.
Second - Restore the FISA courts to their pre-2001 status and allow them to do their gorram job. Immediately halt all extra-FISA activities implemented by the Bush Administration, including and especially torture, extraordinary rendition, and domestic wiretapping.
Third - Dismantle the Department of Homeland Security. And then decapitate the corpse, burn the body and scatter its ashes into the wind. And I’m not kidding. Seriously folks, the Bush Administration and the congressional Republicans, proud champions of small government, birthed a shambling dysfunctional bureaucratic monstrosity that even the Soviet Fucking Union could not have created if it tried. No bureaucratic undertaking of the Democrats has ever even come close to this power-mad, resource draining horror, even with decades to grow; the Republicans did it in two years. Kill it and drive a stake through its heart.
Fourth - Stop treating Iraq as something to make up slogans for and start pulling our troops out. Get them rested, treated, retrained, re-supplied, and ready for the criminally unfinished job in Afghanistan.
Fifth - Launch investigations in Congress. Lots of them. Start legitimate and PUBLIC inquiries into the political partisanship of the Justice Department, the civil service, the nation’s intelligence services, the administration of public agencies, and the handling of elections in the Bush years.
Sixth - Revisit the Kyoto treaty. I don’t propose to simply ratify it as it stands; much has changed in the decade since it was introduced, and much is still changing. But it’s a good idea, and it should be gone over carefully to see if we can make something practical and widely applicable out of it.
Seventh - Engage the European Union and Russia in an adult manner (as opposed to the moody, pouty egotism of Dubya) with regard to energy and security policy. That will help a hell of a lot with Four.
Eighth - Roll back Bush’s tax cuts for the vampires royalty nobility mistress-beating wealthy. That may not be possible in the first hundred days, but he can get the legislative ball rolling for when it comes up.
I could ask for a lot more than this, but I’d be thrilled beyond measure if even half of it goes through. And it can, if we citizens demand this agenda of our President and our Legislature.
And we can.
Yes, we can.