Washblog

Habeas Corpus: without it, you're not even a suspect. There's nothing else to say.

by m3047 on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 08:00:46 PM PST

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and tell everyone:

we are gonna figure out message leaders in 1 hour.

period.

EVERYONE is gonna do message everyday.

period.

EVERYONE is gonna at least parrot the message leaders.

period.

We are gonna focus on
Iraq
(getting out and inquests)
Health care
(access for all AND jail for insurance companies / pharma execs who've ripped off the public = all current management)
Deficit

We are gonna start The Committee for Fuck Ups, AKA as the Committee on Snail Darter Analysis.

It will be located in Springfield. Its office will be a Motel 6 conference room. There will be NO staff or budget. Teh committee will be filmed fulltime on C-Span Fuck-Up. Members will be required to be in committee from 08:00 to 17:00 Mon to Fri.

IF you fuck up message or our focus, YOU will be a full time member of this committee.

NOW, get to work, or

get to Springfield.

rmm.

http://www.liemail.com/BambooGrassroots.html

by rmdSeaBos on Thu Nov 09, 2006 at 02:21:27 AM PST

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In addition to the stuff Speaker Palosi has planned, I'd like one piece of environmental legislature, just to get things started. The Wild Sky bill would be a good one. Then we Democrats can say--keeping "on message" as Bob would insist--the Republicans have been going backwards on the environment for six years. Today we're going forwards.

I also want the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction to be restored. Rep. Duncan Hunter (Fascist-CA) deleted it secretly at the last second from the Defense Authorization bill so that the USG wouldn't be investigating anymore the likes of Haliburton, Bechtel, Parsons and so on. I'm not sure how you get something like this through in the first 100 hours, but maybe the Democrats can find a way. Hey, even Sen. Warner agrees the SIG's office should be restored.

I would like to see increased funding for Veterans' health care, including service members in the National Guard and Reserves. I'm told that physician and nursing staff, for example, have been laid off at a VA spinal cord and head injury unit even as the unit has been filling up with wounded Iraq war veterans.

by DWE on Thu Nov 09, 2006 at 08:35:00 AM PST

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We need an overhaul here.  

• Districting/redistricting.  This needs to be fair
• Election integrity.  We need to know that when we vote, our votes count.  And we need to know that the vote is not suppressed for political gain.   We need to look at disenfranchisement issues around color/race, as well -- in relation to incarceration and other factors.
• The electoral college.  I'm no expert -- but I think its an outdated model and we need to move past it.
• Instant runoff voting and other methods for opening up the political process need to be considered.
• Campaign finance
• Dirty tricks and lies.  It's dangerous to regulate free speech -- even lies.  But there must be other ways to discourage the tidal wave of lies and dirty tricks we're drowning in.

That's what I think the Dems should do.  They won't -- it uses up too much political capital, perhaps.  This is why I think our system is broken.  Our politicians don't seem to be free to address our central issue -- the fact that the way power transfers from the people to their representatives -- is corrupted and broken.  Like a child who survives despite neglect and battering -- it's amazing our democracy is doing as well as it is.  

by noemie maxwell on Thu Nov 09, 2006 at 09:26:01 AM PST

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I started drafting a list. It got pretty long. So I gave up. In brief, I'd undo all the damage done by Reagan and Bush the Lesser. Going as far back as restoring the Fairness Doctrine.

Then it occurred to me that I didn't know what Pelosi's plan is. So I found it:

http://www.housedemocrats.gov/bigpicture/jobs_and_economy/issue.cfm?level2id=102

It's a good start.

Here's the bigger list of initiatives:

http://www.housedemocrats.gov/issues/issue.cfm?level2id=98

Alas, I didn't see anything about election integrity or election reform. I honestly believe that we wouldn't even be in the current mess if the will of the people had been honored. Democracy is a great thing. We should have more of it.

by zappini on Fri Nov 10, 2006 at 11:53:12 AM PST

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Whatever they're planning to do, that's fine with me.

by Belltowner on Sat Nov 11, 2006 at 05:54:24 PM PST

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My wishlist:

1. Restore Habeus Corpus and the authority of the FISA court - Due process is a cornerstone of American values. This would include abolishing the fake patriot act and enacting laws that protect civil liberties permanently while allowing coordination of resources between federal agencies working to protect us.

2. Eliminate the Culture of Corruption and drain the pay for play lobbyist K Street swamp - close out the various manners politicians can receive gifts and perks.

3. Close offshore tax loopholes for corporations and indivudials - If you are making money here, you pay your fair share in taxes like everyone else. No more hiding assests and avoiding your responsibilities as an American.

4. Abolish trade secret corporate controlled voting - paper trail and random audits with open source software, or paper ballots with no machines, period. Canada and England do it, why can't we? Make election day a national holiday.

5. Create a 'Work Hard And Play By The Rules' initiative - Raise the minimum wage, National health care for children under 18, dollar for dollar tax relief for working parents who have children in daycare, community college.

6. Sustainable energy - dollar for dollar tax relief to corporations and indivudials that invest in sustainable energy infrastructure (solar, wind, soybean, tidal, hydrogen, etc), hybrid vehicles, energy conservation tax credit equals your percentage of reduction in emmissions.

7. Oversights, Audits, and Investigations of wrongdoing by the Bush Administration - this is a sticky one, but needed. We mush follow the rule of law in this country. The Cheney Energy Task Force meeting would be a good start to this.

by Brian on Sun Nov 12, 2006 at 01:18:39 AM PST

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The Dems need to propose straight up yes or no votes on common sense legislation that will benefit the majority of Americans. If the Republicans vote against these issues or if the President vetoes them, they will have a hard time explaining to their constituents "Why?"

At the top of my list is fixing our voting system by re-writing HAVA, also known as the "Keep as many Democrats from Voting as Possible Act." After winning this election, it's the perfect time to address this and show the American people that the Democrats are the party that wants clean, fair and verifiable elections. I doubt if Bush would veto legislation to clean up this mess, but if he does, put the Republicans on the spot to over-ride it.

Fixing Medicare Part D is a no brainer. Force the Pharmaceutical Companies to negotiate lower prices  so the "donut hole" could be closed. Simplify the system as well so Seniors don't have 50 plans to try to pick from. Again, dare Bush to veto it.

Veterans Benefits: Re-introduce Tri Care legislation which would provide medical benefits to our reserve forces. The Republicans voted it down citing "we have more important funding priorities."

Approve the funding for brain injury research for our injured troops. The VA asked for only $5 Million for this project and the Republican Majority failed to appropriate the funds. The Dems  should put pressure on Bush to replace Jim Nicholson as VA Director as well. The Democrats can make a huge statement as to which party actually supports our troops and veterans during a time of war.

Approving the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission is another no-brainer. The Republicans blocked funding for First Responders Radio Systems (Reichert's Committee) and for scanning containers for dirty bombs. We'll see which party is "weak" on National Defense.

Lobbyist reform is vitally important to fix our broken system. The Democrats must resist the temptation to take money in exchange for legislation before the needed reforms are passed. If they ignore the lobbyists bribery tactics, many of them will just go away if the corporations who hire them can't get the desired results they are paying all that money for.

by Dynomight on Mon Nov 13, 2006 at 11:52:18 AM PST

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The message should be this: Bush and the Movement Conservatives ignored the people and "inconvenient" facts as long as they could and then started lying to cover up. In Iraq, in New Orleans, in the scandal-plagued Congress, and among majorities that have formed on issues they don't care anything about.

When you have a power structure that has gotten so out of step, there seem to be limitless opportunities, but you still have to make good bets and avoid bad ones. By "making a bet" I mean proposing legislation and a positive program. All the below issues MUST be addressed. But only a few should be addressed with positive legislative programs. Investigations should be instituted into all, but legislation should be proposed for only a few.

Bets we make:

Minimum Wage - This is huge. This should be a thread unto itself. It has the potential to produce an entirely new economic framework.

Health Care - Americans want it in large majorities. Conservatives don't want to give it to them. Great issue.

Campaign Finance/Election Reform/Influence Peddling - I group these together because that's how they belong. The incredible energy in the Election reform/verifiability issue comes from a general feeling that we have a crooked system. The Carter Center would not verify an American election both because we use disparate voting systems (which nobody has really proved to be ACTUALLY inaccurate to an unreasonable extent, but are potentially riggable) and because candidates do not get equal access to media. The marriage of money and media is where the real rigging goes on in my view, but all these issues are of a piece. Americans don't feel that their votes count as they should, it breaks against the Republicans, there is huge energy there and therefore this is a classic opportunity to combine issues and get a GOOD omnibus bill.

Domestic Spying/Law Enforcement Excess and Ineffectiveness: Americans hate Domestic Spying and we have to start chipping away at "anti-terrorist" paranoia. Law Enforcement in this country is in crisis. We are TERRIBLE at solving and preventing crimes. Meanwhile our police organizations spend all their time developing military capabilities, demanding more legal power, and misallocating their resources on politically-motivated priorities.

Again, investigation and reform.

Bets we don't make:  

Iraq - First and foremost we must remind people that Iraq is a terrible, terrible mistake and such horrific mistakes have lasting consequences. Democrats have NO RESPONSIBILITY to "fix" Iraq. The truth is that George Bush shattered the country to pieces and we very well may not be able to put it back together - ever.

It is highly likely that the best and only decision for America will be to leave Iraq in disgrace. Demcorats MUST assign blame where blame is due. Iraq is an issue for hearings, not bills. Let Bush conduct Bush's war and fail. Dems must not pick up this hissing cobra of an issue until Americans understand WHY it is the disaster that it is.

Immediate humanitarian aid and extensive investigation should be the Democratic position on Iraq. DWE has proposed the absolute right track.

On withdrawal, that will be the responsibility of the Commander-In-Chief. If that is Bush, let it be on his head. If that is the Democrat elected in 2008, let's spend two years helping Iraqis recover and explaining the Iraq failure to the American people so that they will be willing to elect a Commander-In-Chief who will willingly withdraw from Iraq.

Immigration - Why does Bush want illegal "guest workers" in the country? Why did the paranoia-proffering Terror Warrior let millions of people sneak into this country since 9/11?

Money.

American business wants illegal labor, just as they want to ship jobs overseas. Indeed, the ideal situation for Business has always been to let cheap, illegal labor in to the country - cheap foreign workers, no shipping costs.

But Republicans have deftly hidden their real, economic desires with a racist, anti-immigrant smokescreen. Democrats must tread extremely carefully. The Minimum Wage bill is key here. A high minimum wage will make cheap, undocumented labor doubly illegal. That's really important to establish before we negotiate the tricky politics of immigration.

"Terrorist Rights" - Personally, I find it an unbearable outrage what Bush has done to due process - completely unbearable. If you think I go mental over Maria Cantwell, I can't even speak about what Ashcroft and Gonzales have done. I lost my mind completely. But we must concentrate on Domestic excesses, without reference to the detainees. The "War on Terror" must be discredited in a systematic way. All the Bush outrages are built on a system of rationalizations and these rationalizations must be taken apart. We need patience.

Taxes and Balancing The Budget - Fuck it.
Americans borrow money. It's what we do. It's what we're best at, in a very real sense (I can write at length about that, but not here). Democrats should do NOTHING to balance the budget. Nothing. They should re-raise taxes only sparingly and in concert with other political messages. You don't re-impose the Estate Tax raise the Capital Gains, raise taxes on dividends and lift the income-level lid on Social Security taxes tax unless it is part of a broader message (although I would personally like to do those things tomorrow). The world will take our marker for another trillion dollars or so. All we can do is try and borrow that money in the most practically and politically beneficial way.

Mostly, Americans want to understand why Bush and Movement Conservatism have failed. The election was a statement that Movement Conservatism has failed. Dems MUST NOT fight that trend. Neither must they think they have a positive mandate - except on select issues.

 

by dlaw on Thu Nov 09, 2006 at 02:29:01 PM PST

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