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What Would You Do As President?
With the elections continually in the news there is constant discourse on what each candidate has done or will do. However, rarely do people get the chance to say what they would do. Here is your chance, you have been elected President of the US (god help us all), what items go to the head of the class and how would you handle them?
FYI Lyrics by Wyclef Jean, "If I Was President"
1. fund the creation of MagLev wind turbines (google it) and solar cells based on what Konerka (again, google it) is doing in that arena.
2. There has got to be a better battery technology than what is in use today. If we could get the wind and solar to the point of creating 250% of what we use, then we can store the extra for night-time use (and when the wind isn't blowing). Under current wind and solar technology this is just technically impossible. Thus see number 1.
3. Once you have the battery question solved (along w/ the wind and solar in place); switch all non-heavy-duty vehicles over to electric w/ the new battery and smaller versions of the MagLev turbine. So they charge when they're being driven.
enough about energy.
4. abolish the Federal Reserve. It was setup illegally; it's a private bank. Did you know, for every dollar that the Federal Reserve prints, it charges the US gov't $1 + interest? over 90% of the US govt debt is owed to this private bank. And why? Because the US doesn't regulate it's own currency. Countries in the world w/ no debt, like say Russia, print and maintain their own currency. I'm just saying.
5. Then w/ all that in place; bring home every last soldier. They don't need to be anywhere but here, guarding OUR borders, not someone else's.
Screw the IRS! They're just the "heavy" for the private bank. 'No taxation w/out representation' my @$$.
Don't buy into the smear. Even the President of the Austin, TX branch of the NAACP came out in support of Ron Paul and said that he has known him for 20 years and he knows that he isn't a racist.
My first act after being sworn in would be to bring all US troops home from Iraq.
My second act would be to issue a presidential pardon for all non-violent drug offenders.
My legislative priorities, assuming like-minded people have been also been elected to the House and Senate, would be:
1) The end of the War on Some Drugs. The money currently spent on that would go toward drug treatment, see item 3 below.
2) Repeal of the DMCA, and systematic reform of the copyright, trademark and patent laws. Copyright would be an initial term of five years, renewable for one additional term of five years, with an open format preservation requirement for the renewal. The scope of what is protected by trademark law would be substantially narrowed. Software patents would be kaput.
3) A single payer comprehensive national health care plan. Neither employers, nor university presidents would be permitted access to people's medical records.
4) The current tax code would be scrapped, and replaced by a simple progressive income tax with no loopholes. I am also open to using a national sales tax with a progressive, income sensitive prebate program.
5) Immigrants who want to come to the US for a better life would be welcome, without quotas or limits, even if they have darker skin than me or speak a different language.
6) New education standards, with a heavy emphasis on math and science. Schools receiving federal funds would be prohibited from having ID as part of the science curriculum, and would be required to have as much resources put into arts, music and such as are put into sports.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
I'm with you on both points. I work in the "healthcare" (bunch of crap) industry. Our company makes a profit from developing software to help find ways to deny more claims to make more money for our clients. Even people that are properly insured get screwed over by most insurance companies.
Are you high?
The U.S. Postal Service is an "independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States," according to statute; it is wholly government-owned and, as such, is exempt from prosecution under the Sherman Act, according to the Supreme Court. I quote from this link: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=540&page=736
"The Postal Service has different goals, obligations, and powers from private corporations. Its goals are not those of private enterprise. The most important difference is that it does not seek profits, but only to break even...."
PUH-leeze. Get the facts wrong, and you're MY meat.
Sometimes I have to say to hell with it and just eat my jellybeans.
And your proposals for doing these things are?
Oil prices: Like most commodities, oil prices are largely driven by the laws of supply and demand. Unlike yesteryear when OPEC pretty much could determine supply at a whim, supply is so tight today that the power of OPEC has been greatly diminished (although their profits are greatly expanded). The US has some, but rather minimal, untapped pockets of oil, such as ANWR left. Any new tapping of oil resources won't take effect for years anyways. Another part is wars and occupations, both ongoing (Iraq) and potential (say, Iran). Also, random instabilitity and strikes can play havok with the markets (Nigeria, Colombia). On the demand side of the equation, you have China's quick but steady growth. Part of the present high prices are because the US is currently filling its strategic reserves.
So, what's your plan?
Housing slump: How do you think the Federal Government should raise home prices, many of whose values were greatly overinflated previously due to speculation?
Federal Banking Commission: What do you propose?
Scale back the size of the Federal Government and lower taxes accordingly: Here's a breakdown of the current budget for you:
Social Security: 582B (Mandatory)
Defense: 429.6B
Medicare: 367B (Mandatory)
Other Mandatory: 318B (a whole bunch of tiny, popular things. A few punching bags are in this category, such as TANF/Food stamps, but they're only ~7B and ~12B, respectively, so not much left to cut there.)
Interest on debt: 239B (Mandatory)
Medicaid/SCHIP: 198B (Mandatory)
"Global War on Terror": 70.0B (emergency supplemental)
Health and Human Services: 69.1B
Education: 56.0B
Housing and Urban Development: 34.7B
Veterans Affairs: 33.2B
Homeland Security: 32.0B
State and other Intl. Programs: 28.7B
Energy: 22.8B (includes nuclear weapons)
Agriculture: 19.6B
Justice: 19.4B
NASA: 16.2B
Labor: 11.7B
Treasury: 11.4B
Transportation: 10.7B
Interior: 10.3B
Social Security Adminstration: 7.6B
EPA: 7.5B
Other Agencies: 6.5B
Commerce: 5.6B
National Science Foundation: 5.6B
Judicial Branch: 5.3B
Corps of Engineers: 4.7B
Legislative Branch: 3.7B
Border Security and Other Suppl.: 1.8B (emergency supplemental)
Small Business Administration: 0.4B
Executive Office: 0.3B
Hurricane response: 0.2B (emergency supplemental)
Now, remember that we're operating in a defecit, and also remember that certain cuts (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) will essentially eliminate your chance at reelection (as well as your chances of actually getting them through even your own party, who cares about their reelection as well). Also remember that Social Security is also an income line item -- $873.4B currently (more in than out). All Mandatories are harder to get changed because they require a special bill; discretionary has to be reauthorized each year.
Have at it.
Get a kick-ass foreign relations team into the embassies and capitals to repair our good name.
And that would be different from the goals of every other president how?
Tonight's Special: Leg of Salmon
1) I will repeal corporate personhood.
Good idea, but requires legislation.
2) I will tax the top 5% and distribute the wealth through increased funding for basic academic research, reimburse college loans for students carrying 3.2GPA or higher, national daycare programs, and national health care programs.
Requires legislation. You can have your pet congressman introduce legislation to do so.
3) Prosecute the supreme court justices who appointed Bush, and every person in the federal governemnt who continued to aid and abet the terrorist regime.
a) Sovereign Immunity
b) Someone else has pointed out that the fraud (if any) was not the USSC's fault, and someone had to cut the Gordian Knot.
4) Establish a department of peace, reduce military funding, and give anyone a seat a a negotiating table so we do not have to fight them "over there" or "over here".
a) Requires legislation (see 1 and 2).
b) Who is "anyone"?
c) Define "negotiating table"
5) Reparations for the victims of hurrican katrina who were failed by their governments.
Again, requires legislation. Congress has the power of the purse.
6) Introduce and pass a bill eliminating campaign contributions once and for all. Also ensure that any elected public official gives up the right to privacy of their financial information. Pass strict laws (including jail terms) for politicians who take bribes from interest groups.
Good luck getting that past the inevitable court challenge.
7) Abolish the electoral college system. Create a new system in which No president can be elected without at least 60% of the popular vote. Perhaps allow voters to choose their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4rth, and so on choice. Use weighted averaging to determine which candidate is most popular.
Damn near impossible. Requires a Constitutional Amendment. Good luck with that. Let me know 40 years from now how you did.
8) Completely re-write copyright and patent law. Reduce copyright terms to 5 years, place far greater weight on prior art. If a "one-click" type patent can be proved identical to an algorithm written in 1975 in some obscure computer science textbook then that patent is immediately and irrevocably dissolved.
a) Requires legislation. Copyright is explicitly listed as a Congressional power.
b) Puts us in violation of the Berne Convention, which according to Article VI of the Constitution is co-equal with laws passed by Congress.
9) Federalize technologies like these and dramatically increase funding for alternative energy technologies. Create awards and grants that provide generous wealth incentives for innovators.
You were planning on paying/compensating the "owners" of such technologies, weren't you? Or do you also think that the Constitution (specifically Amendment 5) is just a piece of paper.
10) Legalize file-sharing and constitutionally equate it to freedom of speech, write net-neutrality into law. Clean sweep of the FCC and recreate it as a body which exists solely for the promotion of faster, more reliable, ubiquitous communication services to individual citizens.
a) The first part requires legislation and then a Constitutional Amendment (your words, not mine).
b) The second is doable, but may require legislation, depending on the charter of the FCC as currently legislated by Congress.
11) In the same way Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System; fund and build a massive fiber layout to solve the last mile problem once and for all. Include provisions for alternative solutions like wireless hubs and repeaters. Portion a federal budget for the continuous maintenance of this network.
Again, requires legislation. As I said before, Congress has the power of the purse, NOT the president.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
In Soviet Russia, all of these things happened.
The game.
Not sure if you consider them "pseudo-legitimate", but you might try this BBC's report on a video statement made by Osama Bin Laden in September 2007:
Sure sounds like he plans to keep knocking down buildings until we all embrace his religion to me. At least, I didn't notice a "we'll leave you alone if you leave us alone" clause anywhere in his statement.
Over the last couple of years I've heard all sorts of main stream candidates claim to not have read the intelligence reports before voting to go into Iraq. I've heard candidates claim to have not read the PATRIOT Act before voting for it. What's the big deal about some newsletters? You're a complete tool if you let this bias you against Ron Paul. He's the only candidate from both parties who has any clue about what is going on with the economy and our foreign policy. He is the only candidate out there who is being honest with the American people. He is on the record numerous times talking about how the War on Drugs unfairly targets minorities. His record speaks for itself.
That would be wrong. Ron Paul doesn't associate with Stormfront, firstly; The New York Times was forced to publish a retraction on that claim when it was disproven. Secondly, you're pretending that a single incident was extended over a period of decades. In fact, Paul dismissed the editors involved, directly upon being informed of the objectionable content.
It's a transparent smear.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
I don't really see that I'm making your point. Laws also don't always reflect morality or right and wrong. Every country has proceedures for immigration and there's not wrong with having them. People that come into the country for visits are refered to as expatriats, not immigrants. Good god..
So you're going to argue that people should come and go to the US as they please? Sorry, I am for minimal government, and not even I would go that far.
I even said I didn't care for Ron Paul!
Because it is a legal requirement that they do so. mcCain Feingold introduced that requirement to stop the practice of anonymous attack ads.
Discrimination is one thing, but free speech, even bigoted speech, should be answered with speech, not banned out of hand. Kicking off one's campaign at Bob Jones U or referring to 'states rights' does not make one a racist, one can speak to groups, even groups with values you don't agree with, without becoming part of that group or endorsing their message.
If you have a forum you can invite others without necessarily endorsing their message. But that is not what Bush and Reagan did. They choose the forums they did in order to send an express but coded message of support for those racist institutions.
Whether Ron Paul wrote the articles that appeared under his name is frankly irrelevant. The President of the Oxford Union can invite Gerry Adams or David Irving to speak if he chooses without necessarily endorsing his position. But publishing an written by one of them in a newsletter that only carries his name and has no indication that it is an outside contribution is an express endorsement of the position.
I have yet to hear if Ron Paul is or is not repudiating the positions in the newsletter. If he does not repudiate them he is a racist, lets not waste any more time arguing the point. If he does repudiate the positions we should be told what else he is likely to be repudiating in the future.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
The president can only pardon people who have been convicted of violating federal laws. Since most people in prision for drug posession were charged under state drug laws, there wouldn't be anything you could do about it.
I don't see how any government has any right or business telling who can cross and not cross an imaginary line.
It doesn't sound like you believe a government has any right to to tell anyone what they can or can't do.
According to the Webster, an immigrant is a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence. I don't why that would imply citizenship.
Fortunately Wikipedia explains how the word is actually used: "While human migration has existed throughout human history, immigration implies long-term, legal and permanent residence (and often eventual citizenship) by the immigrants."
I am arguing that people should go and come as they please as long as they do not trespass on people's property. I am also arguing that the "the US" is by no mean the legitimate property of the US government.
Well, tough shit. Whether you like it or not, the current boundries of the US are legitimate to everyone else.
How come the strongest attack is coming from The New Republic, a neo-conservative online magazine?
Point of order here. The New Republic is NOT a neo-con site. It is in fact quite liberal. You a probably confusing it with the Free Republic or even the National Review.
A person is elected President for four years. The legalization of hemp is something that could conceivably happen during the course of a single administration. The legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use would provide a source of tax revenue for the government. That will help with finances. It can be used to produce hemp oil that can be used as a lubricant for machinery. That will help with the energy crisis. It grows faster than trees and produces more fiber per acre that can be used for paper and lumber. It also requires less water than cotton and produces more cloth than cotton per acre. It also doesn't require the extreme amounts of pesticides that cotton does. All of those are good for the environment and will help to provide clothing and shelter the growing population. The hemp seed can be processed into food and it is very reach in essential amino acids. The radicalization of Muslims... well, lets all just sit around and smoke some weed. That will calm them down. ;) In all seriousness, no... hemp won't address that. Removing the incentive of them to attack us and providing them with propaganda (like killing hundreds of thousands of Arabs in Iraq) will help address that. Medical care crisis... ya, boo hoo freakin hoo. Cry me a river over expensive drugs and treatments that don't work. The answer to the medical crisis is healthy, nutrient rich food grown in fertile soil, clean water and exercise. All of those promote a healthy immune system.
Although you have to seriously wonder if OBL (or his ilk) would have even bothered the West if the West hadn't:
Our foreign policy over the past 75 years has been screwy and downright slimey at times. We like to preach democracy, but we don't hesitate to help prop up un-popular dictators who will bend to our will.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
If you have a billion dollars, though, you can pretty easily set up a nonprofit foundation that - oh so coincidentally - employs your descendants to do a lot of not very difficult jobs for rather more than competitive salaries. Maybe there can be foundation-owned housing they can live in rent-free - again, only available to family members. Once you own the properties, you'd be surprised how little it takes to live on.
When Thomas Jefferson asked a delegate of the Barbary Pirates to stop raiding ships and selling the crews into slavery, he was told that they can not stop doing that. Allah requires it.
Finish this phrase:
Those who do not know their history are:
And for god-sakes. Would you read your last line again? We are trying to help establish a democracy in Iraq! Damned if we do; damned if we don't.
-john
(I'm really starting to get pissed at all the blame America first, assholes. Learn some history people. George Bush is not the root of all that is bad in this world. Western civilization is the best thing to ever happen to the world.)
Slashdot: you'll not find a more wretched collection of villainy and disreputable types...
Completely dismantle the DEA and return control of drug laws to local jurisdictions, with the overall understanding that no rights of due process shall be violated, and that no unjust or draconian penalties shall be set. One way to begin that perhaps would be to tell the states that yes, you can set your own drug laws, but you have to first offer any offenders, especially first time offenders, the option of medical treatment at the states expense if they so wish. Just to balance that, mandatory treatment/jail time for any drug offender who injures or kills other people while under the influence.
And completely decriminalize marijuana/hemp. Leave it to the states whether or not they wish to regulate the sales of the intoxicating form of it, but make it clear that no law shall be passed that will make the sale or use of cannabis for medical purposes illegal, and also that any attempt by anyone to monopolize sales or produce tainted product will not go unpunished. This bullshit has gone on for entirely too many generations and it's time that it was stopped. We regulate alcohol sales (with varying success) and cannabis has been medically shown to be less destructive than alcohol.
There's lots more that needs to be done there and what I said above isn't the best by any means... but drug abuse should be a medical problem, not a legislative one. The only thing that legislation has done has been to create artificial black markets that have done tremendous damage to our country and this is not acceptable.
tic (a NORML member since 1988)
January 8, 2008 5:28 am EST
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - In response to an article published by The New Republic, Ron Paul issued the following statement:
"The quotations in The New Republic article are not mine and do not represent what I believe or have ever believed. I have never uttered such words and denounce such small-minded thoughts.
"In fact, I have always agreed with Martin Luther King, Jr. that we should only be concerned with the content of a person's character, not the color of their skin. As I stated on the floor of the U.S. House on April 20, 1999: 'I rise in great respect for the courage and high ideals of Rosa Parks who stood steadfastly for the rights of individuals against unjust laws and oppressive governmental policies.'
"This story is old news and has been rehashed for over a decade. It's once again being resurrected for obvious political reasons on the day of the New Hampshire primary.
"When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit. Several writers contributed to the product. For over a decade, I have publicly taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name."
You can't take the sky from me...