Congressional wish list and related matters

[nancylebov]

With the recent developments that habeas corpus is no longer obligatory for the US government and anyone can be disappeared and tortured at the President's discretion, I was spending a while staring at the walls going "Oh my God, my country, my country", and then it occurred to me that this atrocity is a law. It can be repealed.

It's at least possible that the Republicans will lose control of Congress, if not in this election, then in the next.

Repealing that damned law is high on my wish list. What's on yours?

Enforcing decent trial practice and treatment of prisoners is another and much harder problem. I'm not sure how all the prisoners held in secret can be found, let alone how they can be put into a more decent system in such a way that those currently imprisoning them aren't excessively tempted to just kill them and try to hide the evidence.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The things you mention are priorities. So, too, is putting real science back in science; getting the PR folks out of control of the National Parks and NASA; properly funding family planning and education (without blacklisting for dispensing information about abortion) -- and for that matter, passing a national "professional practitioner" law that requires professionals to practice their professions indiscriminately and without regard to personal or religious preferences. (That last is a tough sell, I know -- nonetheless.) Clear the way for consumers to get the best prices on prescription drugs, going to Canada if necessary. For that matter, let's have a serious look at single-payer health care. Enforce and ensure Net neutrality, reinstate ownership limits for media companies. Investigate electronic voting and possible frauds honestly. Repeal tax breaks for the ultrawealthy in favor of weighting tax breaks to the middle class and down. Balance the budget. Get Congress' and the President's fingers out of Social Security.

Let's have honest inquiries into the runup to the war in Iraq. Not to mention the domestic spying program and all the other violations of constitutional rights this administration has performed.

Um, probably, impeach Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rice. Those may not happen -- but we can only hope. (An impeachment certainly wouldn't help their case in The Hague, which is where I personally hope and expect them to wind up.)

How's that for the beginning of an agenda?

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, even if the Democrats recapture both houses, they won't have a veto-proof majority in either, so repeal is probably out of the question for the near term. Impeachment is possible, but conviction is not, barring a major breach in the GOP's unity.

So, pragmatically, what I want are Congressional investigations, lots and lots of investigations - but only if they avoid the procedural blunders that immunized several of the Iran-Contra figures back in the '80s.

If we get a Democratic President and Congress in 2008, then's the time for repeal. I'd put the Torture Act and any post-recess action on warrantless surveillance at the top of the hit list. Putting competent people back in charge of FEMA and other agencies would be next.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Democrats controlling the House looks not only possible, but rather likely. And Democratic control of the Senate looks increasingly possible.

See http://politics1.com and http://politicalwire.com

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

My wish list includes:
-- what you said
-- getting rid of all legislation from 1993 to the present that infringed on civil liberties
-- overhaul of the Telecommunications Act to favor more competition by smaller companies and breakup of the monopolies formed in the last 12 years
-- total reform of intellectual property law, getting and keeping big Hollywood interests out of controlling it -- and also keeping them from getting any control over the Net

[ndrosen.livejournal.com]

If only the Democrats were the party of civil liberties (remember Clinton and Reno?). If only we had a large, consistent party of civil liberties.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

"[P]utting real science back in science" and "getting the PR folks out of control of the National Parks and NASA" are definitely things I'd add to my wish list. Not that any Congress, regardless of who was in control, has shown much tendency in those directions for, well, most of my life. That goes for a lot of things, unfortunately, some of which you also mentioned.

Health care? IMO, single-payer is a purely symptomatic treatment and simply substitutes one set of problems for another. Let's start by eliminating the insurance industry's stranglehold on federal policy *in general* -- that goes *waaaaaaay* beyond health care. Oh, and the overinfluence of trial lawyers has to go as well. Maybe then we can address some of the *causes* behind the seeming intractability of the health care problem.

Social Security wasn't going to be around by the time I was eligible anyway, no matter what. It's a pyramid scheme, pure and simple -- and regressive to boot. There are much better ways of getting retirement income into people's pockets. (Not that we are necessarily implementing any of them right now.)

Net neutrality? Absofrickinlutely, and this means getting Hollywood out of it too.

Inquiries? Definitely hold them. Although I supsect the left will be somewhat disappointed to find that the war was primarily the result of stupidity (for which, I must add, they are still morally culpable, and should be held accountable). I'd love to see justice done for those who pushed the domestic spying program and the other rights violations.

Impeachment? Would be nice if there were a serious chance of getting a conviction, which probably makes it pointless to go after Rice -- I'd impeach Gonzales first in any event.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Healthcare is certainly a complex issue. I suggest single-payer because (a) it's been set up successfully elsewhere, and seems to have positive effects there (although it also has its negatives; I'm not going to suggest it's a panacea for all healthcare ills) and (b) I also dislike the problems presented by the protection racket insurance industry, as it currently exists. I suspect that while we have some area of agreement on trial lawyers, as well, that we might have different borders of where they've gone too far. (And even there, it's complex; there's blame and responsibility for the attorneys' clients and possibly the court system.)

I think you're incorrect about the long-term viability of Social Security. I also think that it's not meant as a full-blown pension system. Either way, it was never meant to be Congress' emergency piggy bank.

We can go round and round on stupidity vs. malfeasance with regard to the war (clearly, I think there's a significant element of the latter on the part of the Administration), but until we have all the evidence in the open, we can agree to disagree, if you will, and focus on how to get out of the quagmire in the desert. (That is, yes, I want hearings. Even more, I want to handle the mess we're in, and get out of it to avoid, as much as possible, the unnecessary sacrifice of more troops than we already have lost.)

It's good to know there are thoughtful people who hold conservative views, and who don't automatically launch ad hominem attacks on someone whose views don't accord with theirs. (I fear I have not encountered many, recently.) Thank you for that (and, Nancy, I'm not at all surprised to find folks like that among your friends).