Democratic Majority-The Right Things to Do

12/27/2006

Well, here we head into the New Year with a Congress in Washington nominally headed by the Democrats, or by what pass today for Democrats.

They have said: they don't see impeachment in the cards; they will fund the war; better they will fund the so-called "surge" into Iraq, an endless quagmire of American making.

So, what moral and legal imperatives might linger in the wings, which these wimps will surely ignore:

1. Get out of Iraq forthwith! No arguing, no matter the mechanism. The war is an illegal invasion by immoral and incompetent people, supported and directed by a criminal conspiracy which includes far too much of Congress.

2. Most acts committed by this administration are clearly criminal, felonies. To fail to bring indictments against these self-professed criminals is to be party to and culpable in their crimes? Do we have a Democratic leadership, such as it claims to be, which will clearly and competently understand its own continued complicity in these illegalities by looking aside? Since a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for acts of crime while in office, und a special prosecutor to investigate and indict all in the white house, major agencies, the Justice Department and the AG as criminals. That should decapitate this criminal conspiracy.

3. Repeal or severely limit and constrain the Patriot Act and its follow on travesties which have been destructive of our civil rights and liberties, not to mention the Bill of Rights and Constitution. If in fact they do not do that, they surely want to have these malign tools around to use on us.

4. Repeal the Bankrupt Act and any which arose from it. Reestablish bankruptcy in which the bankruptee is presumed not culpable until proven otherwise. Legislate that finance companies of every type are constrained to the usery laws of the interest allowed by the state with the lowest rates.

5. Repeal the sections of laws passed in the last 15 years which superceded state laws in many critical areas of our lives.

6. Reinforce the antitrust laws with amendments forcing their use in situations with prespecified financial limits and percentages of combinations. Break up all the major conglomerations into their constituent elements, making corporate charter national in issue, taking this functions from states. Revoke the charters of every single broadcast firm and require them to reregister, subject to public protest which will carry majority weight in final decisions. Do not leave this to the FCC, but to a special body created to supercede the FCC and its hacks. The test here is positive contribution from the point of view of voters, not businesses.

7. Review, investigate and publicize the roles of the right wing foundations, think tanks, academic chairs and publications in promoting the right wing and conservative christian assault on the US and its citizens over the past 20 years--something the sonambulent Democratic Party has failed to do these last 30 years, even as these people reached for complete theocracy for us all.

8. Break the Homeland Security Agency into major elements, eliminating the confusion and incompetence engenered by its formation based on cronyism and corruption rather than competence and dedication. Eliminate "no fly" lists. End the Drug Wars against us and move to legalize drugs.

9. Reinstitute the Freedom of Information Act, not the mutant dwarf which now remains, hostile to the people who pay for it. All information should be releasable, no matter its sensitivities. Order a complete and independent review of ALL classified materials over every type, and with presumption of overclassification, declassify 90% within one year and if not done, do not appropriate any money for agencies which do not comply, nothing.

If you want a litmus test of whether the new Democratic majority is for real, here it is; the things which will begin to restore our stolen rights. Oh, and I forgot, add how well the Democrats control the impulses of the DLC Republican Lite types to stray to the dark side.

This is certainly not a complete list, but it is a beginning of the way to retrieve our battered and all but destroyed civil liberties.

Bill Franklin