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Pass legislation that ends unequal treatment of everyone-- women, gays, blacks, etc.
Start funding the policy development and advocacy think tanks like the right has. Budget at least 500 million on them each year. Find the money. It will save the world and give incredible power to the left. The left needs some really left, left think tanks. Are there any already out there-- ones that don't kowtow to the Democratic party?
Pass a bill, using reconciliation, adding the Grayson amendment, that allows anyone to buy into Medicare-- paying for it. No cost and probably savings due to more users. It's not the healthcare for all that every other advanced nation gives ALL its citizens, but it's a better step than what they gave us so far.
Offer serious funding and laws empowering feasibility and pilot studies of new models of health care. Pass all legislation necessary to make it easier for pioneers to develop new, potentially healthier, more cost effective models nationally and in states, where ERISA law could be a problem.
Fund a Communications Effectiveness Agency directed by the President. Three more years for Obama, if he and his allies had effective languaging tools could cement their power. We need to invest in the framing tools it takes to wake up the public.
Identify the ten most pressing environmental issues. Let scientists identify five and crowd sourcing identify five. Then go full tilt to deal with them. Once they're dealt with, keep coming up with top tens and let's save this planet for future generations.
Fix the textbook system. Textbook publishers engage in legalized theft, with the prices they charge. And the Texas influence on textbooks is obscene and must be stopped. Every student in america should have a $100 to $200 netbook that accesses the web free, so schools can customize their lesson plans and choose different versions of textbooks-- at drastically lower prices.
Play Hardball with Right Wing Israelis and AIPAC. Netanyahu and his extremist, fundamentalist allies are aggressively attempting to influence US politics, trying to get US Jews to oppose the Obama administration's efforts to make peace happen. Pull the plug on funding unless they give us what we want. They are an independent country, yes. But we give them $3 billion a year. Cut it off unless they meet hard criteria that gives their right wing extremists apoplexy and which force the politics in Israel to re-align. Penalize Israelis for accommodating right wing extremism. Use the funding we provide to push the politics in Israel.
Salvage and Re-invent Journalism Newspapers are dying, as they should be, given the new technologies. That doesn't mean investigative journalism should be thrown out too. The government should invest serious funding to pay for 50,000 investigative journalists. Prorate pay the first year based on previous experience and readership. Then use social networking technologies to evaluate readership and value of reporting to adjust pay, so journalists in the program make $25,000 to $150,000 a year, averaging $50,000. Spend that on 20,000 journalists and the return in exposed misspending, corruption and the like will be many times the paltry one billion dollar investment.
Investigate and Prosecute: Bush and Cheney, Rove, Yoo and Bybee and the DOJ attorneys who prosecuted innocent democrats like Don Siegelman, Cyril Wecht. The USA's house will reek an ugly smell untill justice is applied to these criminals and unjustly prosecuted victims are freed and compensated.
If even a small fraction of these practical, populist solutions were put into effect, the USA and the world would be better places.
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