Fixing the United States Pt I Domestic policy

With all the ideas available, why do we have to keep hearing only old, tired, bad ideas? "Drill Baby Drill" indeed. The Bush Administration has been so historically bad, even Thomas Friedman is making sense. If America is half the country it thinks it is, it will use the Bush years as an opportunity. If Americans can't use the experience of the last 8 yrs to throw our pressing needs into stark relief, we will deserve the fate we get, one which will resemble the dinosaurs. Some good ideas, like reducing the speed limit, issuing licenses for child birthing, enforcing noise pollution laws, or eliminating entertainment news, are impossible to implement in such a careless, dumb, greedy society. But other ideas are easier to work with. The list of things to change is obvious. Any simple fuck or internet hack could come up with them. In order of ease of implementation, here are just a few.

Lifestyle Environmentalists need to put up or shut up. It's swell that you bought that canvas reusable shopping bag. Pull your Prius over at the next light and actually do something by bringing your economic clout to bear on concrete issues. A first symbolic step? Hospitals ("do no harm") and long-term care facilities need to be stopped from dumping their pharmaceuticals into the drinking water supply. Anyone object?

Karl Rove needs to be put in a prison cell. This is a bipartisan issue. Congress cannot be allowed to get any weaker. And I think we'll all feel a lot better.

Create an actual Justice Department to investigate the existing one. Alberto Gonzales, too, needs a taste of justice (maybe for the first time). Subverting the congress, the constitution and the American justice system has to be a punishable crime. Otherwise there is no point to going on.

FEMA needs immediate continuing reform. Mostly because its a damn embarrassment. But also so those American citizens that Bush let suffer and die in the aftermath Katrina didn't do so in vain. Americans need to be certain that the world's richest country can take care of itself in the event of a natural, or other disaster. Undoing Bush's 8 years of cronyism is entirely possible, but it might not be easier than fixing his foreign policy blunders.

Develop some semblance of an innovative energy policy. This is so obvious, even the big oil controlled Republican party is making memes about being under the yoke of our dependence on foreign oil, despite the fact it makes no logical sense for them to say so. Whether global warming is a cyclical thing prompted by a God angered over same-sex marriages, or a man-made self-fucking, we're all gonna die. Question is, do we want to be able to take our last breath, or do we wanna go choking down the black air and water that we created? If Americans want to even start to reverse the legacies of the blithely destructive consumerist lifestyles we're willing to kill for, We need to do the opposite of every thing we have ever done.

Leave "No Child Behind" policy behind. Solely blaming teachers while still hoping to be saved by the heroic ones is idiotic. There are so many points of intervention, yet government and Hollywood fill our heads with the absurd idea that teachers are the problem. Stop with the willful ignorance about the social context in which schools are asked to operate. Have you tested well you feared for your very safety? Decide whether we want to have teachers in charge of teaching, or just hire test proctors. Understand that comprehensive education reform is more than reliance on critically flawed, barely valid testing system. Notice that schools are segregated. Take a close look at the high-salaried dolts that are running and administrating America's education system. That is where you'll find the key failures. Who do you think hired all the "bad teachers"? Get the (text book) corporations out of education. Think carefully about which administration came up No Child Behind strategy. Obama, among others, wants to make math and science a priority. But students need to know how to read to do anything, including math and science, and right now they don't, so this emphasis is foolish. We shouldn't wonder why we have an electorate full of stupid people who keep making terrible choices as if they have no choice.

The government needs to develop a smart, winning public campaign to properly re-regulate key sectors. Globalization means that we can not avoid regulating the banking and insurance industries. The key is probably to tie fat cat malfeasance to concrete reform so the dull public authorizes some drastic measures. Good news: there's plenty of good examples. Bad news: the rich would prefer to keep getting richer.

Corporate America needs a spanking. Let the big ass companies explain to us why we should bail them out without them paying for it. They will still make money hand over fist if they pay their fair share of taxes. So spare us the bullshit, and the diversionary "small business" tropes. The CEOs and foreign concerns that are exploiting our tax code and lack of energy policy, and benefiting from our largess aren't just like you and me, in case you're wondering. They have a lot more than they need.

Comprehensive electoral reform, forced upon the states if necessary. America needs free and fair elections. We can't continue to hold elections with flawed unsecured electronic voting machines. If Florida won't do it themselves then they need it done for them. Reform the electoral college. It's a ridiculous way to choose an executive. As it is, our Presidents spend their best efforts (and years) campaigning, not governing.