I watch a lot of cable news and read an awful lot about politics, as you may have picked up on by now. But as this midterm election approaches something has struck me. The poor Democrats lack a plan. All they seem to be able to do it badmouth the GOP. While I enjoy verbally assaulting Republicans as much as the next easily irritated liberal. The Democrats need a bit more. A plan of action would be handy. So as always I am here to help. Now mind you I find most of the Democrats in Congress ineffectual power hungry sheep, double ditto for the GOP. So I will present my platform were I to run. Which I doubt will ever happen. I am really uncomfortable in a tie. I will hit issues I find most important. I will be intentionally skipping the issues that seem to come up for no good reason like gay marriage or abortion. Let’s solve the big problems first.

Terrorism: We must effectively protect Americans, bring terrorists to justice and prevent the spread of terrorism.
-Protection: We must have better port security (screening of 100% of the cargo entering this nation), airport security (including better protection on the airplane and more effective and efficient screening on baggage and passengers), and better border security. We must cooperate with foreign intelligence agencies to have the ability to track and identify known terrorist. We must also invent in training the people necessary to do this vital work and pay them generously. We can ill afford to have over worked and underpaid people doing such critical work.
-Bringing them to Justice: We can ill afford to more wars like the one in Iraq. We must take out terrorists with surgical precision. We should have our special forces thoroughly trained in counter terrorism. We must have the intelligence gathering capacity to track and anticipate their actions. Then strike them with smaller more efficient fighting forces. Also Osama Bin Laden’s capture should be a priority. We have let him go free too long.
-Prevention: We must not be seen as a rich arrogant nation. We must be seen as a force for positive change in the world. The United States is a wonderful generous nation. We should be seen by the whole world as that. Therefore we will use a part of our defense budget to supply arid climates with potable water, we will send medicines to areas ravaged with disease (especially AIDS), we will send food to areas devastated by famine and we will encourage service in organizations like Peace Corps with tax credits or college grants.

Patriot Act: The Patriot Act and all related laws should be repealed. They are simply unnecessary. We have been able to track and capture terrorists in the past without these laws. So we do not need them now.

Immigration: The United States is a nation of immigrants. We must not forget that. But unfortunately there is a great deal of controversy about immigrants, especially those from Mexico, who come here illegally. Here is my plan to solve that.
-Amnesty for all immigrants here without a criminal record.
- Fines for businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
-NAFTA will be abolished. We will then work with Mexico to revitalize its economy so the citizens of Mexico have less reason to cross the border.
-Making English our national language is both unnecessary and exclusionary and should not be allowed.

Iraq: We follow the advice of Rep. John Murtha and leave Iraq as soon as possible. We have nothing to gain there. The Iraqis must be allowed to govern themselves. We were in the middle of a civil war in Vietnam and it got us nothing but dead and broken soldiers and a divided nation. We must not repeat that mistake.

Minimum Wage: The minimum wage should be at least $9.00 an hour. $5.15 is simply not enough for people to survive on.

Health Care: Health Care is a right not a privilege. We must have national health care for all citizens. We are simply too wealthy a nation to allow people to go without adequate health care. We have too many people deciding between medicine and food and an infant mortality rate that is humiliating. We can do far better.

International Monetary Policy: The United States will pull out of the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and World Trade Organization. These organizations serve no other purpose then to keep poor nations poor and wealthy nations wealthy.

Department of Peace: We will have a department whose sole purpose will be the avoidance of conflicts both domestic and abroad. Also it will coordinate efforts to lessen violence in our own nation. This department will follow the design of Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Education: Portions of the Defense budget will be allotted to both improve public elementary and high schools, as well as lower tuition at public universities. As our schools go so goes our nation. We must not allow them to fail.

No Child Left Behind: The No Child Left Behind act will be abolished. As will all standardized testing in public schools, other than what is voluntary.

Energy: We will again allot money from the defense budget to get the United States to no longer have use for fossil fuels as soon as we are able. We will explore all possible renewable energy sources, especially those that pollute as little as possible.

Environment: The United States will sign the Kyoto Treaty and work to lessen the emission of “greenhouse gasses” and all other pollutants. We will not explore for oil in our precious national parks or any other land that is pristine and basically free of human intervention.

Taxes: For the United States to thrive all citizens must share in the responsibility. We must all shoulder our share of the burden. This especially includes the wealthy and corporations. There will be no trickle down economics. Everyone will be asked to pay his or her fair share. The tax scale will be graduated with the wealthy and corporations being asked to pay more than the poor simply because they are more able to do so.