But What the Hell Do I Know?

Part I:

1. If the vote is the fundamental keystone of democracy, why the fuck do we vote for president by proxy? Deep six the electoral college. Get rid of it, it's old, it's lame, its antiquated. Most people don't even know what or why it is.

1a. While we're at it, make all electronic voting machines print a paper ticket hard copy of the vote to be signed by the voter, and saved until hell freezes over or pigs fly, whichever comes first.

2. Get out of NAFTA. It will only take 6 months. Free trade is never free. See well-paying jobs hemorrhage south to Mexico. The only people that it helps are executives. Ending our freak involvement in this 'deal' will start putting the middle class back in the middle. Consequently consumers will have enough buying power not to have to buy cheap Walmart crap, which seems to be about the only argument in favor of NAFTA.

3. Force Israel to get the hell out of the west bank and occupied territories. (Sorry Drew.) We can, because the Washington has more influence in Jerusalem than it does in San Fransisco. I'm no anti-Semite, but this conflict is messed up, and is directly responsible for almost all the animosity felt by the US from this part of the region. Now I agree that a country has the right to defend itself, but it wouldn't need to if it weren't taking land and killing civilians in a war decried by almost all the world, including the UN security council, as unjust.

4. Iraq. Good god, where to start. Get our troops home. They're not wanted, and can't do the job anyway thanks to Shrub and his lackeys. Start now. As they leave we should pay, in entirety, for an all-Muslim force to help the Iraqi army/police. We should fix all the destruction. Imagine if we spent 10% of what we're currently spending per day on reconstruction, water, electricity. That would save $1.6 Billion a week, and still be more than adequate to build schools, water treatment plants, roads, protect archeology sites and museums.

5. End the trade embargo with Cuba. It is a disgrace that the most powerful country in the world somehow finds it pertinent to starve and belittle our not-really-that-dangerous neighbor. The cold war is gone, get over it. Castro will die soon, let that be the 'excuse' we need to end the embargo. (It's sorta like the 5th grade bully stealing lunch money from the dorky 1st grader. What the fuck does it prove?) Remember that Cuba offered to send us 1,000 doctors after Katrina. We (read Bush) refused because, well, we are assholes and prefer the suffering of our own citizens to the help of a communist country.