Wednesday: You’re perfect, they love you, now Change!

CHANGE! CHANGE! CHANGE!

Now that George W. Bush has managed to make a clean getaway instead of getting tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail straight to a federal maximum security prison, it’s time for America to assess the damage he and his bands of vandals have left behind.  Now, I realize that it may take Barack Obama a couple of days to show us his big stimulus package but that shouldn’t stop him from changing some very important things right now.  Like today.  What better time than the present for him to demonstrate to his myriad supporters that he really is the most amazingly perfect human being to have walked the earth since Jesus Christ?  And you Obots out there, don’t let the hangover of the morning after let anything stop you from asking him to carry through.  Surely, he will want to hear from you now that the two of you have seen paradise by the dashboard light together.

Here are the things I would like Obama to do, TODAY, to show us in good faith what a Change™ agent is all about. He cleared the field of all of the non-Change agents for our own good, so let’s get to work!  These are things that George W. Bush either changed (*he* was a change agent too, apparently) or perpetuated as a holdover from the Republican Movement Conservatives:

1. Restore habeas corpus.
2. Rescind “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
3. Rescind the Bush Conscience Rule.
4. Rescind the Reagan Gag Rule on family planning organizations.
5. Reconstruct the wall between church and state by eliminating the Office of Faith Based Initiatives.
6. Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security.

That’s just my list for today.  Like I said, the economic stuff can wait until Friday when we should expect the stimulus package that would dwarf FDR’s plan, because that is what it’s going to take to save us from catastrophe or a very, VERY long recovery.

But lest the above list look too lefty, let me explain where I’m coming from.  Habeas corpus has been around since 1215AD and is essential to a free people.  The government can’t just cart you off to prison and hold you indefinitely without charging you.  Well, they couldn’t until George W. Bush came along.  Restoring the Rule of Law and not men requires that we have habeas corpus.  To me, it’s the most important thing on the list.  Items 2, 3, and 4 are just consistent with the values of the Obama supporters and non-Obama supporters who came of age during the 80’s who believe women have a right to privacy and that the gay community has a right to serve their country.  Obama’s campaign took the warning level up to code red where abortion was concerned.  Now is the time to bring the country back to code green like he promised.  Oh, he didn’t promise?   Well, I want him to do it anyway.  As for DADT, the country can use all of the help it can get like arab translators.  Why burden itself with qualified citizens who can’t serve or women whose lives and futures are subject to the decisions of others? Change!™

The Office of Faith Based Initiatives has always been a propaganda unit.  We know this from the guy who was asked to set it up, was quickly disillusioned and retired.  As James Madison said, God shouldn’t need any help from the state.  It would sort of make him less God like.  Plus, it discriminates against people who don’t have faith and don’t want one.  No one likes to have religion forced down their throats.  I guarantee that there were millions of Americans yesterday who were not impressed that Rick Warren knew how to say Jesus in 4 languages.  I as a believer have no right to dictate what goes on in your head nor should I make you pay for my proselytizing activities or the political activities of my party under the guise of religion.  It’s a bad office.  Sorry.  It’s got to go.  The sooner the better.  Like by the end of business today. Actually, if Obama is following Lincoln on this, he is probably aware that Lincoln was the *least* likely president to endorse any kind of organized religion.  He had a real bug up his butt about it.  Preachers like Rick Warren would have been on Lincoln’s $#@! list.  But I digress.

The Department of Homeland Security sounded like a good idea when it was proposed after 9/11.  Yeah, gang!  Let’s get everyone together in the barn and have a show!  But it has become a bloated patronage machine that sounds like it came straight from a Leni Riefenstahl film on the Third Reich.  It has been poorly managed since its creation, used to terrify the voters into pulling the Republican lever and undoubtably has been involved in violating our privacy.  The departments under its domain will still exist if it doesn’t so why not pull it down and see what they’ve really used it for?  I suspect skullduggery.  Better to ferret it out now.

So there are my first 6.  I could go on but like I said, I’m saving my economic suggestions for Friday when we can talk about putting all of the bankers in a time out corner and confiscating all of their ill-gotten booty.

What would you like to see Change!™ by the end of business today?