"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
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"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) |
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Open Letter to President-Elect ObamaWe are invited to share our vision for the future with the Obama team at www.change.gov. Below is my submission.Mr. President-Elect, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin. Mr. President-elect tear down the Patriot Act. Publicly disavow the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war. It violates international law, offends the natural law, and destabilizes our world. And please remove our combat troops from Iraq ASAP. It's up to the Iraqi people to sort that Bush created mess out. The excesses and illegality of the Bush Administration cannot go unpunished. Appoint a special prosecutor with Republican credentials giving him broad authority to investigate administration authorizeed violations of the law (i.e., domestic spying, rampant violations of the Hatch Act, et cetera). This cannot have the appearance of a political witch-hunt, only a search for truth and restoring the rule of law to our country. Patrick Fitzgerald would be an excellent choice. He was President Bush's own choice for special prosecutor. If you don't act on this issue, early in your first term we'll have extended congressional hearings playing out on national television. Appointment of a special prosecutor allows congress to get on with the business of enacting your agenda while a qualified and impartial professional delivers justice to those of the past administration who broke the law. Corporate America has run roughshod over the Internal Revenue Code. Closing loopholes should be a priority with special emphasis on disincentivizing offshore activities. Make early voting mandatory across the country for presidential elections. The flexibility it brings to the process allows for greater voter turnout. Why should Illinois have it yet it's neighbor Missouri not? As of this writing (with absentee ballots yet to count), you lost Missouri by 5,800 votes. Early voting enfranchises those at the bottom of society for whom it is the most difficult to make it to the polls and in whose precincts the voting lines are the longest. You would have won Missouri if the state had the same early voting regime as Illinois. I know you'll bring the best and brightest into your administration. Although Rahm Emanuel is very bright and capable, he's a political infighter of the highest order. Perhaps there is room for such an individual (a junk yard dog) in the White House but the operating departments of the executive branch should be free of such appointments. The Bush Administration politicized all the departments of government as never before. The infestation of political hacks at the Department of Justice (my former employer) was especially harmful. The DOJ Civil Rights Division was particularly hard hit. Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, Defense ... the best and the brightest who have the same vision as the president. No partisanship allowed. No agendas. Godspeed, Joseph Raymond St. Louis, MO 11-7-2008 Add Comment |