A Real Platform

All heavy contenders are candidates from one of the two political parties that count and neither party will have a platform until after a candidate has been chosen. Whether or not the Green Party drafts Nader, the platform there will likely be "ditto". Party candidates pick key issues they want to focus on, but they cannot speak as to what position their party will have across the board.

There are several independent candidates, but only a few have a clue as to what a political platform is. After looking at the other independent platforms, I do not feel that they have platforms that are of wide importance or, frankly, of much importance at all. (I saw a candidate whose platform included ending the “War on Drugs”, but that is the only issue that I felt made him different from the "same ol' same old".)

I feel that my platform sets me apart from and above the rest. I hope you will take ten minutes out of your life to find out whether you can support me on enough issues to support me on my candidacy. If you do, I promise you an eye-opening agenda.

The Third Rail

I dance all over the "third rail topics" of politics, so you are almost certain to hate something I stand for strongly enough not to vote for me. I ask you to consider, though, that I am likely to be on your side of a different third-rail topic, too. Also, please consider that these issues fester because no one will touch them and the status quo for most third-rail topics is either satisfactory to a minority (and those who are satisfied fear change) or they are at a stage that makes no one happy. Frankly, I think the single most pressing issue facing America today is the “Drug War”, and that all other standard platform issues—including Universal Health Care (or “Single Payer Health Care”, whatever you want to call it)—are secondary on the effects they could have on the USA in the short term.

Planks That Set Me Apart

(please see the "What a President Can Do" section below for an explanation of the ratings)

• work for open source, full-audit-trail universal voting machines in use nation wide. Hi/Hi/Lo/Hi/ML/Mm (requires a Constitutional Amendment) (1+)
• work for a system of representation based on Transitive Trust which will make our representatives accountable for their actions (requires Constitutional Amendment) Hi/Hi/Hi/Hi/Lo/Lo (2.75+)
• work for a larger Supreme Court (requires Constitutional Amendment) Hi/Hi/Hi/Hi/Lo/ML (3+)

(initiating work on the three amendments mentioned above and ending the “War on Drugs” are the most important things I hope to accomplish during my administration)

• initiate stable, long-term solutions to the society-wide and planet-wide problems which face us (i.e., no more “War on ” mentality), including but not limited to the topics listed here (note that only one aspect of each long-term solution is mentioned here) Hi/Mm/Hi/MH/Lo/ML (3+)
  1. poverty: reverse the trend of “the poor get poorer, the rich get richer” by re-instating the top tier income taxes of the 1980s and diverting funds for acquisition of new military equipment to humanitarian ends or, better yet, move toward a value-added tax VAT version of the "Real Tax". The "Real Tax" would have to be set high enough to start paying down on the national debt during each “typical year” Hi/MH/ML/MH/MH/Hi (0.75)
  2. illiteracy: use the internet and open source software to leverage the brightest minds of our most creative teachers to educate the world, including other nations wherever possible (much of what makes a teacher effective is “caring” and we cannot package that up and put it into a bottle, would though we would; but there are ways to use multidisciplinary coursework to engage students in studies they might otherwise avoid) Hi/Mm/Hi/MH/Ml/Mm (1.25 for verifiable results)
  3. hunger: I favor a drastic reduction in global population, but starving children to death is not the way I want to go about it. Food for kids by all means necessary. Also, artificial price supports in the United States have made it unprofitable to grow crops for internal consumption. Hi/Mm/Hi/MH/Lo/Lo (0.25 for some results, 5+ for world-wide results)
  4. drugs: too many Americans are casualties in this war, and only the "tough on crime" politicians and the drug "war profiteers" come out ahead Hi/Hi/Hi/Mm/Mm/Hi (1)
  5. climate crisis: we need to take our nuclear weapons apart and start a nuclear plant program that is like the one used by the French; we need to get gas-guzzlers off the road and move toward more fuel-efficient and alternative fuel transportation; mass transit and rail transit are vital to the future of our nation and our world. Hi/Mm/Hi/MH/Lo/Mm (1 for progress, 5+ for effects of efforts to show)
• decriminalize marijuana and force federal reclassification of it a prescription drug MH/Hi/MH/Mm/Hi/Hi (0.25)
• cut peace-time defense spending to a total less than or equal to the combined budgets of England, France, Italy and Germany Hi/ML/Mm/Hi/Mm/Hi (1.5)
• finish exploring our planet, including the known methane reserves by the continental shelves, the rain forest canopies, the earth beneath us and the upper regions of the Earth's atmosphere to document the sustainability of their ecology Hi/Hi/Mm/MH/ML/MH (1 for bold new initiatives, 99+ for unlocking all of the secrets our planet holds in store)
• create a cabinet post for “Technology and Automation” (robotics, robotic applications, open source freeware, open source courseware and artificial intelligence research) MH/Hi/Hi/Hi/Hi/Hi (0.25)
• create the cabinet post of “Secretary for Peace and Humanitarian Rights” to formulate guidelines appropriate to 20th and 21st century Realpolitik, to monitor conformance to these guidelines, for monitoring prisons and confinement centers (at home and, where invited), coordinating information flow related to its role among departments of Peace, (Defense), State, Homeland Security, HEW and HUD. MH/MH/Hi/Hi/Hi/Hi (0.5)
• put the Department of Defense underneath the department of Homeland Security and integrate the Defense budget into the department of Homeland Security, causing there to be a military branch within Homeland Security (this would require stringent restrictions on when the military could be drafted into civilian roles. MH/ML/Hi/Hi/Hi/Hi (1)
• do away with the DEA, or at least change them to an agency that cannot go armed unless undercover (note: this would not keep a DEA agent from wearing firearms if they had a “concealed carry license” or a federal permit) Mm/Hi/MH/Hi/Hi/Hi (0.25)
• disarm the BATF and rename it (and change the mission to) Bureau of Excise Enforcement BEE. There will be no repeats of Ruby Ridge or Waco from this agency when I am done with it. A sheriff in Minnesota was faced with the same problem and strung up a fence just outside the property, then waited for a few weeks. Deaths: 0. Injuries: 0. Mm/Hi/Hi/Lo/Hi/Hi (0.25)
• move the job of tracking down counterfeiters from the Secret Service to the FBI (for money) and BEE (for excise stamps). ML/Mm/Hi/Lo/Hi/Hi
• investigate reports about the Department of Homeland Security's use of confinement centers and why they are training personnel and local police departments to use assault tactics on civilians. If civil unrest in the United States to the point of rebellion occurs (especially having seen how Bush's administration was tolerated), I want it to succeed or fail with as few deaths as possible. Hi/MH/Hi/ML/Hi/Hi (?)
• post all information about the 9/11 attack on a freely accessible database MH/Hi/Hi/Lo/Hi/Hi (1)
• see to it that the Military Commissions act of 2006 is repealed. This law appears to have been passed to retroactively protect soon-to-be-ex-President Bush (and many others) from War Crimes trials Hi/Hi/Mm/Hi/Mm/MH (0.75)
• order a grand jury to see whether Bush and Cheney should be indicted for criminal behavior during their tenure (with particular regard to war crimes) Hi/Hi/Hi/Mm/Hi/Hi (varies depending on whether the Military Commissons Act of 2006 is repealed, but worst case is less than or equal to 1)
• begin negotiation for a rational, long-term commitment toward settling the national debt and use of resource-based currency (kilocalorie dollars, gold dollars, etc.) Mm/ML/Mm/Hi/Lo/Mm (2+, would likely require a Constitutional Amendment)

What a President Can Do

It is certain that I cannot deliver on all of what I want to do. For the sake of full disclosure, I am rating each of these planks on a scale of "Low" Lo, "Medium Low" ML, "Medium" Mm, "Medium High" MH, and "High" Hi with respect to...

1. importance to me
2. the priority among the other planks ("most important" does not always mean "first")
3. the degree to which the President can initiate or control a progress without consent of Congress
4. the degree to which Congress must be involved
5. the likelihood that it will be completed within my four-year term
6. the likelihood that it will ever be achievable
7. term count: (not a Lo-Hi rating, but) the number of terms as president that I think I would have to have to completely address the issue. If the number is greater than 1, it is an issue that, as president, I can only promise to support, not achieve. If it is between 1 and 2, it means that I think there is a chance that it could succeed if I were re-elected (!) or an issue-allied candidate were to take office after me. If it is greater than 2, then you can assume that I feel it would have to have sustained support past the point when I retire or that it its priority and importance would put it far enough down on my "to do" list that I would not get it done.

Using the Transitive Trust plank as an example,

1. Hi: This is the main reason I am running
2. Hi: I would start the ball rolling as soon as I could get the right people in the same room
3. Hi: As President, I can initiate the processes necessary for designing the technology and arranging a for a pilot project
4. Hi: Congress is eventually going to have to draw up the legislation and pass it or the whole thing is just wasted motion
5. Lo: Even were I given eight years and Congress backed me the whole way, it is improbable that it would get designed, alpha tested, beta tested, built, approved, codified into law, passed by Congress and ratified by the required number of states.
6. Lo: Face it: this is just flat hard. The eight-year limit on the presidency is so valuable that I would never will it away, but between the two-term limit and the four-year term, projects of this scale are impossible for a single President to accomplish. Also, the idea itself might prove to be impossible to put into production or completely unacceptable once it was produced. I would like to think that the will of the people would cause my successor to embrace some version of what I have in mind, but I am honest with myself enough to realize that it is less likely than my getting elected in the first place. I still think that it is worth the cost and effort because, if this is not the answer, then we need to keep looking for something that is!
7. (2.75)

“Same Ol' Same Old” Issues

Below you will find my stance on several “same ol' same old” policy issues. I am not saying that these issues are unimportant. I merely point out that they are the issues which other candidates focus on and that they are generally uncontroversial in nature (at least, compared to what you'll find on my list of planks). I have included each of the issues dealt with on any candidate's web site, regardless of how important that issue is to me personally and regardless of whether I think something constructive can be done. In general, you will find that there are 1-2 general positions covered in all of the policy statements from any candidate. (After some gnashing of teeth, I decided to leave out “implicit issues” like jobs, corruption, crime, etc., that are a priority for all candidates for any elected office. If you have to actually say that you are “for” more jobs or “against” corruption, I think your campaign is intellectually bankrupt from the outset. Besides, I sometimes wonder if corruption could lead to more jobs.... Not really, but I had you going there, did I not?)

• I believe that the Patriot Act be modified to cover only those who were in office in federal or state government when it was passed and retracted for everyone else. Nah. Too hard to figure out exactly when who was what. Just trash the whole thing and pretend it was a bad nightmare.
• I am a strong believer in women's rights, including the right to control which medical procedures are performed on her body. I believe that the rights of an individual transcend states' rights, particularly in this matter. The rights of any potential human that weighs less than 500 grams are insignificant by comparison.
• Both traditional marriages and non-traditional marriages need to be better codified so as to describe the legal rights among those who live together and form families. As it stands now, a grandson who was the primary care-giver for his grandfather might be forbidden to visit his grandfather in the hospital because he is not in the "immediate family". If people band together to form a family regardless of the gender and number of those involved.
• I would end the Iraq “War” by bringing in UN peace keepers and placing American soldiers under the command of the UN Mission commander. military presence in Iraq like that we have in Korea.
• I would institute a new doctrine for involvement in peacekeeping abroad so that the United States could be part of a solution in Darfur and the country we forgot (Afghanistan): when we go in,
  1. I have a clearly stated mission with well-defined, achievable end conditions
  2. My military advisers have provided me with at least three contingency-based exit strategies and the probable consequences of each. At least one must leave the country no worse off than it was when we go in.
  3. I have six months of funding for activity there and three months of funding for disengagement
  4. I have consent of Congress and one of
     • consent of the last legitimately constructed local government
     • UN consent and participation for humanitarian goals
     • where there is doubt as to which local government is legitimate. consent of all parties represented in the conflict
  5. At the end of each six months, I repeat the process of acquiring consent and reviewing exit strategies
  6. I review the goals, end conditions and exit strategy on a daily basis. If no achievable end conditions remain, I either begin withdrawal or go back to Congress with new proposed end conditions.
• As Governor Schwarzeneggar said, “We already have universal health care”. We currently choose to make it complicated to get and complicated to pay for. It seems obvious that a single-payer health care system would save money and reduce the overhead for qualifying.
• I am not ashamed to say that I do not know what to do about global warming, but I know some things that are being touted as solutions are either pie-in-the-sky or more fanfare than fair. For more details, please see my Climate Crisis Policy? page.
• Our education systems need an overhaul. Again, I am not certain what we should do. Perhaps the answer would be as simple as paying more for teachers' salaries and testing teachers strictly for their knowledge and their ability to pass it on.

I will reserve the detailed "ranking" information on “Same Ol' Same Old” issues until I have more time and more help, but let me name the few that I consider vital for an incoming President: repeal the Patriot Act, help in Afghanistan and Darfur and institute Universal Health Care Coverage.