Decius wrote:

Members of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys believe the bankruptcy law overhaul has made the process more costly and complex, without making it more effective. "In practice, the new bankruptcy law changes have proven to be a nearly total bust in terms of what the proponents of the change had forecast," said Ike Shulman, a California bankruptcy lawyer and an officer with the association.

I'd like to see a wish list from the Dems. At the top for me would be to undue the bankruptcy "reform" bill from last year which has both hurt people and cost the insurance industry money. If someone is benefiting from this bill, I can't figure out who. We tried this. It doesn't work. You should have known better. Can we please stop being stupid now?

That's what you would put at the top of your list? What about reversing the Constitutional damage caused over the last 6 years? Bolstering our resolve on torture, wire tapping the populace, detaining 'illegal combatants', and reforming the Patriot Act to make some sense would be at the top of my list.

Follow that with a reasonable exit plan for Iraq and a strategy for North Korea and Iran. It would also be helpful if we could work out a deal with Pakistan. How about 'unilateral trade' in exchange for one dead 6'4" diabetic?

Next on the list would be massive educational reform to give our society the tools and training necessary to be competitive for the next 40 years. Closely followed with a rebuilt health care system that is outcomes and quality aligned, rather than pockets lined. A new resolve around alternative energy, with a 10 year mandate of reducing dependance on foreign petroleum by 50% seems like a reasonable goal. Probably not as hard as putting a man on the moon in 10 years.

To cap it off, campaign finance and voting procedure reform - call it the Democracy for the 21st Century Bill - would be in order. Open source and peer reviewed tools and processes for elections as well as stricter campaign finance laws closing the loop holes and getting the corporations and lobbyists out of the process.

Come to think of it... Hillary, are you listening?

flynn23 wrote:
That's what you would put at the top of your list? What about reversing the Constitutional damage caused over the last 6 years? Bolstering our resolve on torture, wire tapping the populace, detaining 'illegal combatants', and reforming the Patriot Act to make some sense would be at the top of my list.

What do you expect to see here? I think things will be more reserved, and I'm very happy about that, but the President will veto anything substantial. The debate over the Surveillance bill ought to be very different. They might even let the court challenge proceed. The President cannot force them to stop it. But they won't impeach him for violating FISA. More process around National Security Letters would be nice, but they might let the court challenge complete. If the President has to come back to Congress they'll be more likely to be able to do what they want than if they pass a modification he doesn't need and doesn't want. I don't think they will reverse the recent suspension of haebus for green card holders, as much as I think they should. The President would veto that.

Basically, I think they'll now begin serving their Constitutional role as a check upon the President. But I don't think they're in a position to do much more, and worse, I don't think a Democratic President would do more. Politicians only advocate civil liberties when they aren't in power.

Follow that with a reasonable exit plan for Iraq and a strategy for North Korea and Iran. It would also be helpful if we could work out a deal with Pakistan. How about 'unilateral trade' in exchange for one dead 6'4" diabetic?

I think these are things that the administration mostly does. They will start asking hard questions about Iraq, and thats good, because the administration will have less room to ignore smart advice. Again, a check, but no more.

Next on the list would be massive educational reform to give our society the tools and training necessary to be competitive for the next 40 years. Closely followed with a rebuilt health care system that is outcomes and quality aligned, rather than pockets lined. A new resolve around alternative energy, with a 10 year mandate of reducing dependance on foreign petroleum by 50% seems like a reasonable goal. Probably not as hard as putting a man on the moon in 10 years.

All of these things would be nice, but my pessimism says that I don't think they'll get any further with heathcare than the Republican's got with social security. You're asking for real leadership on domestic issues!

To cap it off, campaign finance and voting procedure reform - call it the Democracy for the 21st Century Bill - would be in order. Open source and peer reviewed tools and processes for elections as well as stricter campaign finance laws closing the loop holes and getting the corporations and lobbyists out of the process.

We just had a round of cf reform. I'm not convinced it did well. I don't think I should be able to go on the Internet and figure out which political party my coworkers donated money to, and I'm not convinced the restrictions on speech aren't, well, restrictions on speech. I think we need to find a way to get people to stop voting on partisan lines and start objectively evaluating candidates based on voter guides. The marketing dollars are only going to replaced with substantive dialog to the degree that people stop responding to marketing and start looking for substantive dialog. Basically, I think we are as much the problem as they are. The culture of politics needs to change. But how do you do that?

Decius wrote:

flynn23 wrote:
That's what you would put at the top of your list? What about reversing the Constitutional damage caused over the last 6 years? Bolstering our resolve on torture, wire tapping the populace, detaining 'illegal combatants', and reforming the Patriot Act to make some sense would be at the top of my list.

What do you expect to see here? I think things will be more reserved, and I'm very happy about that, but the President will veto anything substantial.

[ That's not always a bad thing. When you have a majority in congress but not the president, you send him bills that have popular support that he can't sign without looking like a traitor.

You can't overdo it or pretty soon you lose support for wasting time and getting nothing accomplished, but then, having a perfect obstructionist scapegoat helps a lot.

I fully expect the congress to start sending an awful lot of stuff across Bush's desk.

And no, i don't think a notice of impeachment will be one of them. In truth, I hope they don't get bogged down in investigations. There are some worth conducting, but it can't be *the thing* that they do or all the support will melt away in a heartbeat. -k]

Decius wrote:

flynn23 wrote:
That's what you would put at the top of your list? What about reversing the Constitutional damage caused over the last 6 years? Bolstering our resolve on torture, wire tapping the populace, detaining 'illegal combatants', and reforming the Patriot Act to make some sense would be at the top of my list.

What do you expect to see here? I think things will be more reserved, and I'm very happy about that, but the President will veto anything substantial. The debate over the Surveillance bill ought to be very different. They might even let the court challenge proceed. The President cannot force them to stop it. But they won't impeach him for violating FISA. More process around National Security Letters would be nice, but they might let the court challenge complete. If the President has to come back to Congress they'll be more likely to be able to do what they want than if they pass a modification he doesn't need and doesn't want. I don't think they will reverse the recent suspension of haebus for green card holders, as much as I think they should. The President would veto that.

Basically, I think they'll now begin serving their Constitutional role as a check upon the President. But I don't think they're in a position to do much more, and worse, I don't think a Democratic President would do more. Politicians only advocate civil liberties when they aren't in power.

Follow that with a reasonable exit plan for Iraq and a strategy for North Korea and Iran. It would also be helpful if we could work out a deal with Pakistan. How about 'unilateral trade' in exchange for one dead 6'4" diabetic?

I think these are things that the administration mostly does. They will start asking hard questions about Iraq, and thats good, because the administration will have less room to ignore smart advice. Again, a check, but no more.

Next on the list would be massive educational reform to give our society the tools and training necessary to be competitive for the next 40 years. Closely followed with a rebuilt health care system that is outcomes and quality aligned, rather than pockets lined. A new resolve around alternative energy, with a 10 year mandate of reducing dependance on foreign petroleum by 50% seems like a reasonable goal. Probably not as hard as putting a man on the moon in 10 years.

All of these things would be nice, but my pessimism says that I don't think they'll get any further with heathcare than the Republican's got with social security. You're asking for real leadership on domestic issues!

To cap it off, campaign finance and voting procedure reform - call it the Democracy for the 21st Century Bill - would be in order. Open source and peer reviewed tools and processes for elections as well as stricter campaign finance laws closing the loop holes and getting the corporatio... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]