perhaps it's time to roll up the sleeves and take a look at what's in the sink. the democrats are simply not interested in being an alternative to the republican agenda. it's about time we came to grips with it.

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Expecting anything different from the donks is Panglossian bordering on the surreal. Both parties have their coffers filled with oodles of cash be the same corporations that propell their identical foreign policies.

But don't let that stop you from voting for Hillary in '08.

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I guess I'll still vote for a Democrat, but only when I've got just two choices. It seems pretty amazing to me that with so much waste and tragedy in this "war on terrorism" the Democrats still can't (or don't see a need to?) put an entirely different perspective on things. Like developing alternative energy, decreasing our military budget, developing alternative energy, doing something about health care, developing alternative energy.......

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Insert standard diatribe about the Demoblican/Republicratic good cop vs. bad cop game.

You could, for instance, go with "it's the economy, stupid!" Hence, a "Contract with America" -like platform such as:

1. Get the Hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
2. Slash military budgets to $150 bln/yr. or thereabouts, which military planners recommend anyway.
3. Eliminate regressive taxes (e.g. sales).
4. Raise taxes on the rich, focusing on aligning higher tax brackets with higher income percentiles, possibly using smooth curves like (1+tanh(a*x))/2 etc.
5. Tax capital gains like ordinary income.
6. Eliminate corporate welfare, possibly even criminalizing it.
7. Nationalize healthcare and extract monopsony bargaining power.
8. Levy Tobin taxes to discourage capital flight.
9. Tax foreign labor to eliminate foreign wage differentials' impacts on domestic job markets.
10. Jack up automotive fuel efficiency standards to eliminate foreign fuel dependence (rumor has it that this alone could eliminate all need for imported oil).
11. Send everyone to college. It cuts down on labor gluts much in the same way as banning child labor does. It should probably even be compulsory.
12. Welfare free-for-all. This is essentially cost-free(!!!), despite right-wing claims otherwise. Low-income people are just shopping at a generalized company store anyway, so it all goes back to the hands of the rich whence it came anyway.
13. Subsidize nuclear, wind, geothermal, etc. energy to make it happen.
14. Boost water, wood/paper, and other forms of material goods conservation with subsidized recycling programs and durability/reusability incentive structures and PR to reduce trade deficits, or at least get more bang for the buck out of whatever trade deficits remain.
15. Get out of the WTO and just plain refuse to honor the 15-20 year obedience to its dictates or whatever. It's a gross abrogation of national sovereignty and economic suicide anyway.
16. Eliminate offshore tax haven shenanigans and Clearstream/Euroclear/etc. -like untraceable banking loopholes, Citibank be damned. Wipe corporate tax evasion off the map.
17. Break up media monopolies and repeal telecommunications monopoly-enabling laws.
18. Rescind 50 USC 403j(b), which gives the CIA a license to embezzle from the govt. at will.
19. Institute rigorous GAAP across all government agencies to eliminate embezzlement and other corruption.
20. Redirect asset forfeiture proceeds to general tax revenues/proceeds to restore the power of the purse over law enforcement.
21. Repeal laws enabling banks, investment firms, and other such affairs to merge as well as to operate on excessive margins.
22. Repeal Taft-Hartley and other similarly oppressive legislation and enforce existing laws (yes, they exist) against typical union-busting tactics.
23. Prosecute exploitation of illegal immigrants like slavery.
24. Start up a massive language training and foreign exchange program for global competitiveness.
25. Push research in robotics to jack up domestic manufacturing productivity with reduced labor costs.
26. Start massive public transportation/etc. works projects to create blue collar jobs and conserve even more energy.

Of course, none of these things will ever find its way onto a Republicratic or Demoblican Party platform.

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