Vote for Change.org Poll

[dragonlady]

This is from Melissa Etheridge's most recent newsletter. I think is sounds fascinating...


Vote in Change.org Poll

Change.org (http://www.change.org/) is running an online poll to determine the top 10 ideas that Americans want to see the Obama Administration implement. On January 16th, Change.org and the Case Foundation will co-host an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to announce the top 10 rated ideas and plans for supporting the formation of a national advocacy campaign behind each idea in collaboration with nonprofit partners.
A formal nonprofit sponsor will be selected for each idea to help create a nationwide movement to lobby the administration and Congress to turn the idea into real policy.

The voting is currently in the finalist stage, ending on Jan 15. Melissa encourages everyone to participate in the poll and include both Marriage Equality and the Department of Peace in your voting. Each person can vote for up to 10 of the ideas.

Vote for Marriage Equality (http://www.change.org/ideas/view/pass_marriage_equality_rights_for_lgbt_couples_nat ionwide/)
Vote for Department of Peace (http://www.change.org/ideas/view/appoint_secretary_of_peace_in_department_of_peace_ and_non-violence/)


Could you imagine a Cabinet level Department of Peace?????

Why not take a look and see what the 10 issues you think President Obama should focus on first in his administration.

If you like come back and let us know what you voted for...I'll come back and let you know what my votes were for....voting ends on Thursday January 15.

-di

[hoops]

Di, this looks interesting. My hope is that our New president can make it thru his first year without losing his mind. seriously, President Obama is taking on a HUGE mess just by taking office on the 20th. I'd love to see new programs, first lets fix the old ones. then we can weed out what works and what doesn't a create what we needs. God Bless President Obama, he is going to need it.
peace
hoops
BTW I will choose 10 different issues so when the time comes, he will know what the country wants

[DaveM]

I would like to see at least three Cabinet-level departments eliminated entirely: Energy, Education, and Homeland Security. They've all had plenty of time to proved their worthlessness. Several others could be severely trimmed and I doubt that anyone other than people who pay lobbyists would ever notice a difference.

Equality in marriage involves removing a restriction in current law, not enacting a new law. THAT is the sort of thinking which will actually bring results, rather than produce new stacks of fine-printed paper which Congress will vote on without reading, and which the government will enforce without fully understanding.

[Bat]

Speaking of laws, you brought up a great one, Dave...
How about:

"No law may be passed until every member of Congress who is voting on the issue has thoroughly perused and understood the bill under consideration."

[DaveM]

Heck, I'll take that one step further: replace the Bill Of Rights and all subsequent amendments to the Constitution with a single article: "Citizens of America, including elected officials, shall mind their own business to the extent that it does not impact the right of another to do the same. Congress shall have the power to establish legislation to enforce this act, save for any legislation which shall be determined to be redundant to this act".

Let 'em chew on that for a while.

[Bat]

Spoken like a true Libertine...er, Libertarian, Dave. I rely far too much on my Social Security to go quite that far~!

[DaveM]

I hear you, Bat....unfortunately, there will be no Social Security by the time I reach "retirement age", so I am, for all practical purposes, ignoring it.

I often wonder how bad the situation with Social Security will get before some (presumably Republican) loudmouth begins to demand that the lives of certain recipients are "unworthy" and that, therefore, they should be euthanized. Don't think it can happen here? When's the last time you met a person with Down Syndrome over the age of 40? Ever wonder where they all went?

[lucille]

As an "Alien" I probably don't deserve a vote, but what I would like to see change in the U.S. is your strange way of referring to ethnicity of people, born or not, in the country. Why do you have to refer to everyone as, for instance, an Italian-American, an Irish-American, a Latin-American, and not last, but one more hyphenated title, an African-American. Charlize Theron would be an African-American wouldn't she?

Another peculiarity is your reference of cities/towns and states. This is probably a good geography lesson, and the rest of the world would all know NY NY, Chicago Illionois, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

I'm not being critical - it is just an observation.:D

And when are you going to join the rest of the world and become metric? Now I am being critical.;)

[DaveM]

Since humanity appears to descend from an African proto-human, we could all with equal pedigree claim to be African-American.

Some of what you mention, Lucille, stems from the bizarre tendency which has emerged over the past 30 years to call everyone something other than what they actually are. Disabled people are "exceptional" or "special needs". Elderly people are "seniors", or worse yet, "chronologically endowed" (sounds like a breast implant, doesn't it?). Teenagers are still brats, thankfully, though the medical community has come up with "oppositional defiant disorder" so that they can charge people for "diagnosing" it, and furthermore, open treatment centers in which to incarcerate young people whose only crime is having the standard adolescent hormone load.

I can remember when "people of color" got started and I found it too reminiscent of "colored". Attempted to get "people of gender" to catch on, but it never did.

If one starts defining people by their nation or ethnicity or origin, the only legitimate "Americans" have red or tan skin (depends on whether you call them Hispanics, Indians, or Eskimos). The rest of us are just squatting here until they get together and chase us away.

I won't repeat the usual ethnic terms employed by the local white trash. Suffice it to say that it distributed thoroughly, most locals would in short order find themselves "sent back where they came from".