If I were the President of the United States

[maclover]

Where would you get the loan from?

Rich people via the IRS :eyebrows:

[itlnstln]

I'm printing 2016 stickers right now.

[keyboardlover]

If I were president I would set out to destroy liberal and conservative elitism at every level of government in this country as well as in the media. It is a cancer in our country.

[Fwiffo]

Although the question asks "if I were president", people are answering it as "if I were dictator for life". I'll separate mine into three parts: those that actually fall within the powers of the presidency, those that could be accomplished with acts of congress, and those that would require something more complicated, like a constitutional amendment. I'll focus on specific things I'd do, rather than criticizing the tactics or policies of a particular politician or party:

Changes as President:

• Issue an executive order immediately blocking enforcement of DADT and allow gays who have been kicked out under the policy to re-enter service
• Phase out our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the goal of having all US forces home within 1 year
• End security theater like the terrorism "threat" colors, etc.
• Initiate justice department investigations of financial firms and credit rating agencies and banks engaged in foreclosure fraud.

Changes with Congress's help:

• Legalize marijuana and subject it to taxes and regulation.
• End Nixon's "war on drugs" and treat drug addiction as a health-issue.
• Repeal DADT.
• Legalize gay marriage.
• Eliminate ag subsidies.
• Eliminate the gun-show loophole.
• Allow individuals to pay a premium to buy into Medicare early as an alternative to private insurance.
• Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.
• Freeze or cut defense spending. Reduce size of nuclear arsenal, reduce the size of the naval and air force fleets, reduce spending on new weapons programs. Increase emphasis and training for guerrilla-type warfare.
• Reduce number of military contractors; we shouldn't hire mercs to do the jobs of US soldiers.
• Reinstate the estate tax to Clinton era levels. Index the exemption to inflation.
• Make the AMT fix permanent and indexed to inflation. Kicking this can down the road every year is a budget gimmick.
• Treat capital gains and dividends the same as regular income for tax purposes.
• Allow Bush era tax cuts to expire as scheduled for the top tax bracket. Extend the tax cuts for lower brackets.
• Create a new tax bracket at the $1 million level.
• Eliminate the payroll tax and replace it with a carbon tax that raises roughly an equal amount of revenue.
• Eliminate *most* tax loopholes other than child credits, the EITC and education-related deductions. The stupid mortgage deduction goes bye-bye.
• Create a bank tax to reduce the vulnerability of the economy to ****-ups in the financial sector. It'd be like the FDIC, but for large financial firms.
• Create a transaction fee to reduce speculation and get rid of the computerized micro-trading scam.
• Spend half the above revenue gains on an across-the-board reduction in income tax rates, the other half on deficit reduction.
• Stiffer regulation of financial derivatives and credit rating agencies.
• Implement the Volker rule.
• Allow mortgage cram-down for primary residences.
• Put sensible limits on copyright terms.
• Strong net-neutrality regulation.
• Additional nationwide standards for voting integrity; in particular, eliminate paperless touch-screen machines and have a national standard for restoration of the voting rights of convicts who have paid their debt to society.

Requiring a constitutional amendment:

• Abolish the US Senate or give it partially proportional representation (e.g. the smallest states would have one senator, the largest would perhaps have five)
• DC Statehood.
• Pass the ERA.

If I were president I would set out to destroy liberal and conservative elitism at every level of government in this country as well as in the media. It is a cancer in our country.

What does this even mean? Seriously. What is your policy proposal?

[keyboardlover]

What does this even mean? Seriously. What is your policy proposal?

Don't have one yet...that's the "high level/airplane view" goal. =)
It would be driven through various reforms at various levels. No clue yet what they'd all entail yet.

[wellington1869]

i'd put julian assange against the wall and shoot him for treason. Right after thanking him for making the US look pretty damn good with those leaks. Which i'm sure was not his intention. So he's an idiot AND a traitor-anarchist.
And yea i'd do this as a liberal.

[keyboardlover]

i'd put julian assange against the wall and shoot him for treason. Right after thanking him for making the US look pretty damn good with those leaks. Which i'm sure was not his intention. So he's an idiot AND a traitor-anarchist.
And yea i'd do this as a liberal.

Have you read all 200k+ leaks? If not, how do you know how they make us or anyone else look?

[Fwiffo]

i'd put julian assange against the wall and shoot him for treason. Right after thanking him for making the US look pretty damn good with those leaks. Which i'm sure was not his intention. So he's an idiot AND a traitor-anarchist.
And yea i'd do this as a liberal.

It's not clear that Assange has committed a crime, let alone treason. He's not even a US citizen, so you'd have to show he's made some attempt to overthrow the Australian government before treason could be considered a reasonable charge. It's probable that the person who originally leaked the information to the intermediaries that delivered it to Assange have committed a crime, but most of the information wasn't even classified...

That's not to excuse what he's done, but summary execution of someone who hasn't even been tried is the kind of thing you'd expect to happen in a tin-pot dictatorship, not in a modern, civilized country. It's certainly not compatible with anything that could be described as liberalism.

[keyboardlover]

That's not to excuse what he's done, but summary execution of someone who hasn't even been tried is the kind of thing you'd expect to happen in a tin-pot dictatorship, not in a modern, civilized country. It's certainly not compatible with anything that could be described as liberalism.

Agreed. I've long thought Welly's ideals aren't really liberal at all. They seem to lean more towards neo-fascism IMO.

[ch_123]

• Phase out our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the goal of having all US forces home within 1 year

I'm still interested in hearing how this works, or how it would be a good idea...

[Lanx]

why can't the use just take over and subjugate ppl? or give them tiny bits of useless land while we keep all the oil producing lands for ourselves. Afganistand/Iraq? those places don't have oil (well maybe afgan has those rock resources ppl talk about) but we should just take over these lands wrangle all the natives to some plot of worthless land, give them their own laws so they can build casino's.
I mean sound familiar?
then just call in all the texans and say, black gold in dem dar hills go put on your cowboy hat and do your thing, drill baby drill.

[wellington1869]

Agreed. I've long thought Welly's ideals aren't really liberal at all. They seem to lean more towards neo-fascism IMO.

funny, thats exactly what i'd say about you. the neo-fascist part

[keyboardlover]

funny, thats exactly what i'd say about you. the neo-fascist part

And how would you back that claim up exactly?

[wellington1869]

It's not clear that Assange has committed a crime, let alone treason. He's not even a US citizen, so you'd have to show he's made some attempt to overthrow the Australian government before treason could be considered a reasonable charge. It's probable that the person who originally leaked the information to the intermediaries that delivered it to Assange have committed a crime, but most of the information wasn't even classified...

That's not to excuse what he's done, but summary execution of someone who hasn't even been tried is the kind of thing you'd expect to happen in a tin-pot dictatorship, not in a modern, civilized country. It's certainly not compatible with anything that could be described as liberalism.

with all due respect, if you dont know how liberals have always used summary executions, then you simply dont know your liberal history my friend. Think, think, think.  Summary executions arguably have been done by more people in the name of liberalism than conservatism.
and yea, i say this against fake liberals who do that type of thing and still consider themselves 'righteous'.

[wellington1869]

And how would you back that claim up exactly?

I would print up all your posts at GH, place them on a large wooden oak table, and put a large sign in front of it.
The sign would read "Exhibit A" in large block letters.
I'd use a sharpie marker to make the sign.

[keyboardlover]

I would print up all your posts at GH, place them on a large wooden oak table, and put a large sign in front of it.
The sign would read "Exhibit A" in large block letters.
I'd use a sharpie marker to make the sign.

I'm fairly sure 0% of people with a clue in their brain would agree with you.

[Ekaros]

1) Nationalize FED

2) Increse tax for rich

3) Get proper public health-care

etc.

[wellington1869]

and yea, for all of assange's idiotic immature pretensions, what the leaks show more than anything is just how careful the west has been, how much dialogue it has pursued, how much restraint it has shown, and how duplicitous arab regimes have been.
Thats an overall win for our side no matter what.  It may be assange's retardation wound up helping us rather than hurting, but he still needs to pay if he's broken any laws.

[wellington1869]

WHat gets me about assange isnt even whatever laws he's broken. What bothers me far more is the pretension. He's not even a good anarchist since so far he's helped rather than hurt us, and thats surely not his intention.

you see? its the incompetence that bothers me far more than any illegality. He couldnt even finish what he set out to do, as an idiotic anarchist. He wasnt even a good idiotic anarchist. THATS what bothers me most about him. He's just incompetent. But wants to be seen as a historical hero.

He's like the sarah palin of journalism.

[keyboardlover]

Right so...you have read all of the 200k+ leaks? So you are qualified to talk about this?

[7bit]

Although the question asks "if I were president", people are answering it as "if I were dictator for life". I'll separate mine into three parts: those that actually fall within the powers of the presidency, those that could be accomplished with acts of congress, and those that would require something more complicated, like a constitutional amendment. I'll focus on specific things I'd do, rather than criticizing the tactics or policies of a particular politician or party:
...

Fwiffo for president, but:

• Reinstate the estate tax ...

There exist 2 kinds of taxes. Tax relative to income/expense and tax relative to estate. The first one bites off a portion of your earned money, the 2nd eats up your estate. The estate tax is great for rich people/firms, becuase they can cheaply take over the ramains of the poorer ones that can't afford the estate tax anymore.

Think of a keyboard manufacturer which currently sells only some keyboards to enthusiasts once in a while and has to pay tax for their factory.

Taxes which eat up your substance are bad!

[Ekaros]

All those leaks aren't even out yet? Still, this is what you get for letting 2,5 million persons to read stuff... What can you realy espect?

[keyboardlover]

All those leaks aren't even out yet? Still, this is what you get for letting 2,5 million persons to read stuff... What can you realy espect?

When I looked at wikileaks.org yesterday you could browse and download them. Not sure if they're still up because I heard they've been having some server issues...

[itlnstln]

Like Amazon dumping the site.

That said, I don't think the leak is any way, shape, or form illegal (except for the person that gave the documents to WikiLeaks).  WikiLeaks is doing what pretty much any news organization might with the same info.  Just ask the NY Times.  If WikiLeaks is doing anything illegal, they would have been arrested already.  The only thing INTERPOL has on anyone is some sex crime allegations on Assange.  Treason would certainly be out of the question since WikiLeaks is not a US firm.

[Ekaros]

When I looked at wikileaks.org yesterday you could browse and download them. Not sure if they're still up because I heard they've been having some server issues...

I have understood that they haven't even released all of them, they are giving out a few hundred each day. So they can maximise the media output...

[7bit]

i'd put julian assange against the wall and shoot him for treason. Right after thanking him for making the US look pretty damn good with those leaks. Which i'm sure was not his intention. So he's an idiot AND a traitor-anarchist.
And yea i'd do this as a liberal.

LOL, if wikileaks was able to get those documents, be sure some secret services from other countries had them before.

Assange and friends just made something public which had been public amongst secret services already.

The real traitors are those, who leaked out all that information to the US State Department.

[keyboardlover]

Looks like they're Edit:NOT still up.

EDIT: The below links were working yesterday but are now dead.
[strike]You can browse by:[/strike]
Origin and classification
Subject
Country
Organization
Program
Topic

[strike]...better get reading Welly![/strike]

[Mercen_505]

1. Invent time machine.
2. Go back in time and assassinate myself.
3. Bask in the knowledge of being the only president to have assassinated himself, before the LOLPARADOX overcomes the universe.

[Ekaros]

Looks like they're still up. You can browse by:
Origin and classification
Subject
Country
Organization
Program
Topic

...better get reading Welly!

Look at upper left corner

Curently Released So Far...
607/251,687

"A few" to go...

[Fwiffo]

@wellington1869: You've accused both myself and keyboardlover of being fascists. Can you actually cite an example of of something we've suggested that is consistent with fascism? Or do you just throw around ideological labels like liberalism, conservatism, fascism, anarchism, etc. arbitrarily in place of an actual argument? Do you know what any of these words mean?

The estate tax is great for rich people/firms, becuase they can cheaply take over the ramains of the poorer ones that can't afford the estate tax anymore.

The estate tax only affects the very wealthy. The first million dollars of the estate are excluded from the tax. If that turns out to affect too many "middle-class" families, the exemption could be increased.

[Lanx]

He's like the sarah palin of journalism.

that the only reason Bristol was on the show was because Sarah Palin forced her to do it.”

Why would this happen? Margaret says “Sarah supposedly blames Bristol harshly and openly (in the circles that I heard it from) for not winning the election, and so she told Bristol she ‘owed’ it to her to do DWTS so that ‘America would fall in love with her again’ and make it possible for Sarah Palin to run in 2012 with America behind her all the way. Instead of being supposedly ‘handicapped’ by the presence of her teen mom daughter, now Bristol is going to be an ‘asset’ — a celebrity beloved for her dancing.”


looks like the milf will be on the ballot! submit all your "if i was a president requests" to s.palain@icanseerussionfromhere.com

@wellington1869: You've accused both myself and keyboardlover of being fascists. Can you actually cite an example of of something we've suggested that is consistent with fascism? Or do you just throw around ideological labels like liberalism, conservatism, fascism, anarchism, etc. arbitrarily in place of an actual argument? Do you know what any of these words mean?

of course he doesn't, prolly just heard other college kids throwing these words around and decided to re-use them to sound cool. I mean only idiots label other ppl "one thing". Unless it's true? about the idiot part.

[keyboardlover]

Or do you just throw around ideological labels like liberalism, conservatism, fascism, anarchism, etc. arbitrarily in place of an actual argument?

He throws around a lot of things arbitrarily in place of actual arguments. When this starts to annoy me I usually reply with funny pics, which results in many lulz, Welly getting annoyed and threatening to do me harm via PM, and his thread getting a 5 star rating. It could be worse...

[Lanx]

i will 5 star too!

[Fwiffo]

He throws around a lot of things arbitrarily in place of actual arguments. When this starts to annoy me I usually reply with funny pics, which results in many lulz, Welly getting annoyed and threatening to do me harm via PM, and his thread getting a 5 star rating. It could be worse...

LOL, post the threats here. I bet they're pretty funny.

[keyboardlover]

LOL, post the threats here. I bet they're pretty funny.

Maybe...at least I laughed when I read it:

I'm glad you stopped with those pics, because i'm serious about giving my life meaning man. I dont respond well to being singled out by trolls like that. Not well at all. You never know who you'll meet online.

Edit: it's fairly ambiguous but the intent to intimidate me is quite lulz-worthy

[wellington1869]

the really funny part is that for a little while it actually worked. He actually left me alone for a few wees.
but the best part was when I got him to friend me afterwards

[keyboardlover]

the really funny part is that for a little while it actually worked. He actually left me alone for a few wees.
but the best part was when I got him to friend me afterwards

Neither of those things actually happened. I continued replying to posts in your thread until it was closed, by you.

[itlnstln]

Nothing specific to kbl and welly, but I would prefer if people do not make PMs public.  They are "P" for a reason.  That is, unless both people decide it's OK.

[keyboardlover]

The cables were considered private too. I'm just like Julian Assange!
Maclover should give me a medal...

...but according to Welly I should be hung for treason. Thank goodness he doesn't know my address.

Eep.

[itlnstln]

No.  You would be like the Army guy who leaked them to Assange.  Now if you sent them to me and I posted them, that would be similar.

[keyboardlover]

No.  You would be like the Army guy who leaked them to Assange.  Now if you sent them to me and I posted them, that would be similar.

Dammit! You dream destroyer, you!

[wellington1869]

never mind kbl's total lack of morals when it comes to messaging, here's the funny part: it worked. He actually left me alone for a few weeks after that!  Seems like its time for me to send him another pm.

The really funny part tho is when I got him to 'friend' me afterwards

[wellington1869]

and fwiffo my friend, yea, you're no liberal. I dont know what you are, but you're not a liberal.

[keyboardlover]

He actually left me alone for a few weeks after that!  Seems like its time for me to send him another pm.

The really funny part tho is when I got him to 'friend' me afterwards

Right, but like I said, neither of those things actually happened. So on top of everything else, you're completely delusional too. Much like a typical dictator.

[Lanx]

and fwiffo my friend, yea, you're no liberal. I dont know what you are, but you're not a liberal.

how can ppl even be completely one way or another on certain issues? just makes no sense, in effect it basically is a caveman way of thinking.
some issues ppl have to have a conservative opinion while on other issues they should have a liberal opinion, to just be completely one sided cuz that's the idealogy you belong to or the party you belong to serves to purpose than just labeling yourself a sheep.
bahhhh.

for instance this wikileaks serves no purpose, they're just putting documents out there, it's like "oh look i found a box of secret documents here you go"
much different than a whistle blower who is intent on exposing specific information that is usually involving corporate misdeeds.

[itlnstln]

Political Identities:

[Fwiffo]

and fwiffo my friend, yea, you're no liberal. I dont know what you are, but you're not a liberal.

On what specific issues discussed have I been significantly outside of mainstream American liberalism? I want to know what you think liberalism is so that we can actually converse using common terms. Can you cite some examples of well-known politicians you consider liberal so that I can compare my positions on the issues?

[itlnstln]

This reminds me of the "Plethora" scene in Blazing Saddles.

[Fwiffo]

The house just passed component of my tax plan, but 168 Republicans just voted for higher taxes! What's up with that?

[maclover]

Assange is a hero.

Kennedy agrees.

Benjamin Franklin agrees.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Roosevelt agrees.
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people,”

“To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of statesmanship.”

If you believe in a free market, capitalism or democracy you must agree that the market or people require information in order to make informed decisions.

Apple is of course the exception to the rule.