BS: Obamarama Cabinet

Subject: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 May 08 - 02:03 PM

I love doing this. I actually almost feel they will read my list and say, oh great idea and do what I suggest.

I am so glad Edwards is back. I am stunned at what a good team I think he and Obama make, and if I were Obama and Edwards, I would at least make it look he was #1 pick for vp, even if he would rather be ag, and be darn good at it I think. That will quell the dream team nightmare foisted upon us.

I absolutely want Edwards as VP or AG and I absolutely want Gen. Honore for Homeland Security. I presume Richardson would have a slot somewhere..perhaps Sec. of State..although I can't really see him there..perhaps Energy again.

What I want is at least a couple of hard-nosed engineer types who can get things done and understand technology. Like who? I think I was reading about someone..Montana maybe? I want someone who understands power grids and dams and railroads etc.

I would like to see Sebelius, Granholm, Cantwell, and perhaps Whitman (R) in various positions. Cantwell has Microsoft background.

I would approve, if there were careful, unbreakable boundaries,of HRC for health and welfare and let her take over the health program..deja vous??

Bloomberg for anything? I like that Casey of Pennsylvania. I want problem solvers, not political appointments.

The best way we can afford improvements is to look closely at the jail and pre-jail populations and see if there is a way to either release them or prevent them from going there. Some could have variations of house arrest, ankle bracelets etc., particulary the older ones.

We need to set up secure facilities where people released from jail can be housed. Nothing fancy unless there are children involved. Plain-Jane barracks style with them doing public service if they have not found jobs. Train in jail for medical trades and for the "green" jobs. Train many youth and everyone in growing food, urban orchards, sustainable plants like blueberries in every schoolyard. Fish ponds all over. Every school a garden and a source of its own wind and solar energy, and no child left inside..and very few prisoners left inside...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: pdq
Date: 15 May 08 - 02:05 PM

You have a very good heart, Mary Garvey. You bring some positive vibes to Mudcat and they are sorely needed.

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 May 08 - 02:14 PM

Well, speaking of public service and jail populations.

Where are some of our strongest young men? In jail, doing pushups. We have catastrophe after catastrophe and we frankly need them. I think they should be trained, after screening out violent ones, sex offenders, various others..well, that probably leaves out quite a few..in disaster response...everything from filling sandbags to setting up cooking units, to digging latrines, to using generators, extracting people from earthquake rubble (and shouldn't we have some good machinery other than bulldozers for that..something smaller like jaws of life as a robot).

This should be voluntary and they should be given a healthy amount of time reduced from their sentences. Particularly combined with the medical career training, they would be a very valuable and mobile source of help for all sorts of disasters, and it would turn public perception of ex-criminals around.

And many of course are male, and we don't know how to raise male teens for the most part I would say. Some of the violence and plain stupid behavior that gets someone arrested at 18 goes away at 30 but they are still serving a sentence...I am sure there are ways to break this cycle..again taking serious precautions, to me it would include the death penalty for some, to protect society against violence. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: Amos
Date: 15 May 08 - 04:11 PM

Mary:

This American Rehabilitation Corps is a great idea. Those who volunteer for it should get reduced time; and anyone in on lesser felonies should be eligible. IF they run off and get caught again, max time in hard.

The same principle could be used to attract hundreds of young, restless youths who do not want to serve in the military but wouldn't mind getting a start in a work corps. I could name five or six candidates right off the top of my head. As in the Roosevelt era they could be put to work building shelter for the old and the homeless, supporting medical emergencies, warehousing relief supplies, renovating national parks, resurfacing broken roads or
fixing public works allowed to degrade. They could be trained as medical technicians and help move the alkies and methheads who roam the streets of America's cities into some kind of health and productivity again, care for veterans overburdened by trauma and guilt, and build new starts for unwed mothers, too.

This is an excellent notion. I would expect a huge percentage of these candidates would turn to and do well in such a program, if they were given the start. People flourish whent hey are not suppressed or beaten down...at least, the majority of them do.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 May 08 - 04:55 PM

I agree excellent idea.

Salazar of Colorado would be a great Sec. of the Interior or somesuch.

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: Donuel
Date: 15 May 08 - 06:25 PM

The Bush administration said that certain Wall Street corporations were too big to fail. They got bailed out with cash (not a loan like disaster victims have to pay back)

I say that the American people are too big to fail and they need to be bailed out before ANY corporation.

Robt. Reich for sec of treasury.

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: Bobert
Date: 15 May 08 - 07:33 PM

I haven't penciled in too many cabinet positions yet but I have John Edwards at Attorney General, Colin Powell back at State but with a different mission, Al Gore at Interior, Robert Riche at Treasury, Dennis Kucinich as a newly formed Department opf Peace, Jim Webb at DoD... Others???

VP's: Richardson, Mark Warner are my top 2...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 May 08 - 09:02 PM

And I'd nominate Hillary for Secretary of Health and Welfare.

She's well qualified on the issuse and deserves another chance to implement health insurance for everyone. Too bad she's not willing to consider a single-payer plan. But the preset system is increasingly outrageous.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Obamarama Cabinet
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 May 08 - 10:18 PM

I agree with you on that one, Charley. Ditto on Reich, you others. Lot of folks would like to see the Dept. of Peace come into being. May it be so!