Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Predictions, Passions, and Motley Moosings Working Thread

We’ve got a lot of work to do, Moosekateers!

My hope is to use this working thread for all of us to comment and get ideas for moving forward.  I have no answers or opinions, only questions and thoughts at this point.  Thanks to Louisprandtl for jump starting the conversation!

We’ve talked about the issues throughout this extremely long and emotionally and financially costly presidential election, but before permanent exhaustion sets in, let’s begin our progress through politics.

Blasky has a great thread going on promoting Gay Rights, so be sure to leave your thoughts there.

But what other issues are you keeping your eye on?  What are your predictions for the first 100 days of the Obama administration?

Here are only some ideas on what I have been mulling and pondering over:

(1) Should we move forward with another bailout bill like what Pelosi is advancing?

(2) How quickly can we get out of Iraq?  And what is our definition of “winning” in both Iraq and Afghanistan?  Does the idea of “winning” really matter at this point?

(3) What do we want in new Supreme Court nominees/justices?  Who’s going to leave the court?

(4) How do we progress on the abortion issue to make it a non-starter in election cycles?  Is that even possible?

(5) What is Palin going to do next?  And how can we stop her cold in her temper tantrum stomp all over our Constitution and great nation?

(6) How do we attack this supplanting of the “liberal” label with the “socialist” label?  Is it appropriate to ask, what’s wrong with being a socialist?  Why is “redistribution of wealth” such a “bad” thing now?  And what about taxes?

(7) How can we rewrite the language of labels that the Republican machine has been so good at and using effectively in nasty soundbites?

(8) And what about feminism and gender roles?  Race and gender broke a lot of boundaries, but what about the pain left behind in gender issues?  (no reprising of primary wars, but progress)

(9) Where is the media going to go now?  And what are you watching, either blogs or TV that is helping you in the progress forward?

(10) Prop 2 passed in California affecting the status of factory farming–a great leap forward in animal rights.  What was so successful about that campaign to get it passed, especially considering that animals have no voice or vote?  I see a growing trend in animal rights, so what do you see next?

(11) Is it important to hold the Bush administration accountable?  If so, how do we do that?  And how do we reign in the unfettered power of the executive branch and the vice presidency as expanded by Cheney?  Is that good to do now?

(12) What direction of progress is most important?  Where do we need to make the most strides in a quick fashion? Or is slow, steady and moderate the way to go?  Where should we start?

(13) What else?

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What really gets you rutting and ready to crack antlers?  We’re elected, so now it’s time to take the first steps forward, as Obama said.  What steps in progress are the next generations going to see from us?

TALK TO ME, MOOSE!


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 35 Comments

35 comments

  1. canadian gal

    we have not formally met – but hi!  i have been watching your writing for a bit now and your enthusiasm is wondeful…

    to me one of the most important issues in the upcoming days is the enviornment.  this is a extremely volitile and time-sensitive issue and i hope that both the US and canadian govts have the courage to take the necessary steps in the right direction.

  2. Stella

    I introduced myself in Louisprandtl’s openthread earlier today.  

    NBW, this is an impressive list…all of these things will be very important for President Obama to address.

    I wanted to address #3 on your list: What do we want in new Supreme Court nominees/justices?  Who’s going to leave the court?

    I think the most important thing to for a potential nominee to the Supreme Court is to search all of their writings, opinions, etc. and if they have ever cited strict construction as the appropriate way to interpret the Constitution, then they should be ruled out.

    I am torn on litmus tests.  On the one hand, as a principle i feel like a Justice shouldn’t be put on the Court based on their view on one issue/area of law.  On the other hand, abortion rights and equality issues are so very important to me; the most reassuring thing about Obama’s win this week is the implications it has for the Supreme Court and it would be devastating for one of Obama’s appointees to work against those issues.  However, a nominee’s theory of interpretation will often be a pretty good indicator of how they will come down here.

  3. John Allen

    The money we are sending overseas for oil is a major drag on our economy. Even worse, it has too much influence on our foreign policy. Going green will create jobs and stimulate the economy, lower the price of oil in the entire world, and significantly reduce our trade deficit.

    Health care is another biggie. To be more accurate, health insurance needs to be changed. It is not only about what is moral or fair. It is an economic issue. Employer financed health insurance is currently dragging down the competitiveness of American corporations. This millstone must be removed from them and shifted to the country at large. Just think what a boost it would be for a small business when trying to attract new talent. They won’t have to bankrupt themselves to get quality employees once they no longer have to compete with corporations that offer health care.

    Iraq and Afghanistan will take some time to sort out. This will be a high-priority item in the Obama administration. There’s little we can do to affect the policy until we see what plans they come up with.

    Despite the continuing drop of the stock market, it looks like the economic crisis may be easing. Inter-bank overnight loans have loosened up considerably. This will do more to help than almost anything else that is done. Once credit is available, people and corporations will start spending again.

    I’m afraid education may take a back seat for awhile. There’s just too much to deal with to make major changes here until other issues have been addressed.

    Rolling back the damage Bush/Cheney have done to the bureaucracy needs to start right away. I have faith in Obama, but I still don’t want him to have the executive power that B/C abrogated. I don’t want anyone to have that power.

    Guantanamo must be closed as soon as possible. This will do more to signal a change in US policy than almost anything else Obama can do. I was not encouraged by the reply Obama gave on this subject just the other day. It sounds like he’s going to move slowly on this front. I hope I misread his intention.

    That’s enough for now. There’s a hell of a lot more to deal with than seems humanly possible. It’s a heck of a lot easier to destroy than it is to rebuild. This is going to take time. Lots of it.

  4. Kysen

    both in your diary and in the comments above me.

    I ‘found’ a web site to watch as Obama puts together his Cabinet: http://www.cabinet.newsladder.net

    It’s pretty cool and if we have a particularly good diary written here on/about his Cabinet decisions we can submit it and get some more eyeballs on The Moose.

    I had not seen any of the ‘Ladder’ sites before (check lower right hand side of site…whole list of ’em).

    Quite interesting.

    Good dialogue to open NBW….

    Rec’d. 😉

  5. GrassrootsOrganizer

    or the Employee Free Choice Act.  We also need a raise in minimum wage and extension of unemployment benefits almost immediately.

    Why EFCA?  Well, to start with the coarse reason first — Obama owes Labor.  That was the Steelworkers who delivered Pennsylvania, not single-handedly, but they were the real force in delivering the “disenchanted Hillary voters”.  Unitehere delivered Nevada and set records for Hispanic turnout and percentage for Obama.  The UAW turned Michigan and made a huge impact in Ohio.  It’s the untold story this year — the army of volunteers and paid staff unions recruited, organized and delivered for Obama.

    Now to the higher rationale — wages and benefits have been falling in this country in direct correlation to percentage of union membership.  Union contracts demand any cuts in pay, hours and benefits be negotiated; they protect pensions and are the first line of offense for worker’s safety.  The surest way to improve the plight of the working poor and start making gains again for the middle class is to inject life into the embattled labor movement.

    NLRB “elections” are a joke.  The employer has a month or two from filing to election to scare the crap out of employees, “educate” them in captive audience meetings, bribe them, coerce them, misinform them, harass them into quitting and ultimately fire the “trouble makers” with a slap on the wrist (if that) from the NLRB.  

    Nothing out there scares the corporate powers that be more than EFCA.  Walmart is shitting their corporate pants over the prospect.  For at least a year they won’t know how to fight it effectively and this will open a window for workers who have long wanted representation to finally get it.  Right now, unions won’t go into a shop without a neutrality agreement, even if the employees beg, unless the shop is so hot they can withstand a full on corporate campaign.  It’s simply too expensive to pour months of organizing into a workplace to lose an election to corporate pressure tactics on the workers.  

    For decades it was the unions that organized the working class to the Democratic Party.  Without union strength, the working class and skilled middle class workers are there for the GOP picking on divisive social issues and “tax and spend” bullshit.  The Democratic Party’s life blood was and is organized labor.  

  7. alyssa chaos

    Of course all the things listed prior to my comment are important issues….its interesting to see what people really care about policy wise…

    I guess the only thing I’d add to this super mega awesome list of wonder is public [mass] transportation. We could kill two birds with one stone by investing major bank in mass transportation. we would be promoting less dependence on autos therefore cutting back on our oil consumption [aka we would stop sending a bunch of money over seas] and also help to alleviate pollution problems; it would also help the economy, by putting people to work [it sounds alot like FDR’s WPA, but it would be more focused and concentrated on needed transportation…]

    we need to break our addiction to cars [and oil] and the only way to do that is through promoting/finding other means of transportation. It would also be wise to look into cutting edge technology to power these trains/whatever we decide to use. Im not completely familiar with train technology but isn’t there trains that are powered by magnetism [well reverse magnetism, magnetic repulsion?] in Japan or something. [too lazy to google at this hour]

    just my random policy thought for the night, [‘hmmm yes I want trainz..’]

    and for fuck’s sake no more bailouts. I’d have to be convinced there is some killer oversight before I can get on board with another one.

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