Investigate. Indict. Try.
If convictions result, punish.

It's called JUSTICE, and it's long overdue.

Abramoff got four years? It is to howl with laughter, to avoid your choice of uncontrollable tears or suicidal depression and crime-spree rage.

Is passing the ERA supposed to be an umbrella bullet point for fighting sexism or advancing women's equality?

I'm actually not a fan of working for the ERA (constitutional amendments have too high a bar to get past and I think we've gone past the max usefulness of broad statements).

But ensuring reproductive rights and equal pay are both integral to women's equality. Also, gunning down sexist media like the dirty dogs they are, although you may want to reword for public consumption.

the players?

What if, for example, General Motors could be broken up rather than having it be "too big to fail" -- some parts of GM probably SHOULD be put out to pasture. Same with Boeing, maybe, and the GE/VIACOM behemoth.

On the ERA: maybe an amendment that specified NOBODY could be left out of the rights the constitution originally granted straight white property-owning males. Reckon that'd be broad-based enough to pass 2/3 of the states as a ballot referendum?

but still sell the finished products here. -- or punishing them.

I think that a business that can't afford to pay it's employees a living wage is a failing business and should not be propped up by government tax relief.

So I would eliminate most corporate deductions except: wages paid to employees that are at or above a living wage standard (not minimum wage) and do not include the wages of CEOs. And also they can have deductions only for materials, products, etc that are made in the US.

There is no reason we should be giving tax breaks to companies that spend their money overseas and that don't provide jobs that people can live on. Period.

although I feel like I'm still missing some key points not covered elsewhere, will think about more representative wording. And I take your point about the media.

amberglow -- when you brought up ADA and FMLA -- was that in response to the ERA? They weren't presidential acts, they were legislative ones, although supplemented with the usual agency regs and such. The danger of Executive Orders in any case is that they can be reversed by subsequent, non-friendly executives.

Politically, I think the time for the ERA is past; too hard to get an amendment passed (even if expanded to equality for all groups). Also there are plenty of good-sounding arguments for opponents at this point, the major one being that we have legislation that 'takes care' of what would be covered anyway, eg Title VII, Title IX, FMLA (as you said), Pregnancy Discrimiantion Act, ADA etc. And, at the end of the day, a constitutional amendment only prohibits discrimination by the State, not private entities.

Specific subject-matter legislation, while somewhat easier to reverse than an amendment, can cover state and private entities, and is much less susceptible to the stupid unisex bathroom-type arguments that helped derail ERA.

didn't lead to the end of the world, isn't it? And wasn't there something about a GOP legislator's "wide stance" in a segregated restroom at an airport awhile back, that didn't exactly reinforce the notion that separation=protection?

Dismantle all of the faith based creations of prior presidents.

Eliminate “Don’t ask, don’t tell”.

Appoint a substantial number of gays and minorities to leadership posts in our military services and truly integrate our military.

Put the criminals from prior administrations in jail, now!

Restore the personal freedoms of Americans.

Privatization in practice is simply a scheme to loot public capital for private gain.

"You'd better get this straight. Wise up before it's too late." -- Sister Sledge

And as I've been saying here for ages, there's only two ways to get there: either take over an existing party, or create your own. Both approaches are prohibitively expensive. As in requiring billions.

So what we have is bubbles that reward an undeserving few with vast riches, and plunder the rest of the country.

Lambert, that's called capitalism.

...for the rest of us

I don't have the economics expertise to give the rundown; besides, I'm at work.

...let any party steal from this as it will.

They can, but they won't, and that's why we'll need to do something more drastic. Or perhaps it's just time to go underground again. Our side seems to be more effective that way.

...for the rest of us

My belief is that boom-and-bust cycles are the natural rhythm of capitalism, and need to be tightly regulated at the very least. I would go as far to say that those boom-and-bust cycles are related to the natural cycle of birth, decay, and regeneration that all organic things experience.

...for the rest of us