Off the top of my head:

Destroy the theory of the unitary executive.

Roll back the signing statements.

Restore the Geneva convention.

Undo the MCA.

Restore habeas corpus.

Above all, restore the Fourth Amendment.

But I'm not at all sure of the mechanism. I mean, it's not a question of retracting from the unitary executive, as if it were a question of policy, to be reversed with another President. It's more like rolling back the database, taking down the system, and starting it up again with the bug removed. What is the jurisprudence for undoing "laws" passed by a criminal regime?

And although the Fourth Amendment is the first amendment that came to mind, really all of them are under attack, except quartering soldiers in our houses...

I could create a research tool, turn the Constitution into posts, and we could link the changes that needed to be made, in comments or in the posts...

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

And so important to think through - for all of us. It's easy for me to kvetch about the erosion of the Constitution, but the method to effect the reversal of its decay is much more difficult.

The base problem is that it is contra-intuitive for those who could succeed to the office of the president to be the type to relinquish powers bestowed them upon their inauguration.

A first step - as it is late, and this is one I look forward to thinking about more, would be a change to the president's oath of office (adding the emphasized language below) - if done voluntarily, it just might be seen as more than just an empty promise:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, defend and restore the Constitution of the United States"

Just as the dismantling of the Constitution took years, so will its repair.

It's like (and I know this is random) - when you took those old metal Slinky's - after you got tired of them just walkin' down the stairs - attached one end of it to something (like a doorknob), pulled it down the hallway and just let the damn thing fly. What a tangled mess.

But what do I know?

Whack Dick Cheney in the side of the head with a big fresh waterlogged zookini.

I don't know if that would help restore the Constitution but it sure would be something fun and different and challenging to do with a zookini. Which right around this time of year becomes an increasingly challenging challenge all by itself. I see there are some other good ideas listed above too.

*

Me, I'd send the entire, original, MC5 to Congress.

.

Me, I’d send the entire, original, MC5 to Congress.

Cept, unfortunately, some of em are dead.

*

1. Defederalize the National Guard

2. I'm not a posse comitatus expert, but if it's broken, fix it.

3. Check whatever "continuity of government" pwoers Bush has, and if that's brokem, fix it.

(Bottom line here is figure out how many martial law powers Bush has, and cripple anything "unitary")

4. Greatly increase the powers of the people under the Freedom of Information Act, give the Presidential Records Act some sort of enforcement mechanism, and rollback all that Bush crap out families of Presidents being able to prevent publication of Presidential records even after the President is dead.

5. Claw back our privacy freedoms, including the freedom to travel.

Of course, there are two technical underpinnings here that need to be attended to:

1. Paper ballots (not a "paper trail," but actual, paper ballots).

2. Net neutrality (so we can communicate without being censored by the corps).

Of course, there's stuff even more outside the Overton window, like taking away personhood from corporations (which I'm for).

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

My plan to restore the Constitution:

1) Develop a warp drive, shields, and phasers effective up to about a parsec away.

2) Find a nice waterworld with a good sized moon around a yellow dwarf star in the Clouds of Magellan.

3) Leave no forwarding address.

4) Start over from scratch, without slavery, slavers, religion, or corporate personhood.

5) Maintain radio silence until the fallout settles here.

Just an idea.

No Hell below us
Above us, only sky

Woken Furies is especially a propos for the waterworld concept.

Wherever we go, there we are.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

I'm thinking on it.

I'll be back

... is more and better Democrats.

And this question is a great litmus test on whether they're truly better.

So, how do we get this question on the top of people's minds??? How do we get candidates to answer it???

I would say that inherent in the Constitution as the final check and balance is the rights of the governed. As in Tea Party and redresses.

We need the populace to try and convict these losers. I say we start from the bottom up and by the time we get to Fredo and the War Criminals, maybe Congress will be doing it themselves. So first, let's impeach any House Reps that voted for MCA, for Patriot II, for FISA II, and for illegally funding a surge when they have yet to declare war.

Then we'll work up to Congressional leadership. Then heads of departments that have lied or not upheld their sworn oath, then on to these "Bushies" who broken the laws of this land. Then on to Fredo.

I'm not sure if a People's Impeachment has any legal standing, but certainly we should make sure they know this will haunt their children and grand-children as a mark of shame. Every year, communities should hold public parades pointing out the homes of the criminals who have violated the public trust and also visit the children and relatives.

Referenda in all the states for restoring Constitutional government by nullifying, through citizen votes, all unconstitutional government actions.
1. End the war.
2. End the "War on Terror" BS.
3. End the "War on Drugs."
4. Pass the ERA, after ensuring it would include GLBT persons' civil rights.
5. Disband the Department of Homeland Security.
6. Disband the Department of War. (Go read your constitution. The Founders abhorred the notion of a standing army. It is only through the machinations of defense contractors that the right-wing has learnt to love cost overruns in the name of military supremacy.) Return control of National Guard and Reserve troops to the states; restrict all USN operations to no more than 200 miles offshore of US soil.
7. Restore the Fairness Doctrine.
8. Restore the national conversation to the control of the people, by enforcing anti-trust regulations on corporations owned by people named Murdoch and Sinclair.
9. Disband the Army Corps of Engineers.
10.Get rid of everything "Faith-based" in government. EVERYTHING. The reason the Founders wrote what they did was to stop what's happening right before our eyes: co-option of the nation by one sect, one cult, one "belief system" that demands all others bow before it.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!-- Xan

....no one here thinks the traditional way to solve this is worth mentioning?

That is, elect legislators who will force the executive and judiciary to recognize the Constitution as the law of the land.

Hard work?

You bet.

Can't work?

You are wrong about that. It's been done before and we can make it happen. It certainly will take a while.

But then, creating this mess took a while also.

But will it work, and will it work fast enough? And are their other approaches that need to be coupled with it?

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

A very moderate position -- just the titles, not the text.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

Having a good, workable plan is an excellent idea. And dreaming in color is a critical part of imagining said plan. I'll grant all of that.

Our only reality-based solution I have read is A. Citizen's/vastleft's:

elect legislators (more and better demofascists) who will force the executive and judiciary to recognize the Constitution as the law of the land.

Nevermind, for the moment, that the plan is short on particulars. I just don't see anything else happening.

Why so gloomy, you ask? Aside from xan's "we are so fucked" (I paraphrase) signature line now favored by all upstanding Correntians?

I point your attention to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590), a bipartisan, commonsense, everyone-can-agree-on-this bill supported by everybody an her aunt. Hasn't passed, because one senator (Ted Intertubes Stevens) put a hold on it.

We have to do this all by subversion because until there is public clamor to restore constitutional government, nothing will come to pass. And even if there is clamor, ted stevens will put a hold on it.

Now, lambert's Overton window efforts are not pointless - in fact, I would say we are already seeing the results of his crucial question being put into the political atmosphere.

And I love the idea of publishing a list of the secret laws and orders and asking (and re-asking) every candidate what their position on such things is.

But we aren't going to "defederalize" or "end" or "disband" anything, probably won't impeach anybody. Only with supreme, concerted effort will we come anywhere close to rolling back the patriot act excesses and inequitable tax breaks, getting paper ballots, or maintaining net neutrality. It's just not reality-based. And then ted stevens will put a hold on it.

So more and better progressives, and fight like hell locally where you have a chance.

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

but the First Amendment is in shambles.

Needed: A Constitutional Amendment limiting the ownership of media organs to one, of any kind, in any congressional district. Period. No exceptions.

End ALL subsidies to ALL church-sponsored 'social' initiatives. Cut the sleazy Gantrys and Bobbits off at the pump. No tax-exempt status, they pay like any other citizen for the protections they enjoy: property tax, income tax, sales tax, all of it. If they're gonna meddle in public affairs, then they need to be treated like any other meddler.

Get "Xian Embassy" the fuck out of the pentagon and off military bases. Make 'em act like the 'terrotist' cells they are, skulking ab out spreading sedition.

Keep "Operation Straight Up" away from military bases; expel anyone from the military who is a paid-up member. Check OUT Luis Palau. When the MOON is in the WACKY house...

Withdraw Eric Prince's business licenses anywhere they are now in use. Unless you wanna face a buncha psycho, gung-ho, hyped-on-pending-violence thugs representing the "regime," through your door, some morning. Soon.

That's a dead bill, no matter who's in power.
Nobody, no matter how lilly-clean, wants that kind of scrutiny.
What's the point of getting elected, going through all the shit it takes, all the personal humiliation, all the turmoil if, at the end, you cannot rob the stiffs as blind as you can and handsomely feather your nest?
B-GAWK!

He could do some of the repairs for a reduced fee, and if we like his work, he would do the rest for a lump sum. He's from the Baltic--long white hair, loose-fitting weave his chosen fabric, wise blue eyes which hide the frozen north in his pale wintery vision. If he can't restore the Constitution, perhaps nobody can.

++++

Step One, Constitution Day. On the day chosen, all schools, all businesses, all tv and radio stations, et cetera, spend the day familiarizing themselves with the Constitution handout that will have been provided to the nation.

I've been advocating this for awhile. We need as the "new media" to have every single online person post a copy of the COnstitution and email to others. Maybe if everyone had a copy, we can stop this B.S. of Congress crooks and critters trampling on it pretending they are allowed to do it.

Sept. 17th is anniversary of the COnstitution. Let's do it then.

"I mail myself a copy of the constitution every day in hopes that one of them will open it up and read what it says." - Bill Maher.

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
- T. Jefferson

Set up at malls or wherever with a verbatim copy of the Declaration Of Independence and try to get people to sign it.

Alternatively meet your Congressman at his office, or local fund raiser, and ask him to sign your copy of the Bill of Rights, with perhaps questions/commentary about a couple specific ones.

Have an obvious camera recording and several cellphone cameras recording those. Put the interesting results up on YouTube.

If you doubt the power of such an adventure think what the Macaca Incident did, and how the present would be different if it had not happened, and its influence in the unfolding future.

That's brilliant.

I especially like the idea of putting check boxes next to bill of rights. "Initial here... Thanks..."

I'm a blogger, not an organizer.... How could this be propagated, do you think?

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

: )

What is the 80,000 then? A tip?

R2K

Candidates' Promise:

If/when elected, I will immediately begin to roll-back, revoke, or repeal any and every law, regulation, statement, directive, and/or other instruction EVER issued by ANY member of the Bushevik regime to ANY person, office, bureau or department.

I will act as if the foregoing eight years were the nightmare that they were, and move immediately to revoke and expunge every trace of every action by the illegitimate, illegal, immoral pieces of shit from the record...

The VERY FIRST ACT of my presidency, I will seek to impeach BOTH Justices Roberts and Scalito for lying to Congress during their confirmation hearings.

The second act will be to instruct Congress to send me a bill repealing the PATRIOT Act.

Unless we believe in the Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want.

Nice list, though, otherwise.

We should also put Rahm Emmanuel in charge of personnel. I wouldn't trust him farther than I could throw him on policy, but as far as rooting out all the Christianist sleeper cells and Conservative moles, I think he'd be without peer.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

....there still are some traditionalists here in Left Blogistan!

Stay tuned for the Stoller/Bowers 'Bush Dog' campaign it looks promising and I do believe it will beat sitting on the couch and wringing our hands by a country mile!

i don't mean to sound harsh, but i wouldn't speak for other bloggers if i were you. jes sayin.

whoo hoo! what a fun comment thread. i'm going to distill this, there is much here, along with shy's post on the topic. thanks, everyone.

1. If nobody mentioned making Corporations no longer persons, this is the place.

2. Also, we need to rethink standing issues, so that systemic hurt is taken into account, like violating an air or watershed, instead of personal harm.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan