The following letter was sent to President Elect, Barack Obama.
Dear Mr. Obama,
I offer you my sincere congratulations on your well-deserved victory in the hotly contested presidential campaign. As president you will be challenged with many daunting issues which will require courage, fortitude, boldness and visionary solutions. To this end may I respectfully offer you some suggestions?
On the economy, resist seeking the advice and guidance of the moneyed folks from Goldman Saks who have contributed in a major way to the economic morass that we are now facing. Thus far, the financial bailout has been a monumental disaster with no restrictions imposed on those institutions who have squandered their assets and taxpayers bailout funds to reward their incompetent executives with obscene bonuses, shareholders dividends and bank buyouts. Such bank consolidations create non-competitive entities and fail-safe behemoths.
Do not support the bailout of the auto industry. General Motors, Chrysler and Ford have contributed to their own demise by ignoring the public’s hunger for more fuel efficiency cars in favor of short term profits and marketing gimmicks (offering lower gas prices for gas guzzlers and low interest car loans). These companies have mocked climate change doomsday pundits and have instead lobbied politicians to postpone fuel efficiency legislation. They must be allowed to sink into receivership and forced to replace board members with new blood. Gross incompetence must not be rewarded with more government largesse.
Call an immediate moratorium on home foreclosures and allow bankruptcy judges to restructure the loans downwards to reflect actual home values. Banks should absorb the difference between the original loan values and the restructured loans.
Provide relief to seniors by suspending the mandatory redemption of IRA’s at age 701/2.
Charge a federal excise tax on oil imports and offer a portion of the revenue in the form of loans to innovators to encourage the manufacture of fuel efficient cars and alternate energy sources.
Pursue vigorous diplomatic efforts to promote world peace and harmony. Abandon policies which promote US commercial interests to the exclusion of the basic needs of the people the world. The Bush administration has alienated much of the world with their bellicose ‘axis of evil’ language. Use your high office to elevate the level of discourse and abandon the failed polices of the Bush administration which perpetuated rancor with nations such as Iran, Venezuela and Cuba and remove existing trade embargos. Reach out to the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia and Ecuador, each of which is currently under subversive attack by the United States. Restore trade relations with Cuba.
Close Guantánamo, Abu Grab and Bagram Air force Base and scrap the Military Commissions Act. Allow prisoners to be tried in US federal courts granting them the right to due process and dismiss confessions extracted under torture. The current system is an absolute outrage and has rightly been criticized by JAG lawyers. Call an immediate halt to all forms of torture and extraordinary renditions. Restore Habeas Corpus. Banish ‘unlawful combatants’ from our lexicon and instruct Pentagon officials to stop offering financial inducements to ‘turn in’ Afghani people. According to the International Red Cross, most of those arrested are completely innocent and have been arrested on false information to settle tribal scores or for financial gain. Do not escalate the war in Afghanistan. Instead negotiate a speedy withdrawal with a specific timetable. Our continual presence violates international law and basic common sense. The high rate of civilian deaths is fueling more anger and bitterness and our illegal occupation is doomed to failure. Offer massive reparations to innocent civilians who have been killed by US or international forces.
Reign in military spending. Banish private soldiers of fortune such as those hired by Blackwater who have a dark history of committing war crimes and have squandered billions.
Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the war crimes of Bush & Company.
Curtail excessive spending of the Department of Homeland Security and phase out this bloated bureaucracy which does little to preserve our security and wellbeing. An ounce of diplomacy will reap tons of security.
Eliminate cluster bombs which continue to maim hundreds of innocent men, women and children each year.
Close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the ‘School of the Americas’. This institution has an extremely dark history training its recruits in barbaric treatment of its citizens, principally in Latin America.
Phase out US agricultural subsidies which place third world countries at an uncompetitive disadvantage and have contributed to thousands of farmer suicides in India and Africa.
Resist the siren song of powerful lobbies such as AIPAC. These lobbies have driven US foreign policy and have done incalculable harm to our nation drawing us into unnecessary conflicts. Their influence must be neutralized. Appoint former president Jimmy Carter as a special envoy to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the failed policies of Bush- Cheney.
