Part 1 of what a TRUE VISIONARY U.S. leader would do

This post ties in with my last post, but you don't necessarily need to read it first.

1. Start running our cars on gas made of sugar, like Brazil. (Though I thought they were totally self-sufficient, it appears they still use a gasoline/ethanol mix, and that they have not been manufacturing NEARLY as many ethanol-using cars as they did in the early to mid '80s).

If we can GROW OUR OWN, or at least import sugar from friendly countries (and who wouldn't be friendly if we're helping them out, not thru charity but thru business? I mean, through FAIR free trade ...), we could get our greedy talons out of the Middle East for good and leave them be. Part of the problem we have now, in addition to the American Petroleum Institute, is the U.S. sugar lobby. ("In the United States, the sugar-cane industry has had little incentive to diversify into ethanol production because import quotas support U.S. sugar prices far above world levels.")

Of course, free trade with countries like Brazil would take some $$$ out of American pockets (i.e. sugar growers, for starters), but it would also put $$$ into Brazilian pockets.

Of course #2, becoming energy independent, and using much less oil, would seriously damage the U.S. oil economy, from oil co. CEOs on down the line to the receptionists who work at the oil companies, to refinery employees, to gas station owners, tanker truck drivers, on and on.

In short, getting away from oil, and the wars that keep the oil and money flowing into the military-industrial complex, and then into our economy, would really HURT the economy. Hence, nothing will change until the shit hits the fans, and it's already starting to fly dangerously close IMO ...

2. Resume the large-scale cultivation and production of HEMP. To make paper. To save trees. To save the environment.

3. Legalize marijuana, for starters. Decriminalize many other drugs, replacing jail time that turns "offenders" into even more hardened criminals with community service and treatment. Current drug laws are "social injustice" if I've ever seen it. The poor, who may have shitty jobs that they want to wind down from with a joint, are targeted. Poor drug dealers who feel they can make better money selling drugs than flipping burgers are jailed. And once you get a criminal record, good luck getting a good job once you're out. People with more money and connections (or at least a credit card with a high limit) can afford great lawyers (no offense to the PDs out there), who can get their charges knocked down to wrist-slaps. I believe our drug laws are racist too. We need to take the black market (no pun intended, seriously) out of the drug trade, though I'm not sure if decriminalization would do that with coke, heroin, etc. (b/c someone's still gotta manufacture it and import it, and it sure ain't gonna be the USDA). Let's start with weed and see what happens.

4. Decriminalize prostitution. Hooking is real employment. The "upper crust" males in our society are the ones patronizing hookers, b/c they're the ones that can afford them. Yet these same guys, for the most part, seek to keep hooking illegal, b/c they feel that, by driving the business underground, the business is classier and more discreet. Hence, no one sees them going to and from a known brothel/vice district, and no official paper trails are kept. And, if something bad happens to the girls, well, they got what was coming to them, those evil sluts (the guys look good, the girls look bad).

I was thinking today, though, after seeing SICKO last night (and yes, I know that some of Michael Moore's fact-gathering methods are highly suspect, so yes, I take him with a grain of salt; but, you can't fabricate EVERYTHING), that the serious debt/economic burden we carry in our society (much of it from medical bills and insurance claim denial), combined with the overall state of the economy in general, is probably WHY so many girls turn to whoring, b/c they can make a much better living doing that than, say, being a social worker, a teacher, a journalist, even a nurse if you can charge that much (and I'm not listening "traditional" female occupations here on purpose, but these are all, indeed, jobs that pay worse than hooking). If you're a single mother, without health insurance, fucking a couple of lawyers and realtors a week gets you more $ and more time with your kids than being a cashier, or even doing any of the aforementioned jobs. But if you go to jail and get a criminal record (or worse), then it's going to be hard reintegrating into "normal" society again.

5. Universal health care. Yes, you read that right. Miss Libertarian Henderson is suddenly lurching to the left after seeing Sicko. Though I need to do more research on the topic, I KNOW our current system is FUCKED UP. Insurance companies are driven to save -- and make -- money by DENYING claims, denying coverage, in many cases coverage that would save lies. (And much of it, undoubtedly, is racist, b/c poor brown people are more disposable than rich white CEOs). RX companies make money by keeping people sick, not getting them well. Doctors in the National Health System in the UK get bonuses for keeping people WELL -- the more people they can get to lose weight, stop smoking, etc., the less $ they're going to cost the system. I'm still paying a $2,200 hospital ER bill and a $300 ambulance bill from last summer when I had a bad drug reaction. When I had an allergic reaction and a seizure the next day from the drug they gave me to counteract the first drug, I had to go BACK to the ER, to the tune of another $400. B/c the first drug was, shall we say, not sold on the "white market," thanks to the boys in blue, I got to pay a lawyer $7,500 and got to pay a bail bondsman $800. Even when I was puking and shitting blood in Jamaica in 2003 and had to go to the ER (re. Worst. Birthday. Ever. upcoming post), they never sent me a fucking bill. Of course, that hospital had nothing but a cloth drape as a front door to the triage (which opened directly to the outside), and I had to squat over a bedpan in a broom closet for my stool sample, and piss and shit was flowing out of the toilets into the halls and all the stall doors were broken, and they would have probably shut that place down during the Civil War ... well, it was still free. As far as I know.)

Anyway, our current healthcare system is so obviously trickle-UP economics it's downright evil. My boss and his girlfriend just had a baby, and the baby had a birth defect (born with intestines on outside). They said that the state paid for the baby's hospitalization and operation ("he's a welfare baby!" he said), BUT, that had he and his GF been married, they would've been SOL. (I've gotta research this, but I assume he knows what he's talking about, cos dude's not stupid). Hmmmm, logic says that our current system, uhm, encourages single motherhood. Call me a big-ole prude, but single mothers have it rough and I do believe that a stable, two-parent family (whether the parents be hetero or gay/lesbian), where parents have more time to be with their kids, and where more support is available for the kids, is a preferable situation. I am NOT dissing single mothers, please, don't give me that. But, isn't it, oh, I dunno, fucking HYPOCRITICAL to have a system in place that will help you out more if you're unmarried, then turn around and mouth off about "family values" and tell said single mother that she shoulda just kept her legs together in the first place, because only abstinence WORKS, you know, now, go out and get a job and let US pay someone minimum wage to babysit your kid in pre-K.

Anyway, but, of course, HOW would we pay for universal coverage? Well, for starters, incentivize (sp?) wellness like they do in the UK to keep costs down. Cut out the bureaucratic middlemen that we have with all the insurance company bill collectors and claim-deniers. Take out the grotesque profits that go to people who run HMOs and RX companies. And, oh, all that money we'd be saving from previously mentioned energy independence (giving us, well, NO incentives for costly warfare). Freer trade with other countries would help them AND us. (There's ole Libertarian Henderson again!)

6. Legalize gay marriage. Let people in love reap the benefits offered to hetero couples. Of course, I really like gay people, b/c I've known so many of them personally, and don't think they're the evil spawn of Satan that the "loving" Christians would have me believe. So, I am a bit biased here.

OK, now, off my rant box. You people think I've been possessed by a Green Party demon, don't you??? ;p