Audience at conference proposes remedies

Attendees at the Restoring America After Bush conference were asked to fill out cards listing actions the nation could take to meet the goals of the conference. The results are:

• Subsidize and protect objective journalism, nurture its growth, and create public opinion exchanges.
• Put an end to private (out of control) armies, like Blackwater.
• Websites with discussion forums can bring public input into government and decision-making productively and efficiently, while making Congress and agencies more transparent.
• Responsibility for breaking laws remains after a politician leaves office. If the heads of the Bush Administration cannot be prosecuted while they are in office, justice can be pursued after the leave.
• Impeach Scalia, Cheney, and Bush.
• Questions for presidential candidates: how do we restore trust and better relations between the President and Congress so we can rebuild our respect internationally and speak with a united voice? (Assume the action component here is that we spark this question wherever they go.)
• Significantly reducing the power of the federal executive so that our democracy becomes more representative requires giving up the two-party system (impeach Bush, just for the symbolic value of it).
• Demand commitment and accountability for the Millennium goals.
• Insist on replacement of US troops and mercenaries, with international forces to achieve cessation of hostilities in Iraq.
• Help protest the choice of Michael Mukasey as commencement speaker at Boston College Law School ext Friday, May 23. The so-called attorney general doesn’t know whether waterboarding is torture.