If you became President tomorrow, what is the first thing you would do?

[begin_within]

[NNadir]

1. Begin a program on global climate change.

Everything else is probably relatively irrelevant.

[bluestateguy]

2. Dissolve the Congress permanently

All they do is screw things up.

Then I would imprison all opponents.

[iamjoy]

3. Repeal The Global Gag Rule

and then...

[Shadder]

4. Give the oval office a good scrubbing

Never forgot when the shit head said that

[Cleita]

6. It needs more than a good scrubbing. It needs an exorcism

or a smudging.

[Cleita]

5. I would have a Constitution Ceremony.

I would drag every bureaucrat and elected official to where the Constitution is and make them swear an oath of loyalty to the precepts of the Constitution, even if they had done it before. I would make sure it was televised all over the country and world if possible.

[cynatnite]

7. Bring the troops home ASAP n/t

[Erika]

8. I would institute a course to teach that caring only about the wealthy

is not really Godly.

[Midnight Rambler]

9. Withdraw from Iraq

Second thing I would do, Executive Order banning torture (or as close as I could get, don't know exactly how Executive Order works)

Third thing... oh yeah, nominate Tommy Chong as Drug Czar.

[BattyDem]

10. Break up media monopolies; create laws to ensure a free and honest press

As we have seen, a democracy can not survive with an uninformed populace. Educating people and getting them involved in their government again is the only way to get anything done and put our country back on the right track.

[shraby]

13. Get the Patriot Act repealed then negate

all of Bush's executive orders. Then make congress critters read the constitution in unison out loud. Then remind them that they represent PEOPLE in their districts, not corporations.

After that, I'd attend to the war, etc.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. You beat me to it. Media = Job 1

[xray s]

11. Appoint Pat Fitzgerald Attorney General and turn him loose

Clean house big time.

[BattyDem]

14. GREAT IDEA!!!

:toast:

[FreedomAngel82]

22. Good one!

[cynatnite]

35. Ding Ding Ding! You win! n/t

[brokensymmetry]

12. Send a few special folks to GITMO.

They have, after all, done their best to destroy America...

[greenbriar]

15. I would make all the congress men and women live on MINIMUM WAGE for one

year before they ever thought about raising their salary and not minimum wage

[sandnsea]

37. Oooh, that gives me tingles

Why the hell shouldn't that be a minimum wage job? Or at least a "prevailing wage" job. Why shouldn't their salaries be what 50% of Americans live on. Yes, we need to push this idea.

[Freedomfried]

16. End the war, legalize marijuana than see if that Monica chick still worked

there.



FF

[Selatius]

17. Get on the air and talk to the people directly

All I need is roughly 30 to 60 minutes. Everything will be revealed once I get on the air. What I plan to do with education, health care, global warming, corporate corruption and greed in government, poverty, the war in Iraq...everything.

[Just Me]

18. Extract ALL neoconsters and reverse All BushCo executive orders.

Then, I'd pull in every fired/retired military officer to create and execute a plan OUT OF IRAQ. I'd pull together a political "healing" committee made up of our very best diplomats with the objective to unite with the UN and Arab League to stabilize both Iraq and the Middle East.

I'd also form a group of economists to do a complete progressive makeover of the taxation system. Another group to create legislation which placed punching, punitive limits on capitalistic abuses.

Geez,...you invited me to dream, here! :bounce:

[calmblueocean]

19. Start a real Apollo program for alternative energy.

Most people just use this phrase to mean they'd start a well-funded alternative energy program with specific goals, but I take it more literally. Lunar solar power has the potential to end the oil economy, get rid of the pollution, and beam clean energy to developing countries. The more I read about it, the better it looks.

[CAG]

20. I'd ban mullets, and create a national service program for 18 yr

olds whose parents net worth is over $1 million to flip burgers for 3 years to learn the value of a dollar.

[FreedomAngel82]

21. Make plans to bring the troops home!

Than make a bill for national health care.

[RB TexLa]

24. Free Trade Agreement of The Americas Act

[calmblueocean]

28. Why?

"Free trade" is inferior to "fair trade".

All these various "free trade" agreements do is pit workers in different countries agaisnt each other in a race to the bottom to see who will work for the lowest wages, least health coverage, worst environmental standards.

We should be using access to our markets to negotiate better human rights, worker rights, and environmental standards from all our trading partners. Their citizens benefit, we benefit, the environment benefits. We need bilateral trade agreements to raise standards. "Free trade" agreements only lower them.

[Zhade]

47. Some remain ignorant of the fact that "free trade" doesn't mean "fair".

NT!

[SammyBlue]

25. Fully funded education = top domestic priority

Then, assertain a top exit of Iraq that will attempt to stabilize the power vaccum Bush created, while supplying enough troops (plus 25,000) to hunt, locate and capture Osama Bin Laden.

[porphyrian]

26. I'm not sure what I'd do first...

...but in the first day(s) I would:
- roll back the tax cuts for the rich, all of them
- make whatever deals necessary with our former allies to have them replace our military presence in Iraq, and bring our soldiers home
- dissolve the Department of Homeland Security, giving those powers back to existing law enforcement departments and department branches
- sunset the Patriot Act
- quit subsidizing corporate conglomerate farms to not grow crops, leaving subsidies intact for small family operations
- quit all other retarded subsidies and corporate welfare
- fund education
- fund universal health care
- fund state MENTAL HOSPITALS
- hire the homeless ala FDR for necessary infrastructure clean-up, building and operation
- end the "drug war"
- legalize marijuana
- limit the rights of corporations to benefit as citizens or hold them equally responsible as citizens, but end the bullshit special treatment
- re-regulate the media
- require all public elections to be paper ballot, destroy Diebold machines
- declare October 28 a national holiday

OK, so that's a lot, and not all under the powers of the presidency, but I would try.

[longship]

27. Walk into the UN building and defenestrate John Bolton.

Hopefully, there would be press coverage.

BTW, Fitzgerald would make an *ideal* AG.

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine On Inauguration Day

[BlueIris]

30. Pick myself out the liberal-est SCOTUS nominee I could get confirmed.

Preferably the lefty version of Roberts.

[Midnight Rambler]

31. Couple more things I'd do

Serious stuff:

-Get rid of paperless e-voting
-End drug war, legalize marijuana
-End corporate welfare
-Break up media conglomerates
-Enact significant campaign finance reform
-Abolish the Department of Homeland Security
-Join the International Criminal Court
-Support legitimate democratic movements in the Mideast, withdraw support of dictators
-Go after domestic terrorists (read: white supremacists)
-Prosecute Rummy and generals for Abu Gharib
-Investigate Bush and Cheney
-More funding for first responders
-Ban government use of mercenaries
-Fund research for alternative energy
-Fund stem cell research
-Deport Fred Phelps
-Lock Sharon and Abbas in a room together and not let them out until they reach an agreement (I mean that literally)

Not so serious stuff:

-Change the national anthem to "Kick Out the Jams"
-Spinning rims on the presidential limo
-Reassign my fundie Colonel uncle to Alaska
-Executive Order to get Dave Chappelle back to work on his show
-Make Mardi Gras and Bob Dylan's birthday national holidays
-Deport Paris Hilton, Britney and Kevin, and Toby Keith
-Appoint Phylis Schlafly Ambassador to Afghanistan, since she loves fundamentalism so much
-Bang a bunch of interns/actresses/cheerleaders/strippers and dare the Republicans to impeach me

And finally... call a prime time press conference and tell the FCC to go fuck themselves

[lies and propaganda]

32. fire a whole lot of bastards

and then start their trials.

[funflower]

33. Close Gitmo, convene a global warming summit, turn Iraq over to the UN

with a commitment to support financially an international effort create a just Iraqi society.

[baron j]

34. I would appoint Conyers as Vice President,

and then I would resign (I rather leave the decision making to someone more wise than I).

[BlueIris]

46. Aw, man. That would be NICE. Welcome to DU!

:-)

[Lethe]

36. appoint John Cleese as Minister of Silly Walks

[WCGreen]

38. Hire an intern....

[NewJeffCT]

39. Believe it or not

My ex-wife was friends with a young woman that was a White House intern at the same time as Monica Lewinsky... and this young woman was WAY more attractive than Monica.

But, she said she only met Bill Clinton twice, both times was when they took group photos with all the interns.

[WCGreen]

42. There is a city council woman in one of the suburbs here

who was also an intern with Monica....

[Hekate]

40. Repeal the USA-PATRIOT Act and W's executive orders

Begin to bring government functions back to the government where they belong. Privatization? Just another word for no-accountability-to-the-public-whatsoever.

Overhaul or get rid of No Child Left Behind and tell the public once and for all that "running schools like a business with an eye to the bottom line" is the WRONG PARADIGM. Lean on states to increase the school year so our students could start catching up with the rest of the world.

Tell the military they'll have to give up one or two of their toys and give that money to public education. The military doesn't need 50% or more of the US budget to get by. Tell the military they'll have to give up another of their toys and route that money to body armor and other equipment to protect our men and women in uniform.

Reaffirm the US commitment to the Geneva Conventions, sign the damn land-mine treaty, commit to doing our share to fight global warming -- and tell the American people we can hold our heads high again.

For a start.

Hekate

[notadmblnd]

41. recind every executive order bush has signed

and review the executive orders of many past presidents too.

[w8liftinglady]

43. recind all the corporate tax breaks...

and use that money for universal health care for all.

[IndianaGreen]

44. Arrest Bush and Co and charge them with treason and war crimes

Bring the troops home at once.

[xchrom]

45. find a way to get out of nafta, cafta,

and rework trade agreements with china, india and a whole host of other low wage countries.

work to reinvigorate manufacturing in this country -- economic diversity would be my highest priority -- bouyed by offering every incentive under the sun for alternative energy development.

[Broken_Hero]

48. hmm, do what our current president does, go fishing!!!!

Nah, i'm just joking. The first thing i would do is clean out my Cabinet members and get some decent, middle of the road dems/repubs, and then i would work out a cohesive scheme to get our troops out of Iraq pronto, and then work on the Gas issues, and health care...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

49. Appoint Bill Clinton to replace Sandra Day O'Connor.

Hey, he was a lawyer. And there's a precedent: Taft was president, then Chief Justice.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

50. I quite like William Blum's (Rogue State, Killing Hope) answer

If I was president of the United States, this is what I would do:

On the first day, I would extend an apology to all orphans and widows and victims of U.S. foreign policy.

On the second day, I would announce that we won't intervene anywhere else.

On the third day, I'd tell Israel, "your country is not the 51st state but a foreign country," and then reduce the military budget 90 percent and pay reparations to all families in the world destroyed by U.S. foreign policy.

On the fourth day, I would be assassinated.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Sept_11_2001/Thirst_Real_Answers.html