non-ecumenical ramblings

Came across the post below from JustOneMinute. There was a fairly lengthy section about the Hive versus the Pack that made me think of the Borg, but believe his best comments addressed what the left side of the blogosphere should be doing:

Now, Kevin Drum frets that hunting media scalps may be a fool's game for the left. Well, if you can't win on the battlefield in front of you, pick a different battlefield!
- promote new Democratic faces. Philip Bredesen is being touted for President; Eliot Spitzer may run for Governor of NY; maybe the Left should talk about Spitzer and Bredesen rather than Guckert/"Gannon". I'm just thinking out loud, here.
- promote Democratic issues. The left blogosphere has done a good job of driving the debate on Social Security. For example, Kevin Drum's "Crisis? What Crisis" theme migrated to the LA Times, and is now the CW.
- promote the Democratic agenda. What do Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hope to accomplish this legislative session? I don't want to know, but lefty bloggers might be intrigued.
- promote new Democratic ideas. Are there any? Give some oxygen to lefty think tanks, or any university professor, all of whom are lefty - there must be something more interesting to talk about than Jonah Goldberg's paycheck, or the minimum wage.

In full agreement. Going "scalp hunting" to compete with the right wing is small game & being in the minority, we can't afford to be hunting for small game. I'm in full agreement that I have no idea of what Pelosi & Reid hope to accomplish this session outside of blocking any modification to Social Security or ANWR. Also what are the new ideas? As Al Sharpton put it, the Dems are the real conservatives now. Thought I'd post my ideal changes I'd like to see from our federal government & then tomorrow see if I could translate those into workable goals.

Top 2

1. End foreign aid outside of major disasters like the recent tsunami
2. Legalize marijuana

Other items in no set order

1. Revoke Executive Order 13233
2. End farm subsidies
3. Kill the F-22 & all of its clones
4. Only fund ABM $500M/annum - that's max
5. End the Ex-Im bank
6. Don't torture or outsource torture
7. Simplify the tax code
8. End the "employer matching Social Security"
9. Report the budget deficit without including Social Security surplus
10. Medical marijuana legal (realize this is a subset of above)
11. Support gay marriage
12. Fully fund Nunn-Lugar

Could probably keep listing, but enough for tonight.