unusualmusic_lj_archive

Go thou to change.gov, scroll to the bottom and under Agenda, you can click on all the stuff that you want to know about what Mr. Pres proposes to do in improve our great nation. Here are some of my favorites:

The Women's Agenda

Caring for Women Vets, Trying to reduce poverty among women, Improving about of Women in Math and Science, Uphold Roe vs Wade,Create Work Pensions, Work to prevent Violence against women, working to prevent unintended pregnancy, reducing health risks due to mercury pollution, work to end pay discrimination (why not just work to pass the Equal Rights Amendment?) Etc. etc. Go read its full of good stuff.

Teh Civil Rights Agenda (scroll down for teh gay part.)
Now then. Re: civil rights for POC : There is end employment discrimination, and :

# Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: Obama and Biden will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice's Criminal Section.
# End Deceptive Voting Practices: Obama will sign into law his legislation that establishes harsh penalties for those who have engaged in voter fraud and provides voters who have been misinformed with accurate and full information so they can vote.
# End Racial Profiling: Obama and Biden will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice.

Also reduce crime recidivisms and use the drug courts more to do more drug rehab than straight prison for first time non-violent offenders.

Re LGBT issues: Repeal Dont Ask dont Tell, Expand hate crimes statutes, Fight Workplace Discrimination, Full Civil Union and Fed Rights equal to married couples ( which would work out well for straight ppl who don't want to get married as well, but seriously. Get over whatever the heck is bothering you and support gay marriage already for gods sake!)Expand adoption rights HELLO FLORIDA AND ARKANSAS , oppose constitution bullshitting about marriage =1 man, 1 woman, promote HIV/AIDS prevention with special emphasis on women.

In the first year of his presidency, Barack Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. Obama will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. Obama also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS. He will continue to speak out on this issue as president.

Re: homophobia, may we hope to see him avoid homophobic gospel purveyors as well? Anyway...

You can look at his Defense stuff as well, I especially like the Reform Contracting part

Reform Contracting

* Create Transparency for Military Contractors: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require the Pentagon and State Department to develop a strategy for determining when contracting makes sense, rather than continually handing off governmental jobs to well-connected companies. They will create the transparency and accountability needed for good governance, and establish the legal status of contractor personnel, making possible prosecution of any abuses committed by private military contractors.
* Restore Honesty, Openness, and Commonsense to Contracting and Procurement: The Obama-Biden administration will realize savings by reducing the corruption and cost overruns that have become all too routine in defense contracting. This includes launching a program of acquisition reform and management, which would end the common practice of no-bid contracting. Obama and Biden will end the abuse of supplemental budgets by creating a system of oversight for war funds as stringent as in the regular budget. Obama and Biden will restore the government's ability to manage contracts by rebuilding our contract officer corps. They will order the Justice Department to prioritize prosecutions that will punish and deter fraud, waste and abuse.

Re: Immigration, I like the whole cracking down on employers and working with Mexico to promote economic development best. It would be interesting to see precisely what he means by securing our borders, as well.

Urban Policy looks good to my untrained eye, as well:

Some of my favs are

Livability of Cities

* Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities: Our communities will better serve all of their residents if we are able to leave our cars to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives. As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account.
* Control Superfund Sites and Data: Obama and Biden will restore the strength of the Superfund program by requiring polluters to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites they created.
* Use Innovative Measures to Dramatically Improve Efficiency of Buildings: Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of carbon emissions in the United States today and carbon emissions from buildings are expected to grow faster than emissions from other major parts of our economy. It is expected that 15 million new buildings will be constructed between today and 2015. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work with cities so that we make our new and existing buildings more efficient consumers of electricity.
* Foster Healthy Communities: How a community is designed -- including the layout of its roads, buildings and parks -- has a huge impact on the health of its residents. For instance, nearly one-third of Americans live in neighborhoods without sidewalks and less than half of our country's children have a playground within walking distance of their homes. Barack Obama introduced the Healthy Places Act to help local governments assess the health impact of new policies and projects, like highways or shopping centers.

Raising the minimum wage to $9.50 and indexing it to inflation is also pretty cool.

I really do like the emphasis on lowering crime recidivism, instead of straight prison for one and all. we need to halt the growing might of the prison industrial complex. the stuff on urban education looks good, what with teacher support and the middle school success plan, as well as the grant to find out how to keep students in school and learning. In my humble opinion, curriculum also need an overhaul, but this stuff is cool to start with.

also, this:

# Support Parents with Young Children: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will expand the highly successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers. The Nurse-Family Partnership provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis concluded that these programs produced an average of five dollars in savings for every dollar invested and produced more than $28,000 in net savings for every high-risk family enrolled in the program.
# Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.

And thats just the tip of the iceberg, really.

Technology is fucking awesome. Net Neutrality, Media Diversification, Open Government, Next Gen Broadband, INVESTING IN THE SCIENCES HALLELUJAH!!!!!, Making Math and Science Education a priorty for students,

* Lifelong Retraining: Reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act, and increase resources for community colleges and lifelong learning initiatives to ensure our citizens can continue to gain new skills throughout their lifetimes. Modernize and expand the existing system of trade adjustment assistance to include service sector workers hurt by changing trade patterns. Create flexible education accounts that workers can use to retrain.
* Build a Reliable Safety Net: Through their proposals on portable health care and retirement savings accounts and expanding unemployment insurance, Obama and Biden will work for programs that will help Americans facing job transitions in a fierce global economy.

AND

# Pinpoint College Aid for Math and Science Students: Launch an online database to give potential future scientists access to information about financial aid opportunities available in science and technology fields through the federal government and public or private resources.
# Increase Science and Math Graduates: Improve science and math education in K through 12 to prepare more students for these studies in college. Work to increase our number of science and engineering graduates and encourage undergraduates studying math and science to pursue graduate studies. Increase the representation of minorities and women in the science and technology pipeline, tapping the diversity of America to meet the increasing demand for a skilled workforce.

Just go read the whole thing. Its a smorgasbord, I tell ya!

He's got the Rural area as well, taking on the meth problem, Improving Healthcare and education, Protecting Family farms, my favs are

# Establish Country of Origin Labeling: Implement Country of Origin Labeling so that American producers can distinguish their products from imported ones.
# Encourage Organic and Local Agriculture: Help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and reform crop insurance to not penalize organic farmers. Promote regional food systems.
# Encourage Young People to Become Farmers: Establish a new program to identify and train the next generation of farmers. Provide tax incentives to make it easier for new farmers to afford their first farm.
# Partner with Landowners to Conserve Private Lands: Increase incentives for farmers and private landowners to conduct sustainable agriculture and protect wetlands, grasslands, and forests.