Rating the issues in order of importance (to me)

Following is how I rate the issues in order of importance that motivates my choice of candidate.

Education.

Wealth inequity.

Jobs being shipped overseas. NAFTA. WTO. H1B. etc.

Job creation. Unions.

Media reform and media fairness.

Saving Social Security.

Progressive taxation.

Health Care.

The Deficit/Debt.

The Envronment. Global Warming.

Military spending.

Campaign reform - vote counting, redistricting and financing.

Crime, people imprisoned. The War on Drugs.

Corporate accountability.

Alternative Energy.

Abortion.

Gay Unions.

Gun Control.

I decided to post this after coming to the realization that some shameless Dean supporter will continue to "discover" and post his/her "shocked surprise" over Kucinich's voting record on abortion related issues each week until well into the Primaries. That got me to thinking about the relative order and which issues are most important to me.

I apologise for taking this post in a Dean bashing direction but the transparent and pushy obnoxiousness of SOME Dean supporters has been annoying me to no end.

The three issues Dean seems to have strong stances on really mean very little to me. I honestly don't see Kucinich, or any Democrat, really, as a menace to Roe v Wade. Gay unions mean little if your country is going plantation third world fascist faster than Jimmy can crack corn. Owning a gun? Why? So I can shoot myself when they ship my job to India?

1. stop the PATRIOT Act
2. ensure honest elections (and campaign finance reform)
3. curtail the incarceration rate (and end the drug war)
4. be as neutral as possible in foreign affairs

But if I had to choose:

Judicial appointments
Iraq intelligence investigation
corporate regulation
FCC regulation
worldwide income inequality
worldwide environment
Patriot Act
UN relations
military ideology
health care
deficit
Nafta, WTO, etc.
Union support

The rest fall in behind that depending on what's being attacked the most at the moment. And I was kind of thinking if corporate accountability (and regulation) were higher on your list, alot of the things on your list would be resolved alot easier.

C) Treat the world even handedly...don't get involved in countries internal affairs. Use the UN for world problems dealing with the USA.

D) Protect the environment. No drilling. Lots more money into renewable energy.

E) Education. Shit loads more money added. Pell grants get BIG boost.

F) Election reform. IRV all the way.

G) Healthcare for everyone. Kucinich's plan looks best as it works elsewhere.

H) End NAFTA and the WTO. We shouldn't be giving jobs to crappy nations while cutting jobs from our own.

I) End poverty. Livable wage jobs to everyone in the country. Make sure everyone has food on their table.

I guess those are my top ones...I could probably go to triple Z though. haha.

Healthcare for everyone and ending poverty. Do you have a plan?

Kucinich says it is possible to get healthcare now to everyone with our current costs. But if he is somehow wrong...cutting the pentagon budget and getting rid of lots of shit we don't need will solve that problem.

Poverty? Make sure everyone makes a livable wage...and make sure everyone has a job.

To do this we need to end human's desire for greed...mainly the CEO and so forth. I think taxes for the rich need to be increased even more than they are now.

This will allow the government to have more money, and thus allowing the government to supply people with jobs who aren't hired by a private organization. What will these people do? They'll clean up our rivers, or pick up trash in neighborhoods...anything really constructive.

So yeah, since everyone now has a job in either private sector or under the government...they all demanded to get paid a livable wage(not 5.50/hr). How do we do this? Well, we increase taxes on things that are detrimental to us and the earth. Cigarettes...tax increase. Alchohol tax increase. Nuclear power...tax increase. That will solve the government workers wage increases.

Furthermore, to stop private industry from raising prices in the energy industry when we raise taxes on their ass...the government itself will have an independent energy provider offering competitive rates. These rates will make a small profit so the government ends up winning but not to the extent of the private sector. the private/government run business will offer the best of capitalism and communism. private sector will be forced to not rip off the customer as much as they do now or the government sector will take total control of the energy and offer fare flat rates on all their energy.

Now, for the private sector...CEO's and owners and other corporate leaders will be taxed heavily...they won't be making 400 times their average worker but more like 5 times after taxes are through with them.

So yes, we'll tax lots of things. Under my regime...mostly income tax and things detrimental to the earth and people. You can do these things...but it will cost you a dollar here and a dollar there. With that money. Call my thinking communistic or socialist or crap...but I think the government needs to lead by example and challenge crappy private sector companies that are out there now. If people don't have a job, it is the government's duty to protect the people...by giving them a job so they have money to feed themselves and live a decent life.

Now, what if people don't want to work? Well, that is their choice...and they starve and die or they live off whomever is making money. However, poverty will be fought...and you'll only be poor if you want to be poor under my rule.

As for gay unions meaning "little if your country is going plantation third world fascist faster than Jimmy can crack corn," I would like to point out that you can brush off everything this way. How does not letting non-Americans have decent jobs help American gays if they don't have equal opprtunity or if they can't marry/enter into a civil union with their partners? And so on.

Anyway, my issues:

1. Separation of church and state, the issue on which the two largest parties are the Republicrats and the Greens.

2. Privacy, including gutting the anti-privacy, anti-free speech, etc. parts of the Fascist Act.

3. Keeping a volunteer army, i.e. not forcing me to go to Canada.

4. Opposition to wars, and particularly needless wars such as the war on Iraq - "a war of choice," to quote Thomas Friedman.

5. Giving non-Americans equal access to jobs, aka free trade.

6. Education, including banning creationism from schools until creationists start behaving like scientists and not like cranks (i.e. until hell that doesn't exist freezes over).

7. Abolishing the death penalty.

8. Choice.

9. The environment (including alternative energy research), mainly because environmental destruction is something nobody can hide from.

10. Health care, because no minimum wage will save you if you're dead because the surgery that'll save your life costs what you make in a year.

These are my top ten. Dean tops issues 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10; Kucinich tops 2, 4, and 7; and both Dean and Kucinich are equaly good on 3. The margin between the two is large on issues 1, 4, and 5; medium on 7 and 8; and small on 2, 9, and 10.
If issue number N gets 11-N points (e.g. abolishing the death penalty is #7 and is thus worth 4 points), and each candidate gets 3 times the number of points for a large margin, twice for a medium one, and the actual number for a small one, then Dean has 10*3+6*3+8*2+9+10=83 points and Kucinich has 4*3+7*2+2=27 points.

Health Care.

Reproductive Rights.

Kucinich is a useless candidate to me. His health care plan is not practical. He'll never get all the Democratrs to support it. Dean, on the other hand, might actually be able to get some Republicans to go along with his. His awakening on reproductive rights came too late in life.
Other issues tend to vary in importance. DK doesn't appeal to me because he doesn't present himself as a man who uses a careful thought process to consider things before taking positions. He's a reactionary and doesn't mind showing it. He's just all about emotion, and that's why some people go for him. That's why he doesn't come up with anything original. He reacts and pulls something that has already been done out of the air. "Canadian style health care" etc. He doesn't talk about policies he'll put together very often. He mostly talks about what he'll repealt, etc. The only elaborate thing I have seen that is original is the Dept. of Peace.
I want a candidate who uses logic and can form policies. The evidence that this man can truly perform in an executive capacity at the presidential level is pretty damn sparse.
I am mystified that the single issue angry and want something DK said he'd repeal repealed people are so unwilling to be practical regarding his candidacy.

These are my top issues, in no particular order. If it doesn't appear hear, then it is not a deciding issue for me.

upholding the constitution and repealing patriot act
world peace: start at home with U.S. attitudes & actions.
public education: fund what we need, repeal NCLB
economy: repeal the tax cuts, cut the pentagon
health: health care for all without HMOs.
labor: living wage, jobs for all
environment: aggressively work to shift towards alternative energy/fuel sources

And, whatever category these would fall in:

No corporate "personhood."

Outlaw GM crops and livestock.

No privatization...of social security, of education, or of other social services.

Mine would be slightly, but not signficantly different. Too bad you're not running :)

And don't let the Dean people get you down! Kucinich is the real deal.