There are things in our government that are broken, and someone reading this has a great idea for how to to fix them. Maybe an idea about how to really reform health care. Or how to secure the border, or fight terror, or fix the tax code. We know those ideas are out there because we hear them all the time at campaign stops, and some of them are really, really good. So tell us! If Dave wins, and he puts you in charge, just for one day, of fixing the problem that matters most to you, what one big change or policy or law would you enact? It's your government, after all. What do you think it should be doing?
Please note two important things: First, these are your ideas, not Dave's. He didn't come up with them, does not endorse them, and won't make any promise to act on them if elected. Second, the submission form at the bottom won't post directly to the page. It will send your idea to a moderator who may edit as needed before posting.
THINK OF A BETTER LOCATION FOR CNG REFUELING STATION
By: Seldon Graham
05 January 2010
A natural gas refueling station is to be built at Austin-Bergstrom Airport, along the entrance to International Airport near the terminal which supports CNG vehicles. Terrorists could not have picked a better location. From my decades of experience around high pressure natural gas and my military experience, a CNG vehicle with its canister of natural gas at a pressure of approximately 3,000 pounds per square inch is a mobile Improvised Explosive Device (IED) waiting for a terrorist to trigger the explosion. The United States government needs to test the extent of CNG vehicle explosions and warn the American public of this risk.
PROFILING DONE RIGHT
By: Randall Larsen, Washington D.C.
01 January 2010
The book Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner includes a story about the Brits' profiling system of bank records to ID terrorists. It has proven so valuable that the designer, Ian Horsley, has been "knighted". Here is a partial list of indicators:
Male
Muslim first and last name
Age 26-35
Owns a mobile phone
Student visa
Rents rather than owns
No savings account
No ATM withdraws on Friday afternoons
No life insurance--a particularly good indicator if married with children (policies don't pay for suicide)
Used cash to open account at the branch of a large bank (more than $4000 US)
International wire transfers
No recurring or regular monthly transactions
The single most important indicator remains classified, but it is behavioral, not demographic--it measurers the intensity of a certain banking activity.
ONE SIMPLE QUESTION
By: Seldon B. Graham Jr.
01 January 2010
I have been asking well-known "alarmist" climate scientists to answer the following simple question which the Austin American-Statesman published 12-23-09. No answers yet. None expected.
The trillion-dollar question that Copenhagen has not answered: Because carbon dioxide molecules are all identical, why is it that carbon dioxide from carbonated beverages, pets, cattle, farm animals, humans, yeast, dry ice, fireplaces, charcoal grills, campfires, wildfires, alcohol and ethanol is good, and carbon dioxide from fossil fuel is bad?
Can anyone in the United States answer this question?
The answer, of course, is "No."
WHY THOSE WHO DISREGARD MORAL ISSUES IN POLITICS ARE WRONG
By: Anonymous
18 December 2009
This is not so much an idea for how to fix anything - it's a statement about just how broken everything is. Everything. The destruction of personal morality calls into question the ability of capitalism to produce any outcome besides predation upon the weak. The failure of capitalism which will result from its decent into immorality calls into question the ability of our economic system to survive. The demonstrated, resolute stupidity of voters calls into question the viability of the very democratic system itself . The many failures of congressmen at the personal level call into question the ability of our specific form of representative democracy to survive (congress just voted to allow another increase in the debt ceiling today... it's committing fiscal suicide as we speak). The growth of a professional political class utterly divorced from military reality calls into question the ability of a civilian body to oversee the military. Capitalism, democracy, morality, our leaders themselves... what fundamental pillar of our society is not crumbling? Only our tactical military might. That just can't be a good long term trend. As James Madison said: "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home".
HOW TO DISRUPT THE DRUG TRADE
By: Anonymous
17 December 2009
Here is an idea for how to disrupt the drug trade: stop printing and using $50 and $100 bills. Almost no one carries them in their pocket anymore. Make people use checks or credit cards for anything larger than $20. Would not impact most people. Would require drug guys to make cash payoffs physically huge or use plastic where they would leave a record and could be tracked.
Got a great idea for how to fix something that's broken? Tell Dave!
