Service

Last night's "Forum on National Service" was nice enough, but can you honestly say that a "national service" would be on your top ten list of "Things To Do" if you became president tomorrow? It sure as shit wouldn't be in mine. Top 100? Sure. But stuff that needs doing right away? No way. Here are a few things that would be ahead in the queue (in no particular order). Put yours in comments.

1. Get the hell out of Iraq.
2. Deal with loose nukes all over the goddamned place.
3. Get all those countries holding our debt (I'm looking at you, China) to start building some factories here (h/t R).
4. Restructure all the aforementioned debt.
5. Rebuild the U.S. military.
6. Address all types of transportation issues (e.g., ports, Amtrak, SUPERTRAINS).
7. Restructure and simplify the tax code (e.g., reverse those Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest people, make corporations start paying some actual taxes, penalize corporations that offshore jobs, etc.)
   
8. Ask for the resignation of every single Bush appointee in every single executive agency. Immediately fire those who refuse to resign. Identify de facto political appointees seeded as poison pills throughout the civil service and morph them into little Milt Waddams. (This would actually be my Numero Uno priority.)
   
9. Take a trip around the world, stopping along the way to alert key world leaders to the fact that (a) the grownups are back in charge and (b) the U.S. is back in the reality business and ready to deal.
10. Start treating terrorism as the police problem it is.

Bonus: forbid every single administration official, major, minor, and everyone in between from giving Cokie Roberts any level of access, i.e., put her out to pasture.