while i agree almost down-the-line with the reforms you propose, i’m afraid i have a much less optimistic outlook for the future. i think the neocons have shrewdly and cynically calculated that present-day americans are much like the romans in the last days of the empire (i.e., easy, spoiled men living off the fruits of their forefathers’ sacrifices), and that as long as they keep us well-supplied and diverted with bread, circuses and inflammatory non-issues (i.e., the ‘war on terror’), they’ll be free to run up the debt, loot the treasury and feather their (and their cronies’) nests, regardless of the long-term consequences to the country and the world. sad thing is, i think they guessed right–in the face of the massive fraud, incompetence, waste and death on every front, americans seem, well, numb and passively accepting of this new reality. the outrage necessary to initiate the kind of reforms you suggest is simply not there, and if the failures of this administration and this congress are not sufficient to generate that reaction, then i truly don’t know what can or will.