I am not happy with what the Bush administration is doing to protect our national interests and safety. I suggest a few alternative ideas:

• Energy independence: I rode around in a friend’s Toyota Prius yesterday. Instead of giving huge tax breaks to people who buy SUVs, reward people for buying fuel efficient cars.
• Create a large scale Peace Corps: do everything we can to restore our international image and try to regain at least some trust in the international community.
• Trust the professionals in our military and intelligence agencies and use Congressional oversite where public transparency can not be used for security reasons.
• Allow government agencies to collect data to fight terrorism, but recognize that we want to remain a free society: insist that judges are consulted for search warrents, permission to invade privacy, etc. Also use Congressional oversite.

I realize that what I am proposing is very contrary to the actions chosen by the Bush administration – still, even though I am just a Java consultant, I think that I have a better handle on what is good for our country than our current administration.