What would a progressive cabinet look like?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-shearer/clintonism-without-clinto_b_115596.html.

Yes, by all means, do everything you can to elect Obama and a Democratic Congress -- but devote some staff time and strategic thinking to planning for after the victory. Personnel determines policy more than campaign speeches and position papers,so have a list ready on November 5 of qualified individuals who might be considered seriously for top positions in government and for whom you will lobby the Obama administration to appoint. For example, at least one economist on the Council of Economic Advisors should be a labor economist; progressive economists should be appointed not only to the Labor Dept, but more importantly, to the Treasury Dept and to the Office of the US Trade Representative; pro-consumer and labor experts should be appointed to leadership positions on all regulatory bodies. And have a reform agenda of executive decisions and priority legislation in hand. Line up sponsors and advocates in the Senate and House, and start pushing the agenda with the White House the day after the Inauguration. To neglect these tasks and fail to think strategically about winning makes all the hard work in the fall to win the election only feel hollow later.

After all, as the candidate himself said, "We are the ones we have been waiting for." Not the one, but the ones.

Obama hasn't really proven to me he's a progressive at all.

All hail President Frank or Feingold!

Some lobbying by very committed people in 2005 got Dean in as DNC chair. Let's think of who we might push for cabinet positions.

:P

Let's go for making our "shadow" cabinet solid and three-dimensional.

http://backbonecampaign.org/page.cfm?id=123
http://questionsforthecandidates.org/
http://backbonecampaign.org/conversations.cfm
http://backbonecampaign.org/cabinet/

Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Fred Kirschenmann- (sorry Bill- Valoria is way too corporate- current WSDA is nothing but a roadblock to an ag policy that might keep us from starving in 20 years, Jim Jessernig had a lot more sense, kept the nasty Food Safety folks in line, plus Valoria's (thankfully) retired.
“The era of industrial agriculture, which relied on abundant natural resources to fuel our production systems and adequate natural “sinks” to absorb its wastes, is rapidly coming to a close. Even business design specialists now recognize this. We have so overexploited most of the earth’s natural resources and so polluted the natural environment that continuing on our present industrial agricultural course is simply no longer viable. . . . Jared Diamond vividly reminds us that those civilizations that have correctly assessed their current situations, anticipated the coming challenges, and gotten a head start in preparing for them, were the ones that survived. Those that failed in that exercise, collapsed.”
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/about/moreaboutfred/kirschenmann.htm

Department of Commerce (DOC) Someone who understands what "interstate" means and gets the Feds out of intrastate commerce, such as direct sales of agricultural products.

Department of Defense (DOD) (Let's stop this "Defense" BS and call it the War Department) - Chalmers Johnson

Department of Education (ED)- Peter McClaren-
“The political space that education occupies today continues to de-emphasize the struggle for teacher and student empowerment; furthermore . . . education programs are designed to create individuals who operate in the interests of the state, whose social function is primarily to sustain and legitimate the status-quo social order.”
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/pages/mclaren/

Department of Energy (DOE)- T Boone Pickens

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)- Elizabeth Edwards (If she's up for it)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) eliminate this fascist monstrosity

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)- Rev. Lennox Yearwood

Department of Justice (DOJ)- John Edwards

Department of Labor (DOL)- Margaret Blackshere-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-hopkins/illinois-labor-leader-wo_b_91765.html

Department of State (DOS)-Bill Richardson

Department of the Interior (DOI)- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Department of the Treasury- Hazel Henderson
"Economics is a form of brain damage."
http://www.hazelhenderson.com/

Department of Transportation (DOT)- someone committed to rebuilding passenger rail and local rail freight in this country

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)- Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
http://www.iava.org/staff

Not a cabinet post but important- Head of the CIA (and whatever they call the new position of overall intelligence head)- Ray McGovern

Wes Clark - Secretary of State
Joe Biden - Chief Foreign Policy Advisor
Stephanie Tubbs Jones - Attorney General
Tom Vilsack - Secretary of Agriculture
Luis Gutierrez - Secretary of Labor
Max Cleland - Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Dennis Kucinich - Secretary of Peace