An Open Letter From John Kelley

[Bronco_Beerslug]

I met and talked with him briefly last night at a screening for WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception which was a good documentary about how the coverage of the Iraq war was scripted with embedded journalists but that would be another thread).

I agree with most points in his letter to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). One thing for sure, if we don't get health care under control in this country we are all heading for hard economic times.

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After reading the announcement in Blueprint
Magazine concerning the DLC plan to take on
the anti-war left in the party and make the main
goal of the democratic party security from
terrorism I sent them this letter which they may
not publish.

An Open Letter to Al From and Bruce Reed and
others in the DLC

As a bonerfied working stiff out here in the
heartland let me explain to you guys in D.C.
what the heartland wants, and it ain’t any of that
hose job you sent up as a trial balloon to
challenge the left to a duel for the party.



1. We want security all right; we want
the security of not having multinational
corporations control foreign policy for their
benefit and using our government to sacrifice
our children for higher corporate profits or the
imperialist dreams of a bunch of
megalomaniacs. We want a foreign policy that
says we won’t trade with you or invest capital
wealth generated on the backs of working
Americans if it is to be used to exploit some
poor working stiff in another land, poison our
environment here or there and generally piss off
the rest of the world at us. The only terrorists
I’m worried about is the right wing Christian
Nazi I work for and the bank that holds my credit
card and the note on my pickup truck.



2. We want a foreign policy with
projects like the peace corps that help people
around the world improve their basic quality of
life, show them that not all Americans are
a-holes and teach Americans not to look
through the narrow looking glass of 6% of the
world’s population, which in case you have
forgotten is what we are. I’m not sure what you
mean by the internationalism of Roosevelt (the
adventurism of Teddy or the reluctant entry of
Franklin), Truman (who brought us Korea and a
nuclear arms race) or Kennedy (the forcing of
Cuba into Russian arms or his planned
withdrawal from Viet Nam). Maybe a multilateral
approach that didn’t consider the rest of the
world our piggy bank or toilet might be a good
start.



3. You want to get out of Iraq and make
peace and democracy. LEAVE, Tell the Iraqi
government that instead of using the 87 billion
dollars we are going to spend bombing their
country into the stone age we will allocate it as
restitution and use it to fund infrastructure
programs they decide on, as soon as they form
their own government or governments as they
see fit. You believe in free markets, divide the
money up, it comes out to $4,142 for every man
women and child in Iraq. Give it to them that
way. Tell the Iraqis that and you probably will
have peace tomorrow. If they want to be three
countries, let them if your interest is really
democracy and freedom. You guys would
probably get the Nobel Peace prize, save a lot of
American and Iraqi lives and it would be
cheaper in the long run. What do we care what
form their democracy takes, unless of course it
really is about corporate profits and oil.



4. We want the security of knowing our
children can get a quality education, that means
elementary and middle schools with
reasonable numbers of children in a
classroom, well paid professional teachers, in
safe clean buildings, high schools that prepare
students vocationally or for college which ever
they have the aptitude for and colleges and
vocational schools that can help them be
productive, educated and useful citizens of the
world. We don’t want under funded, crowded
schools, with underpaid teachers, worthless
testing, religious training or having our children
risk death or injury in the military to get a higher
education.



5. We want the security of knowing if
we are incapacitated or die that our families will
have basic healthcare, some income protection
and retirement. We are tired of hearing you talk
about responsibility. You people in Washington
don’t have a clue about responsibility. The
Republicans and Right Wing (New) Democrats
are interested in gaining and maintaining
political and economic power at the working guy
and poor people’s expense. And while I’m at it,
you imply that poor people are poor because
they want to be that way. A regular mistaken
belief of those who have never been poor.



6. I want the security of knowing that if
my daughter is raped by some mongoloid DLC
excuse for a democrat that she can abort that
sucker, legally and safely without having to get
permission from a church. I want the security of
knowing that if my wife and I get drunk and have
hot and wild sex (fat chance at my age) that she
isn’t going to have to beg some half assed
“Christian” pharmacist to give her back her birth
prevention prescription in order to prevent a
pregnancy at age 46. If my dad or myself is lying
brain dead laughing like a hyena in a nursing
home, that my family won’t have to fight through
a bunch of religious nuts to pull the plug and
kick my happy ass out of this world to make
room for real living humans with real needs.

(CONTINUED)