August 28, 2007
by Mike Palecek

If I were to run for Congress, this is how I would do it.

Ten-point Plan.

1A) Of course, U.S. out of Iraq, yesterday. We should not have been there. The killing and dying has all been in vain.

1) Cut military spending and pay for things like alternative energy research, global warming research, inner city housing, infrastructure [bridges], schools, social services. The military budget is huge. I really think we could pay for all these things by taking out what we don't need in the military, which is most of it. When the Soviet Union folded, there was no "peace dividend", no switch from military programs to others - because those who were making money on the defense industry scrambled and made sure they did not lose money.

And the Democrats were like, oh, okay. It's not okay.

2) Investigate 911. We don't have the answers yet. Ever wonder why the Bush government did not want an investigation? I do too. This is big, this is huge. We need answers.

3) We need Democrats who are willing to push to prosecute Bush for war crimes, things like torture and lying to start a war and people dying because of that. How about stolen elections and anthrax and a dead Senator? We do not need to get past this until it's time to get past this.

4) Repeal the Patriot Act. Or at least read the damn Patriot Act and see if there is anything there we need. We just accepted it and said, oh, okay. It's not okay.

5) Decriminalize immigration. Where did you come from? Yeah, me, too. Or, perhaps put Native Americans in charge of the INS and go from there. We are Christians, some of us, right? We should help poor people, not throw them in jail. Lots of our Iowa towns lost population during the '80s farm crisis. Here are people who actually want to live in Early and Lone Rock and Spencer - and we don't want them? What's up with that?

6) Universal health care. Should have happened long ago. Go see "SICKO." Go sit in an emergency room, see what their first question is. It ain't "what can we do to help you?"

7) Pardon non-violent drug offenders. Let them go home to their families, watch their children grow up, have lives. The drug war was just another ruse, something for politicians to shout in a crowded theater to get themselves elected. It got more prisons built and more schools crumbling down, but it was wrong. Democrats are like, oh, okay.

8) Marijuana. What are we going to do about it? We need to think about it. What are our children supposed to think when we put people in federal prison for twenty years for marijuana and have "this Bud's for you" on the TV every day?

9) End the death penalty. It's simple. Don't kill.

10) End the requirement for young people to register for the draft. Don't kill.

*And how about something about unions and the minimum wage and a dozen other things that we don't even consider but would make perfect sense to consider.

I just think Democrats could say so much more.

People are pulling their hair out waiting for the Democrats to say more, say something.

The whole world is waiting for the Democratic Party to not be afraid.

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Dude.

It's me.

I'm sitting outside Democratic Headquarters, Iowa Division, Corn Battalion, in the Humvee guarding the place out on the street.

Nobody around. My feet were tired. I need something to write on.

And what I have here is something I think you should have too.

It's a flyer, a handout I'm working on. Maybe I could get the volunteers inside to print them up and send them out to about a million people. Or maybe the newspaper would print it as a letter to the editor, or the radio station would say it, or the TV news anchors.

I call it My Flyer.

My Flyer

Any candidate who does not talk about these while seated on the bale of hay with a piece of new straw behind both ears and an orange hunting cap pulled tight over his or her head is lying to you.

They don't care about you.

They are smiling in your face, eating your chili, your Ho-Ho's, getting spit on your nose, and they are lying to you.

Like any insurance salesman stinking up your sofa.

You would be better off going fishing or getting drunk, preferably both, than listening to his or her horse shit.

* The pre-planning of this whole scenario: Bush elected, 911, anthrax, war, profits from war.

There's more, lots more. This is enough. He or she won't want to hear even this and ? he or she should be bringing it up, not you.

If you bring it up, they will run away, tie and or skirt flying, while grabbing straw from ears and tossing it away.

* Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, kidnapping people and taking them to secret prisons and torturing them for years.

* Stolen elections, 2000, 2004.

* The deaths of Paul Wellstone, Pat Tillman, the phony rescue story of Jessica Lynch.

* The profits made by the vice-president's old company during the war.

* The lies that got us into war.

* The sham of an investigation into 911

If these candidates act like, yeah, the sum total of the discussion is whether and when our troops leave Iraq, they are phony bastards and should have the straw ripped from their phony hands.

If he or she does not talk about these things, that means they are not important to him or her - which means they are stupid, or they are lying, phony bastards.

Dude, not one of these candidates is stupid.

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Mike Palecek [send him email] is an activist for peace and social justice. He served time in federal prison for civil disobedience and has run for US Congress. He has authored a number of books [click here to view] on behalf of the cause.