My Open Letter to a Heritage Foundation Hack RE: Drug Testing of People on Welfare

[scoobiedavis]

I posted this letter on my blog (check it for links, etc.). I was so incensed when I watched Genevieve Wood, a smug hypocrite arguing that a drug test should be a precondition for welfare. If you want to alert her of my letter email her at [e-mail] and put "Genevieve Wood" in the subject heading. Here's my open letter:

An Open Letter to Genevieve Wood of the Heritage Foundation

Dear Ms. Wood,

I saw you on the PBS public affairs panel show To the Contrary the other day. The topic of discussion was drug testing of welfare recipients. You defended the practice by pointing out that your employer, the Heritage Foundation, had required you to take a drug test as a precondition of employment.

When I heard this, I thought, “What the fuck is the deal with that?!” I mean, did some Heritage Foundation lackey actually stand over you and watch you piss in a jar? That’s really kinky (albeit an unerotic, creepy type of kink).

However, the issues run deeper. Why would a phony think tank that exists for the sole purpose of producing pseudo-scholarly position papers that support right-wing talking points (see postscript) need to have its gravy train riders drug-free? Rush Limbaugh was able to competently deliver wing-nut boilerplate even though he was taking enough hillbilly heroin to keep the entire state of Kentucky stoned to the bone. Providing phony research for the hard right must be the easiest gig on God’s green earth. For fuck’s sake, it’s petty for Heritage to deny its operatives an opportunity to take the edge off their feelings of existential angst when they’re cooking the data to argue that the tax code has given the top one percent of income earners a raw deal over the past 30 years.

Also, when I watched you on TV, you seemed to be wound up way too tight. You could use some weed. Do a few bong hits, loosen the corset, unclench your sphincter muscles, and pop in a Harold and Kumar DVD. You’ll feel better.

Sincerely,

S


Postscript: Candid Statement about the Heritage Foundation’s Real Agenda by Burton Pines, Vice President for Research for the Heritage Foundation: “We’re not here to be some kind of Ph. D. committee giving equal time. Our role is to provide conservative policy-makers with arguments to bolster our side.”

[krispos42]

1. People who deduct mortgage interest on their taxes should be drug tested.

It's receiving welfare, after all.


And GIs taking college tuition.

And CEOs taking bailout money.

And people who deduct their children from their taxes.

And people who are blind and/or over age 65.

And people on Medicare.

And people on Medicaid.

And people on Social Security.

And...

[Richardo]

2. Yeah, that's not going to land.

It's the kind of incoherent, profane screed that they'll easily dismiss as the 'typical' rantings of the left.

A missed opportunity - disappointing.

[tuckessee]

3. If anyone should be drug tested it's the police and politicians. n/t

[Mimosa]

4. The Heritage Foundation is a bastion of fascism. n/t

[lbrtbell]

5. While I agree with you, the tone of your letter wasn't good

Nobody's going to listen to someone who drops the F-bomb, suggests smoking marijuana, etc.

That sort of language is fun here on DU (hey, I use it myself!), but in a business letter, it's just not appropriate.

[scoobiedavis]

6. About the tone

I noticed some people didn't like the tone. Keep in mind, this wasn't an attempt at persuasion. It was meant to be completely insulting. We're dealing with a dour, soulless ideologue. She can't be persuaded. Insults and ridicule are what are needed.

[Bunny]

8. Of course *she* can't be persuaded.

But you could have used the opportunity to try to persuade those who might be able to see reason. Tone, language, etc. can make a difference in that context.

[Richardo]

9. You could have pointed out that the drug-test-for-welfare program in Florida is a huge failure

At least make an effort to address her position.

If meant as an insult, it also failed because I guarantee she shitcanned it at the first 'fuck'.

[Stratosgc]

7. Heritage Foundation running the country

The Heritage Foundation was created by the merchants of doubt working to generate bogus technical papers for the cigarette companies, the electric power companies and Dow Chemical to convince the gullible that acid rain was not a problem, nor was CFCs, nor second hand smoke. Now they are dictating policy to our legislators. Who elected them? Our government had a program called the Advanced Technology Program that was extremely successful (1988 to 2008) in facilitating the development of new technologies and entire new high tech industries in America. It created hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs. The program was so successful that most of the EU countries and many other countries around the world copied it. A guy named Riddle at the Heritage Foundation earned a high 6 figure salary writing essays against ATP. Riddle and the Heritage Foundation killed ATP. Future technologies will be developed but not in America.

[Prophet 451]

10. It's classism

One of the numerous little myths that Americans use to assure themselves of how wonderful capitalism is, is that poor people are poor by their own fault. It assumes that the poor aren't just unlucky but there must be something wrong with them. The USA is so committed to capitalism as part of it's national myth (approaching national religion) that the country would rather believe such fairy tales about the poor (and others, such as poor people being fat) than accept that capitalism is going to have winners and losers.