The Mad Beloved [Today's News Poem, June 27, 2010]

The Mad Beloved [Today's News Poem, June 27, 2010]

They offer the car to their god in the hope
It's pleasing—that smoke from the plastic cupholders
Can summon a miracle down from the clouds.

The officers gather with shields and their clubs.
The leaders of nations are clad in deception.
And desperate mobs with their bottles of fire

Perform for the screen: my own prayer in a plume
Of gasoline clouds—the black in the grayness
Of towers and stormclouds; of sidewalks and age.

We're jaded and fearful of breadlines and bombs;
The black and white footage of skeletons starving
To death—all the mustaches screaming in mics,

Before all the millions in streets at salute.
This movie is real and we're stars—at least extras.
A pixel of billions, I'm nothing but days

In dreams of routine. Yet I've loved to the end
Of love; to that child of that love—each progression
Expanding my empathy; waking from scenes

Of victory, failure, routine, and ennui
To love without question; beyond the expected,
To limits I thought were denied to the bitter.

There's nothing discrete in this world of connection,
And nothing to fear from beloveds in madness.

“More than 500 people had been arrested by Sunday morning in connection with various protests, as well as some vandalism, related to the Group of 20 leaders summit here... Without offering specific information, Mr. Blair said that the violence was an attempt to draw police away from the protective ring around the summit site so that other protesters could move in and attack it.”
– Ian Austen, The New York Times, June 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/world/americas/28security.html?src=mv

“The latest government estimate is $897 million for three days of summitry. That comes to about $12 million per hour, or a total near what the government spends per year in the war in Afghanistan.”
– Ian Austen, The New York Times, June 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/business/global/27security.html





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Failure to Thrive [Today's News Sonnet, Feb 27, 2010]

Failure to Thrive [Today's News Sonnet, Feb 27, 2010]
“The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck off coastal Chile in the early hours of the morning is one of the biggest temblors anywhere in more than a century. ”
–Gautam Naik, Wall Street Journal, FEBRUARY 27, 2010, 3:44 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704231304575091611248294970.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

“"From our human perspective with our relatively short and incomplete memories and better and better communications around the world, we hear about more earthquakes and it seems like they are more frequent," Arrowsmith said. "But this is probably not any indication of a global change in earthquake rate of significance."... However, "relative to the 20-year period from the mid-1970s to the mid 1990s, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years," said Stephen S. Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science and Technology. "We still do not know the reason for this yet. Could simply be the natural temporal variation of the stress field in the earth's lithosphere."”
--MSNBC, Feb 27, 2010
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35618526/ns/technology_and_science-science/

If even sun someday will serve as prey
To entropy, to holes so dense they're black
To us; then what has changed? The gods still fray
In all their forms; from Cronus, farther back
I'm sure, to Ancient Ones of Lovecraft fame,
To microscopes and telescopes that spot
Another entity usurping claims
Of ultimate hegemony. We thought
Our age of science granted might akin
To nebulae and yet the Earth's mishaps
Alone deny our transcendental win.
The paltry centuries disguise perhaps
Immense, perhaps impossible to grasp,
And mighty forces science—Gods can't clasp:
A death in eons, scoffed with dying rasps.



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Why Every Master Should Have a Memory Hole [Today's News Poem Feb 6, 2010]

Why Every Master Should Have a Memory Hole, Feb 6, 2010

“Conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, who gave an electric speech Saturday morning vilifying the "mainstream media," ACORN and the liberal elite, afterward described the "birthers" as a fringe, saying the bulk of the convention participants did not come to discuss Obama's citizenship.”
- Judson Berger, FOXNews.com, February 06, 2010
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/06/tea-partiers-urge-unity-rifts-movement/

“What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s “tea party” rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine, from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called “astroturfing”) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders... Within hours of Santelli’s rant, a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com sprang to life. Essentially inactive until that day, it now featured a YouTube video of Santelli’s “tea party” rant and billed itself as the official home of the Chicago Tea Party. The domain was registered in August, 2008 by Zack Christenson, ”
-Yasha Levine and Mark Ames, 2.27.2009, exiledonline

http://exiledonline.com/exposing-the-familiar-rightwing-pr-machine-is-cnbcs-rick-santelli-sucking-koch/

A pyre could blot the past as well fallout could.
I've read, that Alexandria once boasted tomes
Secured with splendor; surely made of simple wood—
It burned! And all around the world that fire still roams:

It scorched the Mayan books of lore, the Papal Bull—
A censor's tool. An Emperor's decree concealed
The past to say that history was done and full:
The fire or law another tool for him to wield.

Today the rulers think the same, but methods change
To fit the times. The Nazis tried revising bounds
On maps. It worked a while. Ideas are only strange
At first, before the uniforms and rifle rounds

Convince us otherwise. The rage that comes from class
Resentments isn't crushed these days. Instead a squirt
Of gasoline will fan the blaze of angry, mass-
Revolt and aim it true at roots for change. Subvert

Rebellion, not by burning books: to do it right
One must ensure the blaze consumes the fuel for hope
Of revolution; else no arms, nor other might
Will stem a savage lust for blood. A prince can't cope

With hate like this, so drive it mad and burn it out—
Or else they'll flay you live and mock your dying shouts.



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Deficits and Treasure [Today's News Poem, Feb 1, 2010]

Deficits and Treasure

By Khakjaan Wessington

“The budget plan, which would take effect when fiscal year 2011 begins on October 1, projects a record fiscal deficit of $1.56 trillion this year but predicts the red ink will subside to $1.27 trillion in 2011 and half that in 2012.”

-Reuters, Feb 1, 2010, 11:06am EST

The Aeolipile, a brazier bearing double spouts,
Was iron, brass—from base components nonetheless—
Yet treasure. Forth through craft came value's early sprouts;

With paint worth more than gold, with books worth more than gems.
The guilds and foreigners kept secrets they'd not fess,
Thus trade became the way that profit came to stem

Beyond the limits local markets used to bear—
Demand, supply, material and state constraints—
With earnings, came the study we call laissez-faire.

With maths and science, facts and theories—press as well—
Economies could trade without a gold restraint.
So value now is separate from specie's spell.

A deficit is bridged with press—already done
To save the banks. Deposits made can grow by ten
Their lendable reserves. They speculate: it's spun

As finding value—true sometimes, but why can't you
Or I receive financial terms like that? It's when
The deficit accrues and banks receive the screw,

They scream inflation stands to cut their margins down:
They get the loot, while costs go up in every town.




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The Oracles of the Supreme Court [Today's News Poem]

The Oracles of the Supreme Court

By Khakjaan Wessington

Re: Citizens United v FEC, Jan 2010

I wish to pray as wealthy people do,
In silks and gold: a prayer shawl—a suit
To consecrate and make me worthy. God
Rewards those offering the sacred graphs
Whilst burning cigarette incense. The law
Of margins—uncontested—wins again,
While under oath The Chosen testify
For Heaven's Mandate: live on tv now.



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