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Showing posts with label President Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Obama. Show all posts

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Tourist From Syracuse Has Friends [Bonus News Poem, Feb 12, 2010]

The Tourist From Syracuse Has Friends [Bonus News Poem, Feb 12, 2010]

“Her article said that President Obama's budget amounted to a backdoor tax increase for middle-income and even lower-income people, based largely on the scheduled expiration of income tax cuts passed in 2001. But the president had actually proposed keeping those cuts in place for all but high-income families... some prominent conservatives had seized on the article, and a few — notably Rush Limbaugh— insisted that the retraction meant simply that the media were protecting the president. ”
--Richard Pérez-Peña

For those we can't corrupt nor stymie nor coerce:
We fool. A hint of yearning smells to us like chum.
We'll file her taxes, clean his house—be babe's wetnurse—
To close the spaces keeping us apart and numb.

Apartments filled with books and chess can serve as well—
A confidant or friend can sway as well as threats.
For meatheads, take your pick: you've Rush's glottal yell—
Opinion pages full of spies absolve regrets

For middlebrow elites; for bread and circus freaks
Deranged beyond repair, we sell them fantasy:
A porno wife, a football team, and once a week
A lotto game, or games of war: an ecstasy

For every rube or brain, who thinks s/he rules
But can't control the poll or power's tools.

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Saturday, February 06, 2010

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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Monday, January 25, 2010

Ernst and Röhm [Today's News Poem]

Ernst and Röhm

By Khakjaan Wessington

“...reverse the overall erosion in middle class security...”
-President Obama, The New York Times, Jan 25, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26obama.html

A specter haunting President Obama haunts
The textbooks, episodes of History Channel.
In film the Fuhrer dies by it—it saved a gaunt
And saintly Private Ryan. Secretly, panels
Of Koch executives gloat as Teabag pawns fight
For vassalage. 'Aren't Ernst and Röhm the tax people,'
I've heard them ask. Security from thought—to spite
Their loneliness, they seek control of courts, steeples.
Oh Hannah Arendt dance with me, don't dance too deep—
A squad of goons are coming into town: beep beep!

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