Missile Man's Mini-Truth [Today's News Poem, Feb 26, 2010]

Missile Man's Mini-Truth [Today's News Poem, Feb 26, 2010]

“Obama, who established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform after the Congress failed to create a similar panel, nominated four new members after choosing Republican and Democratic chairmen earlier this month.
The president named Honeywell Chief Executive David Cote”
--Jeff Mason, Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:04pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61P3LS20100226?type=politicsNews

The last indignity for me I think was when
I grew enough to understand George Orwell's book—
You know of Nineteen Eighty Four I'm sure. Again,
The shock humiliated me: the masters took

His doublespeak and used it brazenly to lie
In slick and modern tones. I can't believe to top
It off, they've cheek to claim we beat Big Bro. They're sly.
They shoot us with their mini-truths: by press, by cop;

By missile-man—a spy I bet—who's there to split the take,
To tend to backroom deals for sake of fellow crooks and rakes.



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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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War By Wires and Liars [Today's News Poem, Feb 11, 2010]

War By Wires and Liars [Today's News Poem, Feb 11, 2010]

“Germany's ruling coalition is considering using state-owned development bank KfW to buy Greek government bonds to ease Greece's financing problems...”

--Matthias Sobolewski and Patricia Uhlig, Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:21am EST

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBAT00511520100211

“The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, was quick to dismiss Iran's claim Thursday that it has produced higher-enriched uranium, calling it nothing more than "speechifying." But the record shows a series of intelligence reports spanning almost 20 years that have warned of a nuclear Iran. ”

--Greg Palkot and the Associated Press

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/11/iran-nuclear-weapons-history-predictions/

“President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. ”

http://projects.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/

"we recommend that the Secretary [of Defense] task both the Under Secretaries of Defense for Policy and Intelligence, and the Joint Staff, working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to create a tiger team to lay out courses of action and a way ahead for establishing a standing strategic surprise/deception entity. Once the initial work has been completed, all parts of the interagency should be brought into this effort."

http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2010-10-Capability_Suprise_Vol_2.pdf

No, atoms aren't the only building block
Requiring nuclear-force to bind what seeks
To free itself. Take enterprise and stock:
Those rogues—like particles— need wise techniques
To bind what otherwise would break—subvert—
Conjoined alliance. Murder's still a crime
So bind them tight with lies and let covert
And able agents sway the greedy slime:
So war becomes a suicide. And wealth?
That war by other means. With trade, the way
To kill is starve the foreigner by stealth,
And take his land, her kids: they're simply prey—
A profit center needs the casualties.
Without the gore—no war PTSDs.



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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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