Homeless & Poor - Pair-a-Poems #homeless #poor #sonnet

A Logical Dialogue with Homeless Al

How do you know when someone is indigent? As a Las Vegas statute puts it, “An indigent person is a person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive” public assistance. Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? By BARBARA EHRENREICH Published: August 8, 2009

Your name, if you please?
Al Szekely. (cough, wheeze).

Why are you in a wheel chair? (Please don't whine!)
Happened in Fu Bai, Vietnam: took a bullet in my spine.

From the homeless shelter you were evicted, because..?
Police in late night raid took men with legal flaws.

What was your warrant for? What was your dirty deed?
Court appearance on “criminal trespassing” charge I didn’t heed.

How did you commit that crime? Where did you trespass?
Homeless, sleeping in a D.C. suburb sidewalk, by the grass.

I’m sure you were disorderly. Were you drunk or on drugs?
No, I do neither, and I’m an ordained minister. ( He shrugs).

So, they arrested a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless?
You got it well. My crime’s being poor. Without faith, I’d be hopeless.

(This imagined dialogue is inspired by a true incident documented in Barbara Ehrenreich’s article)

The Crime of Being Poor
Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?

With all the socialist accusations being made,
We do well to face the needy status and plight.
Homelessness: infraction with fine to be paid,
For loitering and begging. (Keep them out of sight.)

Having no habitation to drink in privacy,
A beer in public is a ticket to the clink.
The poor have no chits in meritocracy,
So hide or can them; gentries think they stink.

Debates on health insurance lack the needy’s voice,
(Testimony that would challenge those fighting change.)
For disadvantaged, emergency room is only choice
When health or life’s at stake, they can’t pre-arrange.

To push out or incarcerate the poor does rend
Our social fabric and will bite us in the end.

St. Peter’s Memberless Deacon #transgender #sonnet

St. Peter’s Memberless Deacon
(From a true story shared by a friend who taught at the school as a very young new teacher)

The St. Peters deacon jumped gender: Oh my God!
Peter-less parishioner surprised that holy congregation.
Lost his dick but kept his faith causing conflagration:
Grapevine spreading scandal for the change in bod.

Transgender trauma might be tough and patient trying,
But a ton less shocking, painful, than the stabs
From stupid penis jokes to jock macho jabs:
Straight and even gay worlds sex-switch descrying.

Strange but true within same-sex union groups
Who defend and die for boy-boy and girl-girl pairs,
But bring up sex change and the pairs will put on airs
Joining anti-gender-change shock troops.

Even though the first stanza illustrates the second,
These choices take great courage and big balls, I reckon.

Crazy Repubs, RightNuts & PopFascists #republicans #rightwingcrazies #sonnets PLZ RT

Crazy Repubs, RightNuts & PopFascists

White Fright = Right Might
Right-wingers are always eager to dismiss the existence -- and the threat -- of far-right extremists

The public voice Republican denies
The crazies number large in party plan.
Supremacist connections they minimize
While anti socialism fires they fan.

Frustration of poor whites has always been
A right wing button pushed effectively.
Though publicly they never claim to mean
Attacks on race, they do, surreptitiously.

Denying the militia surge and violence
That’s threatened by messages and guns
Is stark hypocrisy, transparent somnolence:
A Southern strategy denial that stuns.

Those “Town Hall” blasts that echo loud tea sorties:
Don’t play it dumb: they’re really lynching parties


(Un) Scientific War of the (Right Wing) Worlds
Right Wing War on Science

Research can’t run on air or imaginary fuel;
A rigorous study requires money to be carried out.
U.S. has been supportive as a rule,
Political bias and interests influence, no doubt.

A scientist is free to set the focus
And direction of a project deemed important.
But if the funder has agendas, it changes the locus
Of power on what to study and the slant.

Politics puts science values to a test
In topics considered politically taboo.
Some researcher’s ethics are interred to rest :
Abortion, AIDS and condoms: no can do.

Science is not inured to ethical battles;
Investigators tremble to Right’s saber rattles.

Warning Shots
Southern Poverty Law Center warns of growing militias groups

The anti-government groups are growing.
The hope is these are final dying gasps,
Of hate-filled fringe’s ill wind blowing:
One last stand that Nazi friend clasps.

The audience for Governor Perry’s secession,
Has suffered economically yet fails
To see the parallel class and color oppression.
To any demagogue appeal: All Hails!

The health burning lava spewn in town halls
Is symptom of heat at the core, now encouraged
By media hucksters, urging attack of D.C. walls.
Not resting until Democrats are dislodged.

Though extremists and terrorists are few in number
The two sides’ moderate majority mustn’t slumber.

Beck Back-Stabs Paine

Don't Buy this Book - It's a Sham, August 10, 2009

The book I’ll never buy, but enjoyed the review.
Mazenko’s crisp “Don’t buy this book” of Beck’s
Is essay clear with a commonsensical view:
It’s travesty to pair Paine with Glenn’s wrecks.

Progressive taxation and liberal thought made sense
Most basic to Thomas and shocked he would be
To be put in the camp of the wealthy: bald offense.
With elitist theocrats he certainly didn’t agree.

His ‘crisis’ would be to understand how his book
Was used with its meaning turned upside down.
Preaching anti-government he never would brook,
Inequality of class he fought with renown.

The title ‘inspired’ this truth twisting hack,
Who with no civil sense stabbed Paine in the back.

Five Poems on National Health Reform PLZ RT #health #hcr #publicoption

Five Poems on National Health Reform #health #hcr

Public Option, Now! Single Payer, My Prayer.

Britons Unite To Defend Their National Health Service

The UK Health Service is loudly defended
As American conservatives tear it down.
It’s so revered that even Tories are offended:
How dare land of doctor fee slight the Crown.

Now even Stephen Hawking joined in the fray,
Insulted by claims unsupported and public attacks;
Fired back “without NHS wouldn’t be here today.”
National health attackers were tagged as quacks.

Claiming Senator Kennedy was not getting care
From publicly run services: answer, false:
True, if our current system is left in disrepair --
If we continue dancing “Stop Obama Waltz”.

Most of us agree we need a change,
So listening to noisy sicko’s very strange.


Well Paid Pipers: Right Liars
“... Just fling something out there, boys, and the network newsies will come running, airing that something with unfiltered abandon.”
Thriving on myths Television news and the corruption of the American mind

Those poisonous sound bites that network newsies consume:
The crazier the bit, the more it’s broadcast to millions.
Birthers, Deathers and Liberal haters -- viewers presume
Them to have facts, repeated in multiple news pavilions.

Even media outlets labeled liberal allies
Are blameworthy equal to right-wing rabid Fox
For instant and regular airing of patent HCR lies.
Fact check rebuttals are weak after-fact blocks.

The trick, well known to the right, is to jackhammer
The faux facts so that even disclaimers repeated
Are echoes of poisonous words. Any flim-flammer
Scatters crazy lies that once aired cannot be deleted.

The corporations who own mass media benefit
From obfuscation blocking change affecting profit.


Grand Old Phantoms: Cult Crisis
The Republican Party Is Turning Into A Cult

The party of Lincoln becoming a cult? Oh my.
Delusions and lying hucksters are the drivers.
Appealing to the plebes darkest fears is their cry
To those seeing themselves as poor white survivors.

From birthers to deathers and tea baggers in between
The party is scraping bottom of the melting pot.
With shallow patriotic slogans and pricks to the spleen
It’s stirring nativists, militias and keeping them hot.

Republicans and the south in serious numbers
Believe the outright lies and fear enemy phantoms:
The acquiescing leadership of bumblers
Are all slipping to slimy ethical bottoms.

The danger of this is there is no distance or space
From loose gun assassins: Republicans, a disgrace.


Try to Remember and the Present Dismember…
(Or Lament of the GOPosaurus)

I Want MY America Back: The Good Old Days Judge H. Lee Sarokin

Those were the good old days before the feds
Were in our lives: no medicare, no checks
For unemployment nor help with all our meds:
No minimum wage nor OSHA saving necks.

If banks would fail, depositors lost money:
If products killed our kin, it’s buyer’s fault.
We hate the gov’mint for “don’t smoke, honey”
Let me enjoy my cancer, white sugar and my salt.

Those bureaucrats build ponds and dams and roads:
Let good old business take the lead on that:
Let policing and firemen be free-market loads:
On broad for-profit shoulders feed a fat cat.

We pine for past when slavery was legal,
When women knew their place, and man was regal.

The Crime of Being Poor
Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? http://bit.ly/rWPvG

With all the socialist accusations being made,
We do well to face the needy status and plight.
Homelessness: infraction with fine to be paid,
For loitering and begging. (Keep them out of sight.)

Having no habitation to drink in privacy,
A beer in public is a ticket to the clink.
The poor have no chits in meritocracy,
So hide or can them; gentries think they stink.

Debates on health insurance lack the needy’s voice,
(Testimony that would challenge those fighting change.)
For disadvantaged, emergency room is only choice
When health or life’s at stake, they can’t pre-arrange.

To ignore or incarcerate the poor does rend
Our social fabric and will bite us in the end.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Eight Poems on TwitWall #sotomayor #sonnet

Judge Sonia Sotomayor:
Eight Poems on TwitWall
(June - August 2009)

Fourteen Lines in Soto-Voce (but not in iambic pentameter)

Obama’s chosen nominee is causing a stir:
The first Latina to join our august legal group
Of justices high and supreme. Quotes from her
Speeches are causing a rightwing war whoop!

Regardless of class, of race and root culture
No one can be neutral and always objective in thought
To accuse this wise woman to be biased legal vulture
Is insanity loud voiced that extreme right has wrought.

The battle for votes on that highest of courts
Will stoke conflagrations on polarized sides
With guesses and doubts of what she supports:
Little in her background hints of what coincides.

I’m just feliz, contento and tickled that Sotomayor,
Is so Latin, and echoes and rhymes with Montemayor.


Sonia and the Senators

The vote by Senator Sessions was certain from the start:
His questions and comments were clearly against;
But Orrin Hatch is more puzzling, a conservative apart.
Perhaps party loyalty and desperation has him fenced.

A calm and reasoned defense Sotomayor gave,
As conservative senators cried racism and bias.
The hearings were repetitive, boring and grave:
They grilled her on ethical principles? My ass!

A decision here, a speech there were the points
Insisted on and hammered by Republican few.
A Princeton and Yale graduate: brainy joints.
Smart judge sees through Latina lens, what’s new?

Alito, Scalia, Roberts, all see through white male eyes:
Their bias going unspoken, reason and logic defies.


http://mediamatters.org/research/200907290025

Compassion’s Out of Vogue (Or Is It Sonia’s Shoe Size?)

"I can walk in the shoes of the people affected by court
Actions”. So stated the interviewee to the senators.
Another, recalling discrimination, of immigrant sort,
Promised understanding: defense from biased predators.

The first was Thomas, the second Alito, and both
Were lauded for their compassion and justice slant:
Both to conservative principles pledged their troth.
Sotomayor’s attacked on bias? pure party cant.

It serves hypocritical hacks to stand on principle
When the claimer is their darling and an ally,
But the principle’s attacked without scruple
If claimed by opposer, it’s a tenet gone awry.

Justice without compassion is madness in a jail.
All judges first are humans – no mercy? We all fail.

Sonia Doesn’t Sweat It!

Ensign has more ethics than psalmic David royal.
The King sent Bathsheba’s husband to the front.
Ensign was kinder: got him job from friend loyal.
(Suggests a pimp and john pay-for-sex: being blunt.)

A bunch of holes in Sonia’s judgeship record,
Ensign, now from virtuous spot, does poke.
(This letch and loose-moraled poker can’t afford
To criticize. Poke this, Nevada’s joke!

Sotomayor has record strong in ethics;
Her legal stature is beyond reproach.
Those speeches call for potent anesthetics:
Note Ensign’s half an hour, slimy roach.

Republicans continue with abrasive antics.
Love it: suicidal party tactics.

But Johnny, We Hardly Knew You

Before McCain did seek the seat, I thought,
He wasn’t too extreme in thought and act.
But when the crazies his attention got
He lost all credibility and tact.

In previous campaign for White House prize,
He criticized the party for insane extremes.
His principles were moderate, for this party, wise.
But choice of Palin, courting bias, says reams.

Republicans must keep a base that’s vocal;
A narrow group severe in judging votes.
A female judge not white is for them focal:
You vote for her, the Christian right demotes.

Latinos once befriended John McCain:
But some forget: the party yanks his chain.


But Johnny, We Hardly Knew You

Before McCain did seek the seat, I thought,
He wasn’t too extreme in thought and act.
But when the crazies his attention got
He lost all credibility and tact.

In previous campaign for White House prize,
He criticized the party for insane extremes.
His principles were moderate, for this party, wise.
But choice of Palin, courting bias, says reams.

Republicans must keep a base that’s vocal;
A narrow group severe in judging votes.
A female judge not white is for them focal:
You vote for her, the Christian right demotes.

Latinos once befriended John McCain:
But some forget: the party yanks his chain.


The Long View Lens

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS
I celebrate our judge Sotomayor,
And praise her view unique of life and law.
Yet deeper justice thoughts are rising for
An experience from which we rarely draw.

A grandmother’s council site I’ve visited
Reminds of wisdom known pre-constitution.
These thirteen native seers have committed
Ancient lore of justice and peace with devotion.

Allied for teaching and healing our Mother Earth
These heads of gray don’t dwell on racist scars.
Ancestral lore guides plea for re-birth
Of earth: for global life raising the bars.

Indigenous grandmas have biased vision.
White men: note wise counsel and decision.

Sonia’s In: We Didn’t Need Them Anyway

Sotomayor’s the judge in court supreme:
The vote was never doubted from the start.
She’s fully qualified, no liberal scheme.
The decision made stalwart Republicans fart.
Even putative Latino friends on the right
(McCain and others concerned about relations
With Hispanics) party line caused fright:
A vote for Sonia would cause complications.
It really is a boon that party politics reigned!
Naïve Latinos voting republican,
Realize that though politeness is feigned,
They don’t really see us as fully American.
Progressive people everywhere, please note:
Republicans are rotten - think when you vote.

Poetry Aurelio (TwitWall Jul 20 - Aug 6 '09)

Dual Dino Fraud: Tax and Science

Creationist Theme Parkto be seized by Uncle Sam: Tax Evasion.

The dinosaurs are leaving sweet adventureland.
The reason is conviction of tax fraud.
Beside its science drawn from lala-land,
The re-creation is just that: more broad.

To question evolution is campaign intense:
Many of faith challenge un-scientific view.
To those most thoughtful there’s little sense.
Debating’s useless: screaming fits anew.

When pious tax evaders are sent to jail,
The followers will raise a bit of cain.
They’re protestations will be to no avail,
Though dubious sleazebag god-myth will remain.

If U.S. science would be based on bible revelation,
Our bounteous world would shrink in brain evasion.

Don’t Even Pray for Me

If atheists are found to be quite cold,
I much prefer the chill to churchy heat.
It’s true that to believers it’s quite bold
To question god’s existence: quite a feat.

I’m somewhere in between agnostic point
To not believing in deity at all.
But even if had faith left, I’d disappoint:
I’m drawn to non-believers, faithful appall.

I’ve little interest in religious rites:
Not even need company to meditate.
The group experience my soul fights.
I’ve little social need to congregate.

My deepest drives for growth and meaning
Are earthen and today: no post-death leaning.

Sonia Doesn’t Sweat It!

Ensign has more ethics than psalmic David royal.
The King sent Bathsheba’s husband to the front.
Ensign was kinder: got him job from friend loyal.
(Suggests a pimp and john pay-for-sex: being blunt.)

A bunch of holes in Sonia’s judgeship record,
Ensign, now from virtuous spot, does poke.
(This letch and loose-moraled poker can’t afford
To criticize. Poke this, Nevada’s joke!

Sotomayor has record strong in ethics;
Her legal stature is beyond reproach.
Those speeches call for potent anesthetics:
Note Ensign’s half an hour, slimy roach.

Republicans continue with abrasive antics.
Love it: suicidal party tactics.

The Black Ants are Coming;
The Black Ants are Coming

In Which Black Super Ants Are Blamed

Once more we leech from Sherrod’s poem, on ants.
Her strange black bug, eats wire, lights going out.
We’ve chosen to explain it with conspiracy's mad rants.
The evil axis sent these mites to cause chaos all about.

These weapons of mite destruction endanger us all;
T. V. gone black and dreamsicles in freezers puddled.
Benumbed by loss of power we’ll stumble and fall.
By ants sent here to munch our wires we are befuddled.

Appliances and laptops dead are chaos to imagine;
The terror shakes U.S. foundations, as Asia grins.
These nightmares fuel the Fox TV mass engine
Of folk quite gullible to right wing terrorist spins.

The Asian ants might threaten modern life
The greater peril’s naïve Joe Beer, and wife.

Sheathe That Sword
Study: Sex Without Condoms Makes People Happier
A Scottish prof says unsheathed sex is good:
A condom lessens happiness and depresses.
Unprotected intercourse needs are misunderstood:
Our nature demands what any cover suppresses.

Our basic drives are modified by home:
Society does clothe our naked state.
The feral drive’s in rut: one path to roam.
Youth feels to break all bonds is great.

A rubber limits the danger of transmitting
Diseases most deadly. If joy is lessened
And depressed couples are unhappily splitting,
They’re living, breathing and death not hastened.

The cost and stress of civilizing habits
If bothersome, remind us we aren’t rabbits.

Howl for Hoots
Guess Which Birds PETA Doesn’t Give a Hoot About?
The owls on Harry Potter are not pets:
Don’t dare domesticate one for the kids.
They must roam free and cages cause regrets:
No habitats with roofs nor gates or lids.

What brought this to attention was a blog
By PETA staff who gushed of being stoked
By darkening Potter themes and not from fog.
Yet owl abuse instincts were not provoked.

Crusader I am not for rights of owls:
But animals should live in nature free.
Let forests sound of screeches, hoots and howls.
To pour beast blood on furs: don’t count on me.

Defense of rights of beasts is worthy cause
Shallow notes from PETAs do give pause.


But Johnny, We Hardly Knew You

Before McCain did seek the seat, I thought,
He wasn’t too extreme in thought and act.
But when the crazies his attention got
He lost all credibility and tact.

In previous campaign for White House prize,
He criticized the party for insane extremes.
His principles were moderate, for this party, wise.
But choice of Palin, courting bias, says reams.

Republicans must keep a base that’s vocal;
A narrow group severe in judging votes.
A female judge not white is for them focal:
You vote for her, the Christian right demotes.

Latinos once befriended John McCain:
But some forget: the party yanks his chain.

Stimulate This, Hypocrites
After Opposing The Stimulus, Rep. Cao Now Working To ‘Channel’ Recovery Act Funds To New Orleans

The Stimulus was branded dangerous,
A Democratic ploy to buy some time.
Republicans were anti, amidst great fuss:
A waste of dollars: usual lib’ral crime.

How soon the Louisiana critics did forget:
The governor dispensed the loot with glee.
Representative J. Cao dipped in, no sweat,
(But party-line in D. C. voting no-siree.)

No drug can cure our economic woes:
Republicans keep grinding in the pain,
Without a baby aspirin for the throes.
They think our strain, in time’ll give’em gain.

Conservatives consume a liberal’s largesse,
With mouthful still intoning: What a mess.

Jindal and Cao’s Stimulactic-intollerance
Twitterick

Opposed to the stimulus was Rep. Joseph Cao;
With principled Gov. Jindal, both did allow,
The money’s a waste,
Voted on with haste.
But ethics didn’t stop’em from milking fed cow.

Community Health, Not Industry Wealth

Insurers who created healthcare crisis,
Now truly want to bury healthy public option.
Insurance premium basic profit device is:
See ad campaign to block single payer adoption.

Mega moneyed-interests funded many a friend,
Elected and unfriendly to anti-insurance stands.
In view of damning data, insurance ads lies send.
One question: Well-fed congress, biting feeding hands?

While blue dog Democrats return to angry base,
The lying industry continues to stoke fires.
Conservative means selling private business case:
Patient interests don’t have dollars the fight requires.

To counter media ads that scare voters confused,
Cell phone troops must inform, get lies defused.


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik3-2009aug03,0,6650122.column


Catholic Bank’s Coat of Arms, Pills & Smoking Gun

Catholic bank owned pill shares

I’m shocked, dismayed and losing faith in banks.
A German one, quite Catholic, had investments diverse:
Defense, tobacco and contraception. Giving God thanks
For profits, they confessed. What sins could be worse?

As third world countries to smoking are addicted,
This firm had advertised its ethical position:
No money would be put in stock that contradicted
Any Catholic or Vatican tradition.

Is there any surprise that banking investments put profits
Before Roman Catholic tenets of faith and ethics?
If reporters persistent didn’t research investing outfits,
No confessions, mea culpas or public apologetics.

We thank the journalists who brought this to light
And question the tenet that contraception isn’t right.

Sweet & Sour
Sonnet Recipe: Blueberry-Ginger Freezer Jam

I just tasted sonnet sweet of Kate Sherrod:
How sad to say but true, my kitchen spoons
Are limp as thumb is brown. I’m roughshod
As cook: the food’s unfit for starving loons.

My loaves could serve as stone for lithographs.
Those marinated mushrooms disappear in gunk
No self-respecting engine would spew for laughs.
In Cooking for Dummies, I’d burnout, crash and flunk.

The berries, ginger, sugar and pectin, dear Kate,
(Those basic ingredients of great jam for toast?)
Would suffer disastrous Aurelio kitchen fate:
Inedible glob being ogled by red-faced host.

Thank Buddha for microwave dishes and chefs excellent:
My praise for friends who are cooks: they’re nirvana sent.


It’s the Profits, Stupid!
GEs silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe

If General Electric silenced Olbermann it seems,
The eM esS eN Bee Cee liberal tag is moot;
Not really censored because of political extremes
But attacks on the profits from Iranian loot.

It was healthy to observe the battle on Tee Vee,
When O’Reilly was revealed for his bald-faced lies.
But job is critical – mortgage and the vittles aren’t free.
The unemployment line’s for who the boss defies.

The deal wasn’t cut because the shows were hurting
Or viewership of either was declining. Opposite
In fact was true. But you can’t keep on blurting
About embarrassing investments: profit requisite.

For principals in media battle, principles were clear:
The bottom line is profits: their integrity did smear.

Re-Birthed Republicans

The GOP's Birthers Con Game

The Birthers are Republican necessity;
Conspiracy theory feeds the base they need.
A million strong is expected absurdity.
Even if ‘balanced’ right says ‘do not heed’.

Obama’s early rise fueled rumor mills:
Outlying bloggers spread venom and fear.
The Democrat wins increased devilish drills
And marched them into extreme wild frontier.

The mild admonition by strong Chairman Steele
Belied all the benefit brought to the cause
By raucous anti-voices: joy hard to conceal.
Attack, distract and confuse: give no silent pause.

Forget our health, the economy, saving earth:
Republican goal: Destroy Obama and all he’s worth.

Orangutan-talized? (or Adios, My Apes)

This poem was inspired by Palm Oil Sonnet

Orangutans, for oil, are getting killed.
The oil of palm’s the craze in world demand.
Sumatra and Borneo lands are getting tilled.
Rainforests for profits-turned into arable land.

The fat is cheap, to meet vast market need
A market driven deforested primaticide.
The fast food chains do millions snare and feed;
In soaps and foods to cook and fry worldwide.

Adult apes are slaughtered and frail babes orphaned:
The virgin forests stripped of cleansing trees.
How many fats so trans or not to stand?
Our flora and our fauna beg on threatened knees.

How inexpensive must our fast foods be
To offset killing apes and forest spree?

(In)Human Enterprise

Trafficking A very modern slavery

The fastest growing trade’s illegal, people:
A global trafficked poor made into peons.
Ignoring problems such from moral steeple,
One thinks that slavery’s been gone for eons.

Supplying world’s cheap labor needs requires
Coercing, duping, tricking people to agree:
But move for progress quickly leads to quagmires.
The Santa Claus morphs into Simon Legree.

These brokered bodies, striving to survive,
Produced from countries teeming with the poor,
Provide the human grist for industrial thrive,
Or services and pleasures at low-cost, for sure.

The ancient traffic cruel of slavery’s still here:
To modern enlightened societies still a frontier.

Health is Wealth
Single Payer Actions, Aspirations, and Calculations on Medicare’s Birthday

I hold that health is civil right not privilege.
Excuse me firms, but single payer I support.
It takes a village to support a village.
Health industry to slick old lies does resort.

The plan was plowed when Hilary did try,
A million six-pack Joes believed the ads.
This August I expect them all to lie, and lie:
At stake are profits and health dollar scads.

So many myths are bandied and believed,
It’s difficult to know which ones to prick.
Losing private doctors we feel grieved:
Reality’s most haven’t any and can’t pick.

How countries with much less wealth than us,
Provide good health services, that's Sicko's fuss.

Bhopal: World’s Longest Wake
Victims Of the “World’s Worst Industrial Disaster” Continue To Wait For Justice

The victims of Bhopal just wait and wait
The justice and amends for huge disaster.
If Union Carbide Warren avoids his fate,
It’s mega-bucks and wits of shyster master.

His life of luxury in New York City,
Belies the massive crime study foretold,
Of thirty major hazards: perish, pity.
Escaping guilt, the firm was coldly sold.

The twenty thousand killed, and injured
Past half million, have yet to get rupees.
If money can’t return thousands interred,
It would some Indian families appease.

One painful moral of this tale of woe:
West’s value of those eastern lives is low.

The International Campaign for Justice

Elephanticide: Tusk Taking Schemes
Africa’s elephants in trouble
Our elephants in Africa and Asia wide,
In danger are from greedy poaching business.
The profit’s huge from pachydermicide.
Those global ivory deals are 3D chess.

Demand in eastern countries poses threat,
Not just to Dumbo’s life, to diplomats.
Some Africans were duped, low profit sweat.
A pox on all of them, the dirty rats.

My usual cause is schools that work for all,
But Save the Elephants has hooked my tusk.
The whole-sale killing, all for profit, does appall,
I play the ivory keys: I say, tsk, tsk.

There’s little hope to stop the bloody market:
Protecting porpoises and whales, which target?

Mitch the Fielder
http://twitter.com/MitchtheFielder
"Bio Mitch Fielder is meeting and event professional, a dreamer, and is a musician."

I don’t know much about the life of Mitch;
‘The Fielder’ tag intrigues but not as much
As smile so broad, for him I tweet a pitch:
The simple profile has the common touch.

A thousand pics of tweets I see each day;
Some please, some shock: tags bare and stark.
I stop on those that peace and care convey.
The strains of life induce to seek a lark.

Again I’ll say I’ve never met or seen
The smiling dreamer this poem’s versed.
He plans events and seeks the music scene.
If all’s not true, there have been liars worst.

So Mitch, play on in Nashville Tennessee;
Keep spreading music, smiles and dreams, my plea.

Salud, My President. Beer Critics, Chill Out.
Obama: Beer necessities v. GOP leader: Foament discord

Obama, prof and officer have beer:
Oh damn, what waste of precious time it was.
The G.O.P. has one more cause to jeer:
The racial tensions theme most frivolous.

Ironical the sting Barak must feel,
When criticized for too much stress on health
And stimulus for money wounds to heal:
For right-wing critics, needs a coat of steel.

So he said ‘stupid’, how is that a crime?
When W’s words off cuff were oft stupidity,
Silent Republicans did bide their time.
The silver foot in mouth -- eight years lividity.

The profile of my president is clear:
Obama, cheers, with you I’ll drink a beer.

Ingest? Bottom Stressed. No Jest
(or Five Foul Foods)
Five Foods That Cause Anal Leakage

The theme is crude and not for bowels weak:
The foods, just five, we focus on do cause
Abdominal pains and bottom exit leak.
Oleastra to sorbitol do cause a toilet pause.

Some block digestion tools for fat and grease:
Hawaiian Walu, causes cramps and loosens stool.
Like orlistat, wedded with flatulent unease,
Because of gas, the innards' pain is cruel.

Oleastra, Walu, orlistat and sorbitol
Are joined by oil of castor or jujube.
Canals below cannot absorb it all.
Those dicey quints do grease the anal tube.

The topic causes mental constipation?
Give thanks: no photographic presentation!


Palin’s Pause
Has Sarah Palin "gone dark?"

Is Palin gone from Twitter land for good?
Her tweets are dark, her Facebook without post.
Was she beat up, so scarred, misunderstood?
Not Bush, McCain or Rush: you’re loved the most.

We cry for you and hope you’re well, right mom.
What wrongs were put on you for being true.
Your clever words, Obama stings, the bomb!
Pro-life and profit free: the right-wing view.

Your tweets were regular, witty and swell;
But now you’re thoughts never shared online.
Without your words for many life is hell,
So please return and give us mots sublime.

With tongue deep planted in my cheek I chant:
Sarah goodbye: away with hellish cant.


Welcome back, Diane. Or XOXOX Marks the Spot


“Why do they call you Hershey? Because I’m brown and sweet.”

I sip dry wine in coffee bar and read
Odd tweets, leaping back to yesterday.
Diane, dear friend, once lost, now found indeed.
Hello? Inquired for Hershey. Sweet bouquet.

If forty years a friendship loss can cause,
When distant homes and pressured life replace
The dear emotions shared…I note and pause:
How quick we leapt o’er time, neglect and space.

We once were wed by art and justice cause:
The VISTAS seen in youth were broad and green.
As social anger brought upon us cruel laws,
The cause was good, but choices made were mean.

What friends I hurt with shoulder cold back then,
She sees the ‘movement’ I’ve outgrown. Amen.


#caca Origins of Poetic Twitter Movement

A royal crown tops the balding pate/
Of this aging tweeter without a mate./
His hearing's not bad
Overweight just a tad,
But old man's flatulence is his fate.
Although the author is neither the first nor the sole contributor to the current verse and poetry exchange, since he has become a regular contributor of a variety of verse forms, it seems of value to document some of the roots and nurturing elements of his products. Early on, while limericks were converted into twittericks, hash tags were of notice and so #caca was birthed. These twittericks will be retweeted periodically so that academics who wish to research the beginnings of the current and growing Twitter Poetry Renaissance might have easy access to some seminal pieces that combine historical incidents, reactions from other tweeters and even possibly some humor (although some would debate all of the above.) Since most pieces have a rhyme scheme and an approximate meter, they qualify as poetry. Pace. AMM
2 places for #Caca definition http://wthashtag.com/wiki/Caca & also http://hashdictionary.com/Caca
#domingodelicioso means delicious sunday, and it is part of the #caca movement

A tweeter from Texas thought witty/
Hash tagged #caca from San Anto city/
One tweet lady he ired /
hard word bullets she fired/
And riddled his lone work: a pity.

A tweeter from Texas hashed #caca/
And sent it to those who wit didn’t lacka/
But one tweet lady with less humor he ired,/
whose tweets in sweetness were mired/
And she smeared his dictionary caca wacka.

A brash tweeter thought self quite amusing/tweeting others freely of his own choosing./He was really quite rude/and sometimes just lewd,/And was soon cut off and driven to boozing.

A social media baron of note/
Wanted everyone to note what he wrote/
He thought himself gifted/
Assuming spirits he lifted/
But sadly never was RTed with a quote.


One fine tweeter with inherited genes/
Produced poetry amazing to deans/
But his haiku and sonnets/
Of sunsets and bonnets/
Didn’t amount to a hill of beans.

When a rec questioned appropriateness of #caca tag, I sent the older twittericks responding to other objectors. She took it as a personal insult rather than an illustration of my versifying other rejections. I thought it would be seen as humorous but never thought she would think I was talking about her because it was a response several weeks old to a completely different person.
Nevertheless it did produce another gem from her. Lost her as a follower but gained another poem. See below:
VBassDeBinion
dude- your rude!
I'm no prude.
Not gonna wallow-
choosing to unfollow.
Been real,
but Not a real thrill.
Wish your followers Luck!

Forktail Flash: Bare-faced Bulbul Found!
Bald songbird discovered in Laos

A songbird species bald in Laos was found.
This creature up till now evaded science;
Expect researchers tough to come around.
The habitat is wild, far from new appliance.

A thrush-like sight, new to W.C. Society,
The bare-faced bulbul’s seen in Forktail
The Journal for Oriental birds, (not free):
All grist for wildlife grinding over cocktail.

O bulbul bald, please forgive the spotlight
I further shine on your forest-dwelling place.
No longer trees to shield nor cover, night:
You with olive green feathers, pale blue face.

Dear brother weird of plumes and bare of pate:
My shiny top is also bare: you do elate!


I’ll Show You My Bug…

In Which Is Discovered A Brand New Species @KateSherrod

Texas highways breed un-I.D.ed bug abhorred:
My tag is automobilis dumbshiticus, everspreading,
Tainting air and airwaves, Ipod aboard,
Accelerating, lane cutting, nano delay dreading.

One basic gene these auto-microbes seem to lack:
Self preservation, lost in same pool as one for logic.
Self adsorption, speed, lunacy, even rage attack;
This organism’s inbred for: hard-wired pathologic.

This rage against the auto is not luddite at its core:
Wouldn’t trade electric guitar for cutesy ukulele.
Machines are great and distance shortened evermore.
I drive a car and surf the net: twitter almost daily.

It’s not vehicle that bugs, but idiot bug driving:
Perhaps bot chauffeurs at wheel, and we surviving?


Compassion’s Out of Vogue (Or Is It Sonia’s Shoe Size?)
http://mediamatters.org/research/200907290025

"I can walk in the shoes of the people affected by court
Actions”. So stated the interviewee to the senators.
Another, recalling discrimination, of immigrant sort,
Promised understanding: defense from biased predators.

The first was Thomas, the second Alito, and both
Were lauded for their compassion and justice slant:
Both to conservative principles pledged their troth.
Sotomayor’s attacked on bias? pure party cant.

It serves hypocritical hacks to stand on principle
When the claimer is their darling and an ally,
But the principle’s attacked without scruple
If claimed by opposer, it’s a tenet gone awry.

Justice without compassion is madness in a jail.
All judges first are humans – no mercy? We all fail.

Skip, Skip, Skip My Lou…
CNN "conspiracy theorist" Lou Dobbs discredits his network -- one wild claim at a time

There is a wide conspiracy against CNN’s Dobbs:
It’s sinister roots are in the tree of knowledge.
Those poison apples and grenades Lou lobs
We’ve dodged from wiser hucksters even in college.

All the shadow selves his kind appeals to
Are deep in fear and hateful confusion:
If xenophobic buttons can be pushed
The masses keep faux enemy illusion.

Obama is legitimate and trying with intelligence
To solve the thorniest crisis of 100 years.
With hope and vision, not belligerence,
Inspiring forward movement through our tears.

Dobbs and company, doomsday prophets’ news,
Bone-headedly opposed to U.S. needs: constructive views.

It's Obvious You're Right
CNN and Fox News chiefs confirm there are no standards

Some media firms once had standards with
Which to base reporting: objective and balanced.
Even if it really was a sham and common myth,
Bare-knuckled bias wasn’t countenanced.

Forty years of putative liberal slant
(Really only found in small circ rags)
Is right-wing smoke screen and pure cant:
Mealy mouthed reporters with wrong tags.

Jon Stewart and Colbert are exceptions
To a rule that Fox is prime example.
If biased and hold strong objections,
Blend it with slick wit and humor ample.

Editorialists posing as reporters are the bane
Of progress: if their venom were only on the wane.

Are We Pro China’s Choice?
China to cut number of executions

Executions will be reduced in China:
Pro-lifers should mount a celebration.
Sino-inmates hadn’t heard so fine a
Newsflash: for many it’s life’s salvation.

The Pope and all the Christian advocates
At odds with women’s control of self
Should join life cause: each side abominates
The other but agree: stop state killing itself.

Excesses and hard-headedness abound
In movements clashing over tough tenets.
Women’s rights and fetus life: ground
Must be found by diplomats for peacenets.

Dilemma horns: Conceiving children’s serious:
And sexism is to women most deleterious.

It Was a Strong Suit Preserving spacesuits and Tranquility Base
Lunar walk is forty and moon suits are rotting;
Teflon’s tough but impermanent: gone very soon.
Chemical agents that bonded so well are plotting
Evolving, constantly reacting and changing post-moon.

Armstrong et al were sheathed well for walk and roll:
Natural change ravels artificial weave and mesh.
Now curators of museum must stop time taking toll:
Those fabulous fabrics were as vulnerable as flesh.

The passage of time’s been unkind to these artifacts.
Humidity and light are the damaging agents:
Museum displays and exhibits destroy to the max.
Dilemma remains, are these NASA entertainments?

It’s ironic and strange that suits for moon survival
Are now frail and disintegrating as objects archival.

Map Gap/ Rap Pap
Fox News Misplaces Egypt (And The Rest Of Your Scritti Politti)

Bad enough Cornyn confusing India with China.
That interasian gaff is major not minah.
But Fox put foot in mouth, mess on map,
Replacing Egypt with Iraq: that’s crap.

The Senate is body august and informed:
Fox media is vaunted and with viewers adorned.
Expected precision/correctness to transmit
Both bodies were tainted and covered with shit.

If judgment feels harsh and vulgar in expression,
It comes from the misguided groups both address.
Both stir Joe-six-pack fears and redneck aggression
Why treat such ignorance with civility and finesse?

Republican stalwarts and the media fellow travelers
Deserve to be revealed as cheap two-bit gabblers.

Cornyn’s Confusion: 5 Letters Ending in A
US Senator mistakenly calls India a security threat

The U.S. has a rising threat and possible danger
From a Senator who India with China confuses.
Cornyn needs protection beyond a Texas Ranger!
(The legendary lawman who one riot singly defuses.)

To lump Asian countries in one’s mind’s a riot.
Imagine mistaking Poles for Italians or French.
Any European would show immediate disquiet.
To Asians this confusion raises racism stench.

With uneducated, rough shod masses, we forgive
But with the elite of the elected in congress
We expect discernment: Good diplomats misgive
Those slips that need great finesse to redress.

I’m a Texan proud, connected to Spanish land grants,
But experiencing biased confusion: know why India rants.

Bye, Bye Birthers
A Quick Response to #TCOT By David Weigel
The truth to tell I haven’t paid ‘birthers’ attention:
Elated as I am with Obama and his U.S. presidency.
It’s eluded me to notice others doubt and question
Of birthplace, certificate and even legal residency.

There’s proof plenty of his Hawaiian nativity
Even newspaper accounts on date specific:
It leaves those backward fools in subjectivity
Who can’t give a black man the Prez honorific.

In my own liberal and mean biased spirit
I ask if California’s governator would announce
To run for highest office, would it be demerit,
Or him 'right for president' right pronounce?

So much bigotry permeates our community
I attribute birthers’ gripes but to race disunity.

Hardware in the Software? #sonnet #onlinesexmarket #searchengines
Porn Still Leading Online Advertising?

At my age and condition the issue’s almost moot,
But I can’t help notice the stats on porn.
Longer pieces lose out to quickie spurt & shoot.
At least that’s online data of the love-lorn.

Engines that do searches keep records complete
And track sexseekers throughout the internet.
Of specific interests and manias the web’s replete:
But all this tracking poses adult privacy threat.

Preachers warn sites cause perversion's blossom;
Catalyzing habits to a human harmful.
Others opine adult sexual creativity’s awesome.
Children aside, it’s more puritan than disgraceful.

I’m glad my blood has cooled and pleasures differ;
The bulging sex market’s tools and costs getting stiffer.

Podcast Promise #sonnet @katesherrod
In Which I Plug My Podcast

Oh Kate, my dear, I’m a podcast piker.
I’m sure your tapes are clear, of highest order.
I’ve done a few for work with script & mike (er)
We’ve lots of pleas and sermons for recorder.

As great as you have been, O twitter mentor,
I should reciprocate as avid audience.
A slight restraint: (question my techie’s meant for):
How the hell do I log on to hear your assonance?

I twitter, blog (and even skype sometimes),
But what I don’t know fills a cavern!
Old fart’s clappers lost from a few chimes.
I’d love pod-listening company at a tavern.

Bottom line is promise to Ms. Sherrod:
I’ll podcast listen, with laptop or IPod.

E. Coli’s Anticipation!
Pavlov's Microorganisms

Imagine! Organisms (micro) can predict
Environmental changes and even more.
Our judgment of creatures is most derelict:
Escherichia coli sense what’s in store.

The skills of these nano-beings doesn’t mean
Our human powers are minor or diminished.
To discover and understand these minute senses
Elevates our scientific prowess, never finished.

Scientists are always challenging set venues,
Upending biological tenets of old:
Giving new insight into non-neural genious.
Empirical observations reveal data bold.

Pavlovian dogs' classical conditioning behaviour
Is to E. Coli, anticipatory capability: their saviour.

Taco Villanelle

Do not crunch gently into taco shells,
Though proper manners cause concern;
Crunch, munch as saliva juice swells.

Though you’ve had pizza and burger spells,
Because they’re popular in fast food turn
Don’t deny attraction deep to fajita smells.

Good people, their Tuesday taste propels
From hole in walls to fancy-pantsy concern
To nibble, munch and crunch taco shells.

Masses processioning to Taco Bell knells,
Tacottacks causing McDees and KFC to spurn:
Munching, crunching crispy taco shells.

And you, young addicts to fast-food sells,
If burgers and tenders your heart burn,
Whiff fajita, chicken and bean taco smells,
Sniff fajita, chicken and bean taco smells.

Sonia and the Senators

The vote by Senator Sessions was certain from the start:
His questions and comments were clearly against;
But Orrin Hatch is more puzzling, a conservative apart.
Perhaps party loyalty and desperation has him fenced.

A calm and reasoned defense Sotomayor gave,
As conservative senators cried racism and bias.
The hearings were repetitive, boring and grave:
They grilled her on ethical principles? My ass!

A decision here, a speech there were the points
Insisted on and hammered by Republican few.
A Princeton and Yale graduate: brainy joints.
Smart judge sees through Latina lens, what’s new?

Alito, Scalia, Roberts, all see through white male eyes:
Their bias going unspoken, reason and logic defies.

Flinching at Finches
Finch Fighting Ring http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/27/national/main5191496.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.1

A bird bating ring near New Haven, busted;
The finches were fighting and feathers flew.
My south Texas cousins cock fights lusted;
Of canaries and finches, we just never knew.

Other hidden wagers were for dogs in pits:
‘Amores Perros’ gave a Mexican insight.
Corrida bulls in España matched torero wits,
But we’d never heard of this small bird plight.

Saffron Finches are south American natives,
Now pawns of bettors and greedy gambling;
Many have lost eyes, limbs and are vegetatives.
It’s the size, not the fight, gets feelings rambling.

Wild animals, tiny or large, are cold and rapacious;
Human sport in seeking gore: cruel and audacious.

Be-cloned Bothered and Bewildered
http://sustainablog.org/2009/07/27/would-you-eat-cloned-fruit/
Would You Eat Cloned Fruit? Written by Steve Savage Published on July 27th, 2009

I would eat cloned fruit upon advice
From expert counselors labeled green.
But reading ‘clone’ I’ll bother to think thrice:
‘Modified genetically’ bothers, spurts spleen.

Steve Savage makes me doubt what’s natural:
Organic has to be more than semantics.
Considering most commercial labelers amoral,
I’m bewildered at Whole Foods in those antics.

Food Inc. raised consciousness and eyebrows,
But “cloning” seems more nuanced and complex.
All vines for wine are cloned, so Savage allows,
Because grafting’s natural in vineyards specs.

I'm confused: what plants and fruits are good?
What chemicals and grafts are healthy food?




Shades of Yellow (villanelle)

Yellow pendant causing motion
Cover-up for ruling colors
Stopping all without emotion.

Calder mobiles had the notion,
Thoughts, in extreme were polars:
Hangings caused thought explosion.

Practical shades for locomotion
Abide despite extreme solars
Pending for licit speed promotion.

Hanging bright without corrosion
Silent guards for strollers
Wouldn’t work out in the ocean.

From Starbuck’s cavern, in slow motion
Viewing yellow shades, traffic controllers:
Lights affecting driver’s law’s erosion
Green, red, yellow: stop/start commotion.

http://community.livejournal.com/poets_challenge/
This week's challenge
mrknowitall
July 27th, 10:44
Show and Tell: I'll give an ambiguous description of something you have. You then write a poem that includes the item in some significant way.Look out any window in your home. The first yellow object you see is the object you should use in your poem.
Tags: show and tell

Loving Lazy Latte

From Starbuck’s cavern warmly cool,
View of traffic light’s yellow shades:
Dog day outside, sipping smoothie, no fool.

Lounging amid furniture of trendy school,
Online tweeting of meaningless accolades
Laptop’s great accomplice, time-filling tool.

Glass walls through grids of chairs and stool
Shimmering traffic, moving driver fades:
Seeing move from café cave to pool.

Summer languor unwinding from a spool
In water where lazy fish bobs and wades;
To zap with work or extreme heat is cruel.

Unexpected free summer day gives fuel
To creative urges, sinuous muses rule.
This worker, workday for free time trades;
Let enslaved workhorses sweat and drool.

Straight White Might (w/intent clarified in last line)

For Republicans Buchanon’s got it Pat;
Whites vote white: screw those of color.
Forget those groups: they live in squalor:
Count on straight majority whites, that’s that.

Why concern yourselves with vocal minorities;
The label clearly shows they lack the numbers.
White citizens, true American power that slumbers --
Don’t give up our freedoms to alien authorities.

America was built with white brains, macho brawn;
Enough propaganda from foreign ideas and lies:
Our greatness is diminished by those who despise
The European culture from which ours is drawn.


Patriots awaken: take U.S. back by vote or force?
White privilege call running its poisonous course.


SamsClub Sacrilege


Walmart and SamsClub are businesses huge
Their spread is unstoppable all over the world.
The free market flag for them is unfurled,
Customer savings, their song, appeals to a scrooge.

Beginning in small towns in the boondocks,
First unnoticed by the urban population
Then exploding as largest business in the nation:
Cheap prices and low wages pushed up stocks.

Employee wages low isn’t the only conflict:
Considering location for commerce the key
They steamroller desired land with glee!
Profits could care less what cultures they afflict.

Sacred native lands, once protected by Indian club,
Now need the sensitive allies, Sam’s toe to stub.

@schoodic: RT @1stnationsrok "May you always walk in Beauty." (Ancient Prayer) -Black Elk, Oglala Sioux #nosamsclub #nativeamerican
@caroliscious: "All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth."~Chief Seattle #NativeAmerican #nosamsclub. @CChambliss @n8ivista

Agony in Iran

Ahmadinejad declared his election the healthiest of its kind;
It’s clear because al-Arabiya’s shuttered for a week
This ilk of election follows a well known streak
Of oppressive politics and media control: we aren’t blind!

Though press is blocked from recording events
As angry protestors confront well armed troops;
Streams on the net feed chaotic scenes in video loops:
Clamp downs on media can’t block bloody segments.

The truth of what’s happening isn’t easy to discern:
Any losing side in a political battle is apt to be ired.
But quick voting tallies smelled of being wired!
It’s no surprise many angry voters did riot and burn.

While press and correspondents were exiled or jailed,
Events most egregious point to a true vote count failed.

I Run Iran: I’m the Man!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election was a landslide,
No question: I’m the man, I run Iran.
If you disagree by Basijii goons you will be eyed,
With special interest if you’re an angry young man.

When hated Shah in 80s was deposed to exile
The mood for change brought Mullahs to the fore;
A theocratic state made many freedoms fragile,
But little love was lost for ruler U.S. backed before.

With shifts of culture and omnipresent internet
Iranians are tweets and in facebook, trans-global;
To nervous state, tech walls are porous and a threat.
Yet plugging leaks is just like keeping a desert snowball.

Ali-Reza is clear after jail: “Now I know whom I hate”.
They are wild and not human.” Mahmoud just you wait.

Iranian Villanelle

Do not go gentle into Iranian night,
Though streets burn and youth are in the fray;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though Mousavi‘s people don’t end fight for right,
Because the army troops hold powerful guns they
Go not gentle into that bloody night.

Good people, their courage overcoming fright,
Their stones and fires unable to keep big guns at bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Brave men and womens staring with unblinkng sight,
Their dreams could blaze like meteors and hope display,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, young hopefuls in freedom’s plight,
Curse, damn the armies with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into Iranian night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.



Blow the Whistle, Will You, Wendell

Of two Potters making news last week, brave Wendell
I proclaim. Harry’s mad entourage outstrips his gifts,
And non-fiction’s insurance scam kiss-and-tell
About CIGNA profits: deep health business rifts.

Details and office secrets, intuited without the facts,
With Wendell’s testimony leave no nagging doubts:
Insurance health-needs leeches leave clear tracks;
Seen from the inside: mapped all veins and routes.

Mega moneyed-interests have funded many friends;
Elected to office, unfriendly to anti-insurance stands.
Damning data facing congress, insurance side upends.
Burning question: Well-fed congress, biting feeding hands?

Sweet snitch, prescribe in pro-patient speeches;
Is Harry’s magic needed to snuff health leeches?

With a Cheat-Cheat Here, and a Cheat-Cheat There…
The Christian Mafia & The GOP

The Christian Mafia and the house on C Street:
Rachel Maddow airs news on hypocrisy.
Those bible pounders can’t avoid such idiocy,
So Pickering, Sanford and Ensign feel the heat.

Chick Pickering was clear in Clinton condemnation,
As was Governor Sanford, stands quite moral
Common to their Christian beliefs written and oral:
C Street is a center for The Family: their salvation.

They sang a song of sexual sins in chorus
Castigating those who carnally did slip;
But now tune does hound, and heels do nip:
These cheating men are but a pack of whore-us.

So “we are family, my unfaithful brothers and me”,
And all other uncaught brother hypocrites do flee.

Beyond the Taco

It’s Tuesday -- tacos announced/called for with relish;
To Mexican true the taste spread's much greater.
For starters: Menudo, guisado, fritada…( need translator?)
With salsas, mo(e)-les (spicey gravies) to embellish.

The array of dishes from varied regions of that nation
Run the gamut of vegetables, meats and seafood.
There are fruits and roots and legumes to the good,
But for us the popular pinto bean is the foundation.

My mother, border purist, hated menu’s Mexican
In Texas restaurants, citing tastes most crude:
“American cheese enchiladas”? How Rude!
She abhorred popular tastes called Texican.

My current veggie tastes do modify the dishes,
Yet Calabacita (squash) is still delicious.