Bush & Company

Mitt and Newt, Newt and Mitt---media journalists and pundits are absentmindedly calling Mitt Newt and Newt Mitt as the two adversaries role reverse.

Reactionary Far Right voters, resentful and rebellious, want a ruffian for their presidential candidate, one who will shamelessly, even mendaciously, demolish his foes.

This was Newt Gingrich before his religious conversion and he's now, at least partially as a protective gambit, preaching against negative campaigning, while Mitt, once cautious and aloof, is attacking with the slanderous techniques previously employed by his rival, perhaps learned from the late Lee Atwater and his pupil, Karl Rove.

In compensation, Mitt's falling back on his exemplary family life as a contrast to Newt's chequered marital past.

Both, however, now favor Paul Ryan's budget plan to destroy Medicare.

Attempting to distance themselves from themselves, Mitt and Newt are becoming each other.

They're switching places, Newt and Mitt,
Mitt the attacker, Newt grown kind;
And yet, as they're alike in name,
They're fundamentally the same.

In practice I think that you'll find
Both are of the unprincipled kind;
Goal motivated, of one mind---
To win or know the reason why.

How willingly they tell a lie!
In essence they're not far apart---
They share a shady blackguard's heart.
Mitt or the Newtster, Newt or Mitt,

The bottom line---they're both unfit.

Not only is the greedy Newt Gingrich an obnoxious egomaniac, a brazen, self-righteous, mendacious opportunist, but worst of all, a very dangerous man.

Imagine this undisciplined, self-promoting tyrant in charge of the overwhelming complex of often interdependent challenges that our current president faces. Newt's astonishing rise to the top of the heap is more a commentary on public and party distaste for his leading competitor, job-killer Mitt Romney, than a tribute to his worth; meanwhile, the honorable, if extreme, Ron Paul, is coming up hard behind. Newt's supporters deliberately blind themselves to his flaws out of their unreasoning frenzy to topple President Obama at any cost and GOP moderates are quaking with fright.

The new Newt---a kindly man---few believe in, despite his apparent sincere conversion to Roman Catholocism and his plea to others to run non-negative campaigns and warnings against his menace may ultimately prevail.

A real fear is in the air
And growing as primaries draw near;
Yet while Newt's currently on top,
That could come to a grinding stop

With Mitt and Ron hard on his tail.
Who knows the end of Newton's tale
When all of them who know him best
May finally override the rest

And rivals bringing up the rear
Are heading to that final test,
But febrile voters out of hate
Flock round their fractious candidate

And stubbornly ignore what's clear;
What would come after? They don't care. . .

Donald Trump announced that he would moderate a Republican debate in December, that many had asked him to do it, that it would get the highest ratings of all the debates.

As most candidates declined the invitation---only Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum accepted---Mr. Trump announed that he didn't want to "waste Donald Trump's time," because he might still run for president (although he actually lacks sufficient funds). He'd simply host a chat with Newt about issues. "Newt and I will talk about what has to be done," he told Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, evading mention of Rick Santorum and asking him "a few questions." This, too, would receive highest ratings.

Nothing is lost! Donald Trump will still be in charge.

As usual, Donald Trump was late
Announcing he would moderate
Another GOP debate
With every top-notch candidate;

But when the bulk of them declined,
He said he didn't really mind
Because it would have been a crime
To waste the Donald's precious time

Since he might run for president,
A thing that would be time well spent;
Meanwhile, he'd hold a chat instead;
Like that, he'd still be way ahead---

He'd be the man who's in control
And wasn't that his real goal?

President Obama, unruffled as he seems, must occasionally become riled up, athough he publicly rises above the increasing maligning by his detractors, either ignoring the attacks or responding quietly with a touch of humor.

The insufferable accusations currently leveled at him that he takes too much time off, that he's turning victory in Iraq into defeat, that he's inept at foreign affairs and has, in fact, failed in this arena and further, is an appeaser, not unlike Neville Chamberlain of Hitler, have noticeably galled him and he's tactfully, though effectively, fought back. "Ask Osama bin Laden," he said calmly, with a few other words in his defense; and they sufficed.

Such unfounded assaults only make the president look still better and his slanderers far, far worse.

The president in his quiet way,
While laboring from day to day
To keep the bogey man at bay,
Has very little time to play,

But every chance they get, The Right
Will petulantly pick a fight;
With lies licentiously lay blame
Boldfaced, without a trace of shame.

Those accusations that they spin
They do with much ado and din
And do they think those tales they've spun
Have gained them ground that he has won?

Although it began as a means of gaining wealth for Tiffany purchases, cruises and front business groups and foundations, has Newt switched his mindset---stimulated by his unexpected surge in support as an anti-Romney candidate---to actually run for president? Has he finally made enough money to satisfy his greed? Is he now ready to spend on a real campaign or is it still a ploy by the attention-seeking "historian"? How will once-liberal Mitt overcome this frightful turn of events?

Manchester's conservative New Hampshire Union Leader's endorsement of Newt on November 27, disloyally slapped its favorite son in the face, forcing him farther to the Right to prove himself a true conservative, critical to outdistancing his latest rival.

Who would dare scramble to be the anti-Gingrich?---Gingrich, whose hallmark is character assassination. . .

Will Newt and Mitt, both perhaps fatally flawed, self-destruct while destroying each other?

It seems the Newtster's on the stump,
Considering his surprising jump---
But is he ready for a run
To be the nation's Number One?

How will poor Mitt begin to cope
With polls that well could dash his hope
Of being Number Forty-Five;
How keep that tenuous hope alive?

Conceding to the mindless Right,
The Mittster still might lose his fight.

There's a theory that everyone has an invisible aura above his head, denoting his character and how he conducts his life.

For the best of us, this aura is bright, white and radiant; for the worst, a roily, dingy yellow.

Considering the arrogant, mean, unscrupulous, often brawling behavior of past and present Newt Gingrich and his continued capricious dance with truth and fact, one might rightly assume that the aura, halo or aureole he wears is of the latter kind.

The reputations that he stole
Would further each self-serving goal;
While playing one or another role,
He'd swing with ease from pole to pole;

Chameleon-like, self-contradicting,
By logic never is constricting.
Is he the braggart politician,
An intellect, a word magician?

Is he a man without a soul
Who wears an earthly aureole?
Who is this double-dealing fellow
Whose aura is a dirty yellow?

Newt lives in the moment. What he said yesterday is irrelevant.

The latest anti-Romney frontrunner is a bogus intellectual who puts forth scattered, inflated and unworkable ideas; a professional scam artist who hawks his former speakership to make millions for access to his influence and celebrity, though reprimanded , then forced out of the House, for lying. Fundraising for his "foundations" and his "campaign" makes possible the purchase of a pair of Jean Schlumberger earrings at $22,000, a Victorian graduated diamond necklace at $45,000 for his third wife Callista, with other valuables, as well as lavish vacations and more.

He explains he was paid by the Freddie Mac mortgage company up to $1.8 million in strategic consulting fees as an "historian," yet what he did was what lobbyists do. "I never lobbied," he insists.

One might ask, when will his wild ride be over?

The Newtster's an erratic man,
Disorderly, without a plan;
He should be as surprised as we
He's suddenly taken seriously

By voters fickle as can be,
Forgetful, too, don't they recall
His previous ignominious fall?
Puffed up with self, wealth is his aim;

For every mess he blames the press,
Though self-imposed, his fall from grace;
Pretending that he's in the race,
His flipflops, meantime, don't grow less.

As president, he's more unfit
Than is his fellow waffler Mitt.
He'll self-destruct, he'll never last;
His half-remembered face and name,

But relics of a shoddy past.

Mitt Romney, all but confirmed frontrunner for the presidency, staunchly claims to be a man of "steadiness and constancy," despite his flipflops on virtually every issue put before the Republican field.

Perhaps his consistency in remaining near or at the top of the totem pole is the rationale for his belief, if indeed, he actually believes it.

Oh, how I wish that I could put
Into that handsome form and face,
That handsome hand, that handsome foot---
A man of character in their place

To fill the gaping vacant space
With one who's real to replace
A man who would be president,
Whose words are words he never meant,

For that man is, we know so well,
A man who's but an empty shell.

Plastic politicians, whose oaths mean nothing, surrender any semblance of self-respect to gain millions of dollars to feather their personal nests and to win office. In defeat, their mendacious efforts are still more meaningless.

In the Great Beyond, replete with defunct self-promoters, there are no prospects for reform, only a vast eternity for regret.

No matter if you win or lose,
The quest for mean success will end---
All that you spend, all you pretend,
The spiteful messages you send. . .

It's not too late to change, my friend---
So mindful be that it may end
Where you get all that is your due---
A place with time and space to rue

That better way that one can choose
Until it's, sadly, overdue. . .

President Bush told us we'd have to wait for history to judge
his presidency,
his war.
History has arrived.
Read all about it in:
THE PRESIDENT OF WAR and the cowards, villains and fools behind him
by Elizabeth Gerteiny
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.amazon.com
www.xlibris.com

What ever happened to "Give credit where credit is due?"

The graceless and petty Republican Congress, so resentful of any success enjoyed by President Obama, refuse to acknowledge his quietly achieved triumphs in the Middle East---Tea Party approval not being required.

In some cases, the lawmakers vaguely acclaim outside influences, in others, criticize how the president did it.

The penchant of the spiteful few
To lend no praise where credit's due
But castigate---while nothing new---
The president's singular success
Just proves him more and them much less.

Paul Ryan, budget committee chair and Eric Cantor, majority leader, the most powerful House Republicans below Speaker Boehner, are sitting in the catbird seat.

With absolute financial security and the best in permanent total healthcare for themselves and their families, not only don't they have to care about all those others, their joblessness and creeping poverty---they don't.

Mr. Ryan accused President Obama of divisiveness, pitting class against class, by advocating tax increases for the top one percent of Americans.

Mr. Cantor described the now worldwide Occupy Wall Street demonstrators as a "growing mob."

They, along with Republicans in both legislative chambers, as well as two Democrats, Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana, voted against the president's jobs bill, preventing its passage, even though shamed by Mr. Obama before their constituencies. Besides voting against a plan that would speedily create 1.9 million jobs, they attempted to distract attention by yet again reintroducing the abortion issue and including denial of medical assistance to any uninsured miscarrying pregnant woman.

Will their enormous corporate campaign contributions save their jobs or will their constituents finally catch on?

Paul and Eric sitting pretty,
They prefer to show no pity
From their seats far on The Right,
Who dismiss the desperate plight

Of those who protest The Street
They're determined to defeat,
As complacently they sit,
Legislators who don't care,

A cruel, self-promoting pair---
That's the long and short of it.

The remarkably different Buddy Roemer, a former Louisiana governor, is almost too good to be true and too good to win---partly for his crusade against corporate and undisclosed campaign funding, partly because he's a candidate who stays firmly on his sensible message.

Mitt Romney, the only probable constant for the Republican presidential nomination, is chronically inconstant in conviction.

It's very clear the man's hellbent
On being "Mr. President"
And so to win the people's trust,
He'll say no matter what, to wit:

Although it may be opposite
To what he said before when it
Was not Mitt's actual intent---
No, the reverse was what he meant.

He'll gladly spend what need be spent
And say whatever else he must.
It all will be worthwhile just
To be the U S president.

What a letdown for Republicans---especially the Koch brothers, who were ready to bankroll a Christie campaign with the unlimited funding allowed by our current U S Supreme Court.

Mr.Christie, true to his instincts that "now is not my time," finally rejected his relentless potential backers.

Perhaps he was concerned that an election loss would leave neither a presidency nor a governorship.

Perhaps the apparent straight shooter wouldn't have flipflopped on his stands on immigration, gun control, climate change, medical marajuana, or whitewashed his appointment of a Moslem judge.

From the outset, the honeymoon would disintegrate---skeletons dragged out of closets, references to his unhealthy weight, conservative distress over those liberal views, despite his stance that President Obama be a "one-termer."

Perhaps party loyalty---splitting the moderate Republican vote---prevailed; or perhaps he's building future support.

The governor told his electorate, "So, New Jersey, whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me."

Meanwhile, Barack Obama is stuck in a system not of his making. It will be a challenge to survive it; what's more, to triumph.

He didn't have to do a thing
And donors pushing him to run
Would see to it that he would win
And gloat as he was being sworn in;

But once begun or very soon,
The bought and paid for honeymoon
Would end as defects would abound,
By his support for certain found.

He may yet try for Washington,
That Jersey guy, next time around. . .

Not to political advantage for leading presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry that the president resolve the jobs crisis---both falsely claim job creation in their states of Massachusetts and Texas---it's critical for President Obama, not to be beaten at the polls by any unfit Republican deceiver.

Mitt Romney, apparently having no firm convictions, bragging he's a job creator, does believe in seemingly rescuing companies, then firing their employees to gain huge profits for himself as the companies fall into bankruptcy. Rick Perry, with his dangerously opinionated policies, takes credit for jobs the Obama stimulus---which he villifies---has created, government jobs, low paying, often temporary. Cheap labor and feeble regulation account for many out-of-state jobs brought into Texas.

President Obama's shrewdly plotted push for jobs must win him reelection for the sake of a nation that has over the past decade dropped alarmingly in productivity, public safety, economic equity and over all, national honor. Mr. Obama does not fake his seldom acknowledged, but considerable, achievements.

Mitt and Rick are at their core
Empty suits and little more;l
Nonetheless, these two pretenders
Are for president top contenders.

Touting their uniqueness, yet
Their alikeness has been set
By their claims to be job makers---
In this context, both are fakers.

No way either can make good
On his pledge is understood.
D C bound, he doesn't care---
That won't matter once he's there.

In a special election, September 13, 2011, Democrat Anthony Weiner's seat in the US House of Representatives, Queens/Brooklyn district nine, was won by the first Republican in 88 years, a special election so different in outcome from that on May 24 in upstate New York when Erie County clerk Kathy Hochul won the vacant Democratic seat. New Congressman Bob Turner's apparent qualification is that he created both the Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Springer TV shows.

A barometer of the gathering disgust with not only incumbents in general, but Democats, because they are the president's party, Mr. Obama must continue vigorously pressing his cause to the people. His visit to the deteriorating Brent Spence bridge connecting Senator Mitch McConnell's Kentucky to House Speaker John Boehner's Ohio was a brilliant deliberate maneuver to show up the GOP leaders to their constituents.

Fault for the unalleviated gridlock on presidential proposals lies with President Obama's lagging use of his rightful powers---a perhaps calculated tradition among Democratic leaders---, an obdurate and pitiless Republican Congress and a myopic, impatient electorate determined to punish their president.

Mr. President, are you back,
Finally on a better tack
With your jobs bill right on track?
Have you learned it's all about

Using presidential clout
To defeat your foulest foes,
So that everybody knows
They're a bunch of so-and-sos?

That's how you won't get the sack,
Even if it's by a nose. . .

IN MY TIME
A Personal and Political Memoir
Dick Cheney (with Liz Cheney)
Simon & Schuster (Threshold Editions)
527 pages of text

The author is living up to his reputation full force. The imperious, boastful, hawkish and now disloyal vice president is back.

His book's often humanizing and touching personal photographs cause one to wonder how this family man and doting grandpa of seven adorable grandchildren could be so oblivious to the blunt termination of so many other adorable grandchildren and their grandpas---besides Americans and allies, countless Iraquis and Afghanistanis have been slaughtered---as a consequence of his obdurate and merciless policies.

Even as his own party, his colleagues and closest associates are loudly complaining that his written words are words of betrayal, he continues to see himself as a solitary leader in the company of cowards.

George W. Bush's vice president makes no apologies, not for pushing the president into invading Iraq, not to Scooter Libby, not to Valerie Plame, not to Colin Powell or Condi Rice for what he wrote in his memoir or his patronizing of George W. Bush, who finally resisted his mentor's most extreme hawkishness, nor for the needlessly torchered and the dead. Nor does he apologize in his book. His single regret appears to be not pushing harder for the bombing of Syria's reactor in 2007. He discouraged the White House's impulse to apologize for the infamous "sixteen words."
"The sixteen words were true," he insists. Of remaining firm on his position of attacking Iraq, David Letterman quipped, "He would still invade the wrong country."

Unwilling to credit the current administration for the sensational conclusion to the search for Osama, he states, "I was gratified that after years of diligent and dedicated work, our nation's intelligence community and our special operations forces were able. . . to find and kill bin Laden." This, despite his president's televised statement that he wasn't really concerned anymore about the master planner of 9/11.

All in all, Dick Cheney is proud of his record as vice president and seems rhapsodic over the prospect of his book's impact. "There are gonna be heads exploding all over Washington," he brags.

As his mentor, he made the president the fall guy for decisions he, the so-called "eminence grise," actually made, although Mr. Cheney probably doesn't see it that way.

It's a bipartisan failure that this all-powerful former vice president is not to be tried and imprisoned for his major role in the Iraq invasion, the use of torture (which he paraphrases "tough interrogation") or spying on America's emails and phone calls and will bear no official stigma, rather be treated as a celebrity and former statesman, the author of an impressive volume depicting a weighty slice of American history. Poetic justice may determine how he's regarded.

Rick Perry is an outrage. How much of his political and religious histrionics does he believe? How much to persuade his credulous and ever-increasing audience?

Many Texans are familiar with his radical disdain for entitlements and notably, federal healthcare, his fallacious braggadocio as a job creator, his hypocritical use of government funding; know what he really is through bitter experience; others have yet to find out, while the favored few benefit from his corrupt and unethical policies.

Executions in his state outnumber, by far, those in any other state and even ones implemented by Governor George W. Bush before him.

Comparisons of Perry with the former governor-turned-president are rampant---cronysism, conflicts of interest and brazen favoritism toward the highly privileged figure as particular similarities.

Yet even as the latter made President George H. W. Bush appear brilliant and near saintly, Governor Perry makes the much-maligned son seem more than acceptable.

Governor Perry has no shame
When he wrongly places blame,
When he proves he lacks a heart;
While his Texas counterpart---

Many think that they're the same---
Never, never, ever made
Any threats against the head
Of the mighty US Fed

Nor so often prayed to God,
Like Rick's usual charade,
Making all those pious pleas,
Patently his base to please.

Could be it's the governor's aim---
Otherwise, it's very odd
That he's doing all one should
To make W look so good!

They heard the rhythmic rum tum tum,
The pounding of a distant drum,
The cadence of the beat beat beat
Of martial bands and marching feet;

And then came the insistent hum
Of whirring aircraft overhead,
While blaring rounds of weaponry
Would soon set the Iraquis free;

But where the flowers, the fervid cheers
And joyful tintinnabulum
On our victorious soldiers' ears?
Of all this there was none, instead

The portent of what was to come---
The petrol generated from
Refinement of petroleum.
It's oil, just oil, and nothing more;

But that's not what our leaders said---
Not oil this grievous strike was for,
This war they were resolved to sell,
Nor rubble and the waste of war;

The endless din, the earthly Hell,
The bones and bloodshed of the dead.

Finally, a Republican presidential candidate speaks out rationally. Although he flipflopped early on in his campaign, then kept a low profile, the former Utah governor and ambassador to China has come out of hiding to make a bold counter statement about his competitors' ignorant stands on global warming and evolution.

About Michele Bachmann's promise to bring gasoline prices down to $2 per gallon, Jon Huntsman told Piers Morgan, "We live in the real world. . .And gas prices just aren't going to rebound like that."

Yet almost immediately, he said he would be "the first person to sign up, absolutely" as Bachmann's running mate, though he emailed a friend that he looks forward to "increasing contrasts with my opponents."

As Bachmann's vice president, he would have to do her bidding, relinquishing his principles and beliefs. This sole logical and honorable Republican candidate seems, after all, just another waffling lip server.

Jon Isn't Short for Jonathan

Simply Jon, where have you been?
Never mind, long as you're in,
Heard above the mindless din,
You just might deserve to win.

Once again, let's hear your views,
That you'll honor, not abuse.
Whoops! You spoiled it when you said
That you'd run for veep instead,

Side by side with Ms. Michele,
Whose ideas we know so well.
Maybe you won't mind a bit
When we call you hypocrite. . .

just might deserve to win.

Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is one of President Obama's most vicious foes. Vowing last November to "investigate, investigate, investigate" the president, he, among other Republicans, is on a relentless rampage to destroy him.

One of the richest members of Congress, his wealth is particularly questionnable. Making no attempt to hide it, he's engaged in a multitude of business and financial enterprises with strong suggestions of conflict of interest, as Eric Lichtblau in the New York Times put it August 15, 2011, his "dual careers, a meshing of public and private interests rarely seen in government." As our country is set up, holding a seat in Congress is especially advantageous to one's business ventures.

Watch out, Darrell---someone might decide to relentlessly investigate you. . .

In November, 2010. . .

One of the president's fiercest foes,
Rep Darrell Issa thinks he knows
Exactly how he can create
A scandalous Obamagate.

He vowed that he'll investigate,
He'll search with all his fearsome power
Until he's found some vestige our
Obama might have left behind,

Some tiny thing that he can spin
If not an actual crime or sin;
But let's suppose he never can,
There's simply nothing he can find,

This lawmaker-cum-businessman
With such a single-minded plan.
It's best that he should watch his step,
The all-too-brazen US rep. . .

(Could it be that he just forgot
He, too, could be put on the spot?)

Who started this trend, anyway? Was it Newt, The Donald or Huckabee or does the idea go back to Ms. Sarah?

Announce you'e running for president. Raise money for your bogus campaign. Present your crackpot opinions. Then bow out gracefully because you're outfunded. Meantime, your name has become widely known and before you know it, you're a Fox News commentator, a best-selling author and a much-sought speaker on the lecture circuit. Only the serious-minded remain. Those weeded out can expect similar rewards.

The victor may gain the presidency and a tenure of trauma, frustration and abuse, in some cases, deserved.

Here's the latest thing to do---
Make a run for president,
Even though you'll finish low,
But that always was your plan

And the reason that you ran.
I can't quite remember who
Came up with this clever con,
But the concept has caught on.

Boost your name's the way to go,
Stay until you've made a dent,
Then get hired by Fox News
Where you can express your views

And make lots and lots of dough.

Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker's relentless mission to eliminate collective bargaining from the state, which will negatively impact firefighters, nurses, teachers and all unionized public employee professionals, culminated in a fierce special election August 9, 2011. Three Democratic state senators were needed to unseat Republicans; only two were elected.

Wisconsinites won't forget the president's conspicuous absence from the battle scene. His presence, as he resolutely reinforced his campaign and later promises, as he championed Walker's political prey and vigorously prodded Democrats and principled Republicans and Independents, might have garnered more liberal votes.

Obama, where were you?

You pledged that you would stand behind
The underdogs, but now I find
You very simply aren't around.
From you, Barack, there's not a sound.

Is this some sort of stratagem,
Not to support, not to condemn?
I see no rationale unless
You fear the few will like you less.

No rousing of the ranks is heard---
Is this the way you keep your word?

The president's need for bi-partisanship, regardless of the stakes, is becoming disastrous. Apart specific crises is the ever-increasing and uncompromising power of the Tea Party, the radical branch of the Republican Party.

Results coming from his projected Super Committee are fairly predictable. Six Democrats and six Republicans voting, each set hand-picked for its opposing stance, although requiring but a simple majority, could end in a hopeless gridlock. The nation is in perpetual disarray; can't the president recall Congress from their five-week vacation?

The Tea Party has swiftly burgeoned from a small protest group into a ruinous force, rendering the House speaker and the president, to all appearances, cowed and helpless.

President Obama, why are you stalling? Why are you seeking an escape route? What future exigency will motivate you to action? This vicious gang is gaining fearsome momentum from its latest unconscionable victory.

Why are you acting like a coward?

Did the president take a stand
That he never will demand
An end to what's engulfed our land
Beset by that unholy band?

How can one help but wonder how
He can hang back, not disavow
Those House despoilers somehow---
It just gets worse---when if not now?

The time for patience long has passed---
One more bust and the die is cast.
God, please don't make me have to say
My president has feet of clay. . .

It seems, President Obama, that you've let us down. You've succombed in the name of bi-partisanship to the witless demands of irrational, ignorant bullies and their craven lackeys who are apparently unaware that they too, in time, will fall victim to their brazen, boastful, shameless victory.

You, Mr. President, could have pushed through a just and simple solution. It was in the realm of your Constitutional authority.

Other presidents are remembered for their reforms, benefiting generations, not for the arduous and forceful mechanics of their execution, overcoming the vitriol of their opposition. Nor will those generations care that another president tolerantly accomodated an unbalanced bi-partisanship to approve a diluted product. They will not praise him. They will not thank him

This was pure extortion and you, Mr. President, have forfeited your principles and your extraordinary political talent, your opportunity for fearless leadership.

You assure us that in time, the issues in abeyance willl be equitablty resolved. Time will tell. The Tea Partyers are not going to quit.

What kind of compromise is this,
Sealed with a submissive kiss---
The very presidential seal;
Just how is this a balanced deal?

Advantage mostly for one side
And the chasm far too wide,
A deal lacking revenues
When all who can must pay their dues.

A battle cry of TERRORIZE!
So where, pray, is the compromise?
The winning side wholly remiss---
What kind of compromise is this?

Is capitulation by the president, expected and feared by many, only an appearance? Will he and Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, hopefully with the cooperation of Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, reach an acceptable agreement or will Reid and Obama be obliged to lead Republicans on then try to trump them? If need be, the president could sign a simple statement, to raise the debt ceiling, divorced from all other considerations, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (entitlements being the real issue) left intact, eliminating the artificial interdependence of issues comprising the current crisis. Brought about solely by the intransigeance of a handful of shameless politicians, short-sighted and self-serving, some subservient to the rest, they seek to make the blameless pay, House speaker Boehner deliberately stalling with a plan they all knew wouldn't pass in the Senate.

The president continues to insist on a bi-partisan solution, although it's clear there'll never be a truly satifactory compromise from the Tea Party-controlled House.

The Republican mission, dating back to the 1930s, to shrink the government and abolish all Democratic programs, as well as to unseat President Obama, is heading dangerously toward fruition.

One can only hope that Mr. Obama, if all else fails, is waiting until the last minute, thus averting Congressional obstruction, to exercise his executive right to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment, despite possible future litigation, and raise the debt ceiling independently, ending the conflict with all its variables and needless complexities.

The president could be outdone,
By those Republicans undone,
Unless he's had a master plan,
Perhaps since this to-do began.

Just out to keep his speakership,
Boehner's stand is nothing new,
While still firm on bi-partisanship,
Obama's apt to lose his due---

A bill, diluted by the few.
Those mindless rightists won't unbend;
Yet our Barack could make it end
By wielding his rightful power,

Though doing it at the eleventh hour.

There are those who hold that the disheveled, check-shirted shaving cream attacker, a spectator at Parliament's interrogation of Rupert Mudoch on July 19 in London, was a fraud, the assault designed as a distraction from the embarassment to the Murdoch contingent and a ploy to gain public sympathy. The thrower's accusation of "greedy," "greedy billionaire" or "naughty billionaire," quoted by varied accounts, however, makes the attack seem authentic. Would Murdoch's people deliberately call attention to the "inconvenient truth?"

Murdoch's wife Wendi, his son James and his bodyguard, all tried to help, though it was Wendi who, swiftly jumping to her feet, intercepted the attack, but after the mogul's face and jacket were flecked with foam. Early reports had called the offending substance pie, but later, shaving cream, carried into the proceedings on a paper plate.

The disruption, preceded by many such events in the past, originally as a slapstick gimmick, evolving into a form of protest against celebrities, royalty and in the case of President George W. Bush, with a pair of shoes, was caused by a standup comic/activist by the name of Jonathan May-Bowles or Jonnie Marbles. He has probably defeated his purpose by turning the disgraced tycoon into a victim and his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, into a heroine; though the incident, soon to fade into history, will be replaced by the seriousness of his offenses.

Blame for the cell-phone hacking and bribery scandal, toppling the 168-year-old tabloid News of the World and perhaps the entire Murdoch global media empire, he attributes to the people he trusted and the people they trusted "and it's for them to pay."

Ramifications of the scandal are multifold. In America, where his tainted affiliations with the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Fox News and others, are also high profile, he may pay more dearly than in Britain, where politicians are dependent on newspapers for their election, where no paid political advertising exists and where tabloids are extremely influential. It follows that Parliament may be guarded in their dealing with the magnate; regrettable, as a criminal conviction there would facilitate an end to the era of Murdoch media monopoly.

There must be many participants on all levels of the Murdoch operations and scams which might be just the tip of the iceberg. At the very least, one weak link among them could, out of conscience or faint heart, fill in more of the sordid details.

Was the tousled bloke who threw
Pie-shaped shaving cream at Rupe
Genuinely in a stew?
Was his fury really true?

Was the thrower there to dupe,
That episode of shaving cream
Rather, a distractive scheme?
Was the pie another lie

Or an honest manifestation
Of the outrage of a nation?

The president understands the current Republican mindset. He's well aware of the envy, spite and resentment held against him by his adversaries and of their puerile determination never to cooperate with him even when he agrees with them.

He knows House speaker Boehner is cornered by the relentless, bullying Tea Party leaders.

He knows about timing. He can foresee reactions and act or not act accordingly. He knows how to patiently build suspense, be maligned and then vindicated, gaining more abundant and zealous support, already evident in the polls. The polls also tell us that 80% of Americans want the "Big Three"---Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid---off the negotiating table. Mr. Obama, please take our Big Three off the table. Please.

Should all his indulgences and maneuvers fail, he can invoke section four of the Fourteenth Amendment and solve everything. He can't be more despised in some quarters than he already is. It may be the only way for a just solution.

I hope the president has made
A firm decision not to trade
One weighty crisis for another,
To yield too fairly to the other.

There is one way to have it all
So Humpty Dumpty doesn't fall.
I have to hope it's in his plan
To trump that fatuous, heartless clan.

Sarah might have deluded herself into thinking she could do it all.

Maybe she's just stringing us along and maybe she wants Michelle to run and win so she can be known as queenmaker as well as unofficial Ms. America.

Many people seem to think
Those two girls are on the brink
Of some sort of gross display,
Wrestling in the mud and such,

But I think Michelle's too much
Of a lady, it's a stretch
She'd be part of some set-to;
Sarah's something else again;

But that kind of row takes two.
How she must wish that it were
Way back in two thousand ten!
Just what was she going to do---

Be a star and president, too?
So it may seem it's no way
For that ingrate to repay
All that Sarah did for her!

Is the president testing the Right? Has he a trick or two up his presidential sleeve? He’s backed into a corner now, but can he push his opposition across the room with a few leading questions? Do you really want to put the majority at risk? Do you begrudge our vets, children, the elderly and disabled what they can’t provide for themselves? Do you really want to see your country go down the drain? Is it party and personal aggrandizement before patriotism?

Congress has entitlements for life. The affluent don’t need them.

Time is running out. How about the Fourteenth Amendment?

Entitlements are on the block;
It’s critical --- we’re on the clock;
Americans have had enough ---
So tired of this standoff stuff

And want to see the chief get tough
Or maybe he can call their bluff;
While being tough is not his style,
He sometimes is and with a smile

And if they’re reasonably asked,
Those S.O.B.s could be unmasked

Our leader has an impish streak;
It's very clear he likes to tweak
The opposition in their hope
He'll fail, while giving them more rope.

Barack according to The Right
Can hardly ever do things right;
It's just his way to wait and wait
Until it seems to be too late

And then come through with what to do
Though end results are not in sight.
Meawhile, our man stays very cool
And they're left looking like a fool.

What has to be conceded is
The last laugh usually is his.

Former governor and ambassador Jon Huntsman announced to a small turnout on June 21, 2011, his presidential candidacy and like conservative icon Ronald Reagan, in front of the Statue of Liberty at Liberty State Park, New Jersey.

Sarah hates to be outdone,
Not by Newt and not by Mitt,
Nor by Trump, but then he quit.

I thought I saw her back in June
In a little boat, I guess,
Waving wildly to the crowd,

She was sure she'd get some press,
Right behind new hopeful Jon
Announcing his upcoming run.

When all the brouhaha is done,
Curiously, she may have won,
Even if she didn't run

Or she may have gained much less
Than that Minnesota belle,
Erstwhile protegee Michelle.

The Gingriches have a new credit line at Tiffany's, this time for a cool million.

Newt has another credit line---
Can you believe it's even more,
Much more than what he had before?
Could this be some sort of a sign

He's not as frugal as he thought?
He certainly must be aware
That strings of pearls and silverware
Are cheaper at a bargain store

Than Tiffany's and the things he bought
Would have to cost a whole lot less
And so in turn relieve the stress
From late night comics and the press.

The truth is out: the real reason behind House budget committee chair Paul Ryan's adamant stand on his budget bill that advocates, among other obscenities, the privatization of Medicare.

Ryan and his wife own stakes in four companies owned by his father-in-law which lease land in Oklahoma and Texas to energy companies---Chesapeake Energy, Devon, XTO Energy and an ExxonMobil subsidiary. All profit from the tax subsidies the Ryan plan backs and express their gratitude accordingly.

Not only a clear conflict of interest, this should also be a moral dilemma, Were his plan adopted, underfunded programs, created to benefit the majority, would be further cut, with horrific negative effects on the vulnerable.

The Ryans have already gained $177,000 from these stakes and have assets worth upwards of $2.5 million as well as income from Mrs. Ryan's other family enterprises. Mr. Ryan may have in his sights other unethically gained riches at least equivalent to those of many of his older House colleagues.

The infamous plan can be considered a barometer for what the GOP has become. With poetic justice, without being signed into law, it wields enough power to undo those in the party who are supporting it or who once did.

Now we know the reason why
Mr. Ryan has to lie.
That budget plan is just a way
To make a lot of extra pay.

It's good to be a congressman
So you can write a heartless plan
That overshadows all your peers---
Those other callous profiteers.

Is that the reason that he ran
To be a U S Congress man?

The highly presentable Republican presidential hopeful ex-governor/ex-ambassador Jon Huntsman, who bills himself as his own man, who's already flipflopped in his barely begun campaign, is more like his highly presentable fellow Mormon Republican rival Mitt Romney than he would like. Attempting to dispel the fact of their similarities is his ad of a bold, cool, speeding dirt biker navigating a stark, rough terrain; but the rider isn't Huntsman. He's a hired stunt man. The ad creator tries to mitigate this, saying that the rider is "wearing his (huntsman's) clothes."

A very funny ad for another Republican,candidate, Rick Santorum, counters the Huntsman ad with a biker boldly speeding over rough terrain and ending up in the dirt.

What else is new, flipflopper Jon?
We're looking at your silly con;
We know that it's not really you
Who's braving that austere terrain---

A stunt man out of Hollywood,
Perhaps; your people said they would
Be able (have no doubt) to woo
The voters with their ad campaign;

But that idea they're trying to sell
I don't guess anyone will buy,
Not even just a little bit
That you're a different kind of guy.

At least, as far as I can tell,
You, Jon, are just another Mitt.

Republican Mitt Romney, now officially a 2012 presidential candidate, has made the rash promise, "If I become president, I will repeal Obamacare."

He also stated categorically that President Obama has "failed" and that he will make the United States the top creator of jobs.

Mitt Romney, whose state of Massachusetts during his term as governor has been rated as #47 in job growth by the U S Department of Labor;

Mitt Romney, whose former private equity firm, Bain Capital, a funder for his political runs, used various financial strategies that predictably caused the collapse of multiple companies, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs, but in hundreds of millions of dollars for himself; a destroyer of jobs, not a creator, himself currently worth at least $200 million, recently joking to a small gathering of eight unemployed at the Buddy Brew coffee shop in Tampa, "I'm also unemployed";

Mitt Romney, whose excellent Massachusetts health care plan he continues to obfuscate because President Obama's law is patterned after it;

the seasoned business mogul and politician easily slides into denial and contradiction and is usually loath to admit error.

The ideal president willingly adknowledges mistakes and is as consistent as possible in a mercurial political climate while subscribing honestly to his basic convictions.

The presidential-looking Mitt
May really not be up to it.
The country's not a corporation,
A company isn't like the nation.

A balanced budget on the backs
Of those distressed or needy lacks
The true concern some presidents show;
That people count, some presidents know.

Is he just one more empty suit?
What's sure, something we can't dispute,
At waffling he's a shameless pro
Exceeded by no one but Newt.

The Democrats have lost their last real fighter, their chief Democratic defender.

You were a fool, Anthony, but your rashness, your compulsive exhibitionism and perhaps your desire to be caught and stopped may now allow you to serve again.

Come back, Anthony---you're needed.

Now that Mitt Romney is officially running for president, Fred Karger, a lesser-known competitor for the nomination, is back in the news. He wants the fact well known of the fabulously wealthy Mitt and Ann Romney's unlikely use of their oldest son Tagg's unfinished basement in Belmont, Massachusetts, as their "primary residence," near the family home they had recently sold. This was done ostensibly so they could vote in Massachusetts in 2010 for Scott Brown, now Senator Brown, filling Ted Kennedy's empty seat, and for other Republican candidates.

The senior Romneys currently own two homes---in La Jolla, California and on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. A foremost New Hampshire newspaper is said to have described Mitt as an "unscrupulous opportunist" in connection with the apparent flimflam, a far cry from his squeaky clean image of the past.

In Massachusetts, the definition of a residence is "where a person dwells and which is the center of his domestic, social, and civil life." The penalty for fraudulent voter registration is $10,000 and up to five years jail time

It happened back in 2009. . .

I heard a funny thing today---
Mitt and Ann are going to stay
In the basement of their son,
Where the washing up is done.

Likely they're not paying rent;
Better they should pitch a tent
Outside on the family's lawn,
Making sure to rise by dawn,

Lest some nosy neighbors think
Romney's fortune's on the blink;
Then perhaps the two could stay
In the house during the day;

Mitt could tend to his affairs
And his presidential run
From a little room upstairs.
.

Why would Newt and Callista Gingrich choose to tour the Greek Islands at the beginning of Newt's presidential campaign? Was the perfectly poised and otherwise flawless Callista, some speculate to be a controlling force in their so-called equal-partnerswhip marriage, behind the damaging decision, even though she may entertain a fervent determination to be First Lady? They came home to learn that Newt's entire staff had quit.

Newt's shrewd and experienced staffers were well aware of how lackadaisical he was about his campaign and of his personal excesses---lavish spending on four-star restaurants, executive chauffeur service and private jets; and moreover, donor interest was sluggish. Would they ever be paid?

The cruise was the ideal opportunity for them to take off, perhaps to greener pastures, like Texas, to join Gov. Rick Perry in his expected run. He's a surer bet, anyway.

What a time, Newt, for a trip!
I suppose you heard the news
When you got back from your cruise
That your aides were jumping ship!

Likely, they were all afraid
That they never would be paid;
Considering your extravagances,
They weren't taking any chances.

Maybe you were sure you could
Get more people just as good
To prolong that sad charade
Of a creditable run

For a prize that won't be won.

Should the budget/tax plan of the relentless House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan ever go into effect, Medicare "as we know it" would be thrown on the mercy of the stock market, the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical companies and seniors now 55 and younger, with paltry limited vouchers, would be obliged to scramble to find plans they could afford from a so-called "choice" of insurance companies. With all medical, insurance and prescription drug costs continuously spiraling, this would be an exercise in utter futility. Medicaid would also be a victim.. Mr. Ryan clouds the harsh realities of his plan with standard misleading D C bafflegab.

Moreover, bestowing on the wealthy still lower taxes is a heinous scheme to make the Federal Government too strapped to afford the programs needed by those less fortunate than the financially elite untouchbles.

Mr. Ryan just won't quit
Nor wants to compromise a bit,
Even though the people know
It's really not about the dough,

But about their Medicare
That his budget plan won't spare.
Nonetheless, he touts his scam
Like a plan that's not a sham

And I'll wager they're aware
That the cad just doesn't care.

Sarah's back.

Props, photo ops and skullduggery---what won't the exploitive "half governor" Sarah Palin do to undercut her opponents and win---be it an election or simply media attention?

The world is her forum for half-truths, mean-spirited assaults, bogus historical statements, and brazen self-promotion with books, a reality show, her "One Nation" bus tour and a two-hour documentary film, THE UNDEFEATED, which is about her, soon to be released in Iowa theatres.

Stealing thunder from Donald Trump, Scott Walker, Newt Gingrich, the entire contingent of up to 400,000 Washington-bound "Rolling Thunder" motorcycling war vets (herself rolling into town on a Harley-Davidson) and most recently, from Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, her current pal, Michelle Bachmann, will likely be her next target.

She's now joining forces with Donald Trump, both teetering on the rim of possible presidential runs, designed to tantalize the media.

We shouldn't be so fascinated, but we are. She's not worth it.

When re: your "One Nation" tour you said

"It's not about me."
Was it a lie?

When you said

"I love this country."
Was it a lie?

When you said

"Competition is good."
Was that a lie?

From everything we've heard and seen
Most of us know what you mean
And to dissuade us you may try
But we'll still think it's all a lie.

A hollow shell, an empty room---
Sarah Palin is a lie.

Regarding two current GOP presidential candidates, both notably self-contradictory, Mr. Romney is bent on being president, but Mr. Gingrich may deliberately sabotage his campaign, which already bears the seeds of its own destruction.

Newt's the mayor of Flipfloptown---
If he were king he'd wear a crown,
A yakker who has no objection
To speaking fact or pure invention.

With millions raised and millions spent,
Mitt aims to be the president
While that deceitful Newt instead
Is in it mainly for the bread.

Once GOP speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich said he and his third wife are a "frugal" couple, yet it's been discovered that they had a Tiffany bill, now paid, between $250,000 and $500,000 on what Newt explained was a "standard no-interest account." Coincidentally maybe, a former Gingrich staffer is currently employed by Tiffany.

"Callista and I have paid off our house, we have paid off our cars, we run four small businesses, we happen to be successful." He emphasized that they live within their budget, have no debts except the mortgage on a rental property in Wisconsin and "don't do elaborate things."

Perhaps to deflect attention from the frivolous impression cast by the Tiffany revelation, he sanctimoniously scolded the media for "gossip" replacing "serious policy."

Mr. Gingrich and his wife
Live a very frugal life;
They're a normal married pair,
Their expenses almost nil,

Just one house, the mortgage paid
And the cupboards nearly bare;
One might say they're almost poor;
Maybe they're on Medicaid. . .

So one has to wonder how
They could spare 500 thou.
What their Tiffany bill was for
That sly Newtster just won't tell.

On May 12, 2011, Sen. John McCain, well-known survivor of wartime enemy torture, stated that torture not only didn't lead to Osama bin Laden's downfall, but that it's immoral, illegal and ineffectual in collecting reliable intelligence.

He was criticized by former senator and current presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, who countered that McCain "doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works."

Mr. Santorum, unlike his former colleague and fellow Republican, has likely himself never undergone waterboarding or any other form of torture.

What'll he be remembered for?
Not some legislative bill
Sagely sired on The Hill,
Nor for having matchless skill

With simile and metaphor
Debating on the Senate floor,
But his stance Vietnam vet
John McCain, who in that war,

Was a torture victim, yet
On that point the man's all wet!
He's never going to live it down,
Even in this shameless town.

Slick talking, often insinuating Newton Leroy Gingrich, who accuses President Obama of the very breaches he himself is guilty of, former politician, now pretend politician, has reached a new low in greed, hypocrisy and prevarication, even for a politico.

Mr. Gingrich, Newton, Newt,
Man! You really are a beaut!
Sort of elfin, kind of cute,
Known as notably astute,

Yet you'd bring so much disgrace
On that Kewpie baby face.
With lies your aim is to enflame,
Sanctimoniously laying blame

And it takes a lot of nerve
When your plan is not to serve.
For the stigma on your name,
Clearly, Newt, you have no shame,

Or the dough you're going to gain
For front groups and a fake campaign.
That's because you just don't care,
With millions raised and gobs to spare!

Is The Maverick really back?

Ex-maverick John McCain has somewhat redeemed himself by getting past his often mean-spirited digs at Democrats and President Obama and his distraction with political polls.
On Monday May 12, he relayed information straight from CIA director Leon Panetta that neither waterboarding nor any enhanced interrogation techniques led to the discovery of Osama bin Laden in a safe house in Pakistan, roundly repudiating the claims of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who continue to attempt to protect the distorted legacies they've concocted for themselves.

He emphasized that the use of these methods---torture---is "prohibited by American laws and values" and "mistreatment of any prisoners endangers our own troops, who might someday be held captive."

He said that he mourns "what we lose when by official policy or official neglect we confuse or encourage those who fight this war for us to forget that best sense of ourselves."

He especially credited the president: "It took real courage to assume the many risks associated with putting boots on the ground..."

It would be heartening to have the maverick of old back for good.

Donald Trump is a person of little quality---vacuous, coarse and self-important, lacking in taste and judgment, who smugly represents himself as a regular fellow, but who, through sheer genius, made it big.

Although he patently believes otherwise, he also lacks self-respect. How else could he repeatedly and publicly propagate obvious lies? How else could he brag that he's "proud" and "honored" to have brought the Obama birthplace question, already proven resolved, into such prominence, which, with other nonissues, are what whining malcontents, smallminded and ignorant, voraciously respond to, demanding the simplistic and uninformed solutions proposed by Trump, Palin and Bachmann?

Such are his issues. These are his people. He knows who his audience is and he plays to it.

His Celebrity Apprentice ratings have dropped. His poll numbers as GOP favorite have plummeted. He's now implying that the most successful people are too good for political
office.

Mr. Trump, have you finally trumped yourself?

President Obama is a cautious risk-taker, a patient, reflective, methodical strategist and tactician, a modest man, a leader.

Refocusing attention on seizing Osama bin Laden after President Bush had ceased the chase, tiring of the failure to take him "dead or alive," President Obama concluded the dangerous and complex mission, many months in preparation, in the military town of Abbottabad, Pakistan, May 1, 2011.

When President Bush said in March 2002, "I don't spend that much time on it. . .I really am not that concerned about him" he sealed his fate for many as not being an effectual or focused decision-maker and when Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks refused to send additional troops to Afghanistan, even though Osama's approximate location had been established, they were later seen as stubbornly shortsighted.

Obama's choice of Navy Seals (Sea, Earth and Land commandos) and the Army Delta Force, using helicopters over bombs and planes to avert certain sacrifice of life and documentation, was risky, but right. Attempted retaliation by enraged radicals, foreign and domestic, must nonetheless be expected as an unintended consequence.

Some conservatives credit George W. Bush with laying the groundwork for the successful raid. They also claim that enhanced interrogation techniques were greatly responsible, but those methods tend, insist experts, to extract false information; many sources and many components led to Osama's whereabouts in a large safe house with high walls and a cache of computer hard drives, tapes and other invaluable data.

The belief that al Qaeda's founder, whose primary goal was to bankrupt the United States, is
not really dead is rampant among the few.

Rejoicing in a killing or an assassination is at the same time vaguely disturbing and unsatisfying, unsettling to one's moral sense and human sensibility.

That the demonic and misguided mastermind of 9/11 was barely roused from sleep and unarmed when fatally shot is a discussion that is being avoided here ( although such substantial public figures as Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore have expressed concerns) while abroad, widely criticized. One wonders why he wasn't instead captured and taken into custody. Though lacking in the same impact and immediacy, it would have led, via the proper channels, to his ultimate execution.

At last the wicked Laden's dead,
By Navy Seals shot in the head,
But there are those who have to pout
In envy mode while others shout

That he's not dead, it's just a sham---
A patently Obama scam---
Osama's really on the lam.
In order to dispel all doubt,

Though buried in the Arabian Sea,
It may be necessary he,
To prove he's dead forevermore,
Be washed up on the Jersey Shore.

On April 27, Israeli-turned-American dentist/lawyer/real estate broker Dr. Orly Taitz appeared on Lawrence O'Donnell's The Last Word loudly proclaiming that President Obama is "committing felonies." "Obama is a liar!" she shouted as the frustrated O'Donnell attempted fruitlessly to force an admission from her that the long form of the Obama birth certificate is genuine. Instead, she tried to discredit his selective service record.

Known as "Queen of the Birthers" and filing lawsuit after lawsuit, one wonders, what's in it for her?

Orly, why are you obsessed
With a virtually futile quest?
Unlike Mr. Donald Trump,
Claiming that he's on the stump,

Your rationale is still unclear.
Nonsense ringing in my ear,
Screeching that Barack's a fraud,
Based on theses wholly flawed,

His lawfulness put to the test,
Proven once, then proven twice,
Your protests pitiful at best;
Take some sensible advice:

Quit your persecution fest
And put this foolishness to rest.

April Twelfth

On this day in 1861, shots fired by confederate soldiers on the Charleston Harbor island of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, signaled the start of the Civil War.

On the same day in 2006, a banner universal health care bill was signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Once more a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, his greatest achievement as governor he feels he must now downplay because of its unfortunate link to President Obama's plan, despised by conservatives, but modeled after his own. A better approach for Mr. Romnay would be to confront the problem and deal openly with his base.

Treading on eggshells is often the path taken by the politically ambitious; suppressing a significant accomplishment, more rare.

Poor Mitt is in an awful bind
As pundits hasten to remind
His health care model is the source
Of the Obama tour de force.

That imp Obama had to smile,
A smile that he could not repress,
When praising Mitt's like statute while
His chances dwindled down to less,

Whose landmark law could be to blame
For one more disappointing loss
And causing him---that albatross!
To hang his handsome head in shame.

not the intellectually challenged, not the uninformed, not the credulous, but those in charge who know better and don't care. . .

So much of what we see is showing
The ranks of the unjust are growing;

Always wondering, never knowing---
If there's a Hell, I know who's going. . .

"The greatest president in the history of the United States---me!" So crowed real estate mogul and reality show star and host Donald Trump, making himself, by questioning and investigating President Obama' birthplace, the hero of the radical Tea Party wing of the Republican party.

The self-styled brilliant entrepreneur has actually racked up large debts and lost fortunes several times, but Republican-like, interprets his errors and failures as successes.

He may not be running at all---merely grabbing more attention for his show, The Apprentice,
"the ultimate job interview," to influence NBC to renew.

Not known for altruism, humanitarianism or sacrifice, his legacy of tall buildings and showmanship may be superseded by ruthless self-promotion and egotism.

Do you mean it, Mr. Trump?
Are you really on the stump?
Loudly tooting on your horn,
Disputing where Barack was born---

Maybe it's the time to quit,
Now you've made your party's split
Even worse, or don't you care?
Take a breather, fix your hair. . .

If you're tossing in your hat,
If you're serious or not---
Is it just a ploy or what?
Either way, boy---in your hat!

There's a camaraderie among the former presidents, almost like a fraternity, though unofficial.

On Monday, March 21, 2011, at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, a "Beltway Bash" was held, honoring former president, George H. W. Bush's contribution to volunteerism.

Among guests, participants and performers were former presidents Bush 41 and 43, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton

In remarks for the occasion, Mr. Clinton said, "All you really want to do is make sure you leave this earth a little bit better off than when you showed up." Of his one-time political rival, George H. W. Bush, he said, "He can do no wrong in my eyes. . .even though he every five years, makes me look like a wimp by continuing to jump out of a plane." He also philosophized about "how much energy we waste fighting with each other over things that don't matter."

The four living former presidents gathered in solidarity for this event.

Perhaps there should be a formal former presidents fraternity.

The old boys club, now down to four,
And long ago, when they were more,
Perhaps have met, comparing notes,
Exchanging humorous anecdotes,

Examining not too closely those
Sins and omissions to expose;
All barbs and rancor put aside,
By time's erosion mollified;
\
And in some dim and distant pub,
May meet that other old boys club.
Hoist high your mugs, historic gents!

Farewell, farewell, past presidents. . .

Sarah used to be so hot,
The number one commodity
Of the declining GOP;
Now someone else has got her spot---

It's Chris---that burly Jersey guy
Who seems so like a regular guy,
Who doesn't even have to try
To grab Ms. Sarah's piece of pie.

In targeting her latest prey
(As anyone who's in her way)
She'll do her best, relentlessly,
To cut (though possibly it may

Require some monumental tries)
That Trenton fellow down to size.

Former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, will perpetuate the myth of his presidential run as long as he can rake in donations from credulous right wing voters. In September 2010, he told National Review Online that Obama might be following a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview. "I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating---none of which was true. . .He was authentically dishonest."

On February 28, 2011, former Arkansas governor and preacher Mike Huckabee on a conservative radio show described President Obama as having "grown up in Kenya," knowing full well it isn't so.

Both men's strategy is to depict the president as an outsider. Their remarks further imply that he views the 1950s Mau Mau Revolution against the British with approval.

While Gingrich almost certainly, primarily because of the stigma of his disgraceful personal history, has no intention of running, Huckabee may well have become now too used to his Fox News salary to give it up; so besides discrediting the Democrats and especially President Obama, keeping their names and faces before the public is what it's about, with money the motivator.

What are you pulling this time, Newt?
You, that man of ill-repute
Whose candidacy is in dispute:

You may run so need lots of bread;
You hint Barack is Kenya-bred;
He "played a con" is what you said.

Now echoed by the Reverend Mike
Who's pounding in another spike;
Who would've thought you were alike?

That's what you do to make a buck,
Then drag our leader through the muck
And you, a Baptist preacher, Huck:

You really think you must invent
So you can be the president?
And you both look so innocent!

You've schemed to get Barack O. framed
And see that he's forever blamed.
The two of you should be ashamed.

How can these people be so blind?
What is it worth, their transient reign?
A wasted life, a fetid pond
And they don't know what waits Beyond. . .

What's to be gained from fleeting fame?
No more than squat, a blot, a stain
On this our world and on their name.
That's what they're going to leave behind---

Their spiteful schemes, their lying rants,
A half-remembered deviant dance.

A fitting follow-up to Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security and Lyndon Johnson's Medicare was, in the chequered history of Collective Bargaining, its signing into law in 1983 by Governor Dick Celeste (D-OH), another outstandingly effective leader of liberal causes.

Republican determination to stamp out any vestiges of those Democrats and their social reforms has finally come to a head in Madison, WI, where powerful demonstrations are countering the efforts of Republican governor, Scott Walker, in the pay of billionnaires Charles and David Koch (Koch Industries, Inc., Wichita, KS) and others of their ilk, who will apparently stop at nothing to push the governor's devastating and misplaced budget cuts (euphemistic for union suppression) and eliminate Collective Bargaining which, if effected, will in domino style, weaken nationally social and public services and programs and public education and further diminish whatever control remains to the middle and working classes, over their economic lives.

President Obama has made recent statements clearly affirming his general displeasure with discriminatory actions against the unionized, but will forceful specifics be articulated soon on the steps of Wisconsin's capitol? Is he watching and waiting for the most politic timing? (Outwitting the opposition at the opportune moment is an Obama specialty.)

The defiant shout, "The jig is up!" to protestors by former Gov. Tim Polenty (R-MN) may well serve, ironically, as a rallying cry.

As of March 1st, it's become apparent that not only are most Democrats siding with the demonstrators, but many Republicans, as well. This battle that the governor picked to fight may be lost.

To paraphrase MSNBC journalist Chris Matthews, the winners will likely be those with the most at stake.

It all began in Cairo.

The revolutions have begun
And Madison is number one.
Unions are what it's all about
And GOPers choose to rout

Celeste, Franklin and LBJ,
A Midwest governor in the pay
Of billionaires who won't let up;
So will the president speak up---

(For he has promises to keep---
We know his sympathies run deep)
Or by his lights, think he must stay
A cool hand Luke, above the fray?

Donald Rumsfeld's recently published memoir, KNOWN AND U NKNOWN, Penguin Group (Sentinel) is a handsome volume with a striking jacket featuring Mr. Rumsfeld's picture, front
and back; a weighty, exhaustive and impressive tome of over 800 pages with the look of a highly important historical record, documented by a man of substance, to be regarded as accurate and illuminating.

Customary is the generous compilation of photographs---some standard-nostalgic and humanizing---of family and associates, as well as humorous and touching anecdotes, designed to persuade, and to mollify the harsh judgments held by many of a ruthless, often acerbic and contemptuous Rumsfeld, whose strong personality is somewhat restrained, while un- compromising, in his smoothly and carefully crafted memoir.

Save a few mitigating concessions, his regrets are few, his rationalizations more abundant.

Errors of wisdom by the likes of the former secretary can be viewed either as honest (and honorable) mistakes or as acts of calculated and contentious willfulness, the deeds of a forceful goal setter who will not allow facts to deter his course.

The author does not apologize for his role in the Iraq war that took over 4,500 American lives and countless others, mostly Iraqi, and in fact, claims the deposition of Saddam Hussein made it worthwhile. His audacious admission that the final decision to invade Iraq was based, no longer on the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction( WMD) but on Saddam's intention of acquiring, developing or making them, will strike some as brazen and boldfaced and the decision as shameless, despite his insistence that Saddam remained "intent on acquiring them," holding WMD programs "on the shelf" that could later be implemented; that the Middle East would be "far more perilous" were Hussein still in power. He makes no allusion to his Office of Special Plans, where cherry picking any intelligence, however faulty, was used to make a case for war

One glaring omission is any mention of the Pat Tillman "friendly fire" scandal.

References to detractors, such as former US Military Prison System commander in Iraq Brigadier General Janis Karpinski---demoted to colonel, perhaps partially for outspokenness against Secretary Rumsfeld, Vice President Cheney and certein high military brass---now retired, also are omitted from the work.

Mr. Rumsfeld staunchly continues his denials, emphasizing that the abuses at Abu Ghraib". . .were the senseless crimes of a small group of prison guards who ran amok in the absence of adequate supervision." (p. 545)

He writes, "After twelve nonpartisan independent reviews and investigations of Defense Department detainee policies, not one found evidence that abuse had been encouraged or condoned by senior officials in the Defense Department---military or civilian." (p.552) Nevertheless, he did accept responsibility (though not the blame).

Angrily accused of rewriting history by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer states that "Government documents show that the methods used at Abu Ghraib were the same ones Mr. Rumsfeld approved and that the abuse of prisoners in Defense Department custody was systemic."

The author does, however touch on the explosive topic of specific interrogation techniques, notably waterboarding. "I did not believe it would be appropriate for anyone in Defense Department custody to be waterboarded or stripped and subjected to cold temperatures, and I
rejected those techniques." (p.578) It does appear that Mr. Rumsfeld believes that certain "coercive interrogation techniques," though strongly opined by many "do not and will not work," are effective, countering that "There are inconvenient facts to the contrary. . ."(p.586)

As is usual in such books, to vindicate one's controversial positions for posterity, some blame is assigned: Armitage, Bremer, surprisingly Bush, Franks, Rice, Tenet and then-secretary of state, Powell (and his contention that he was misled by flawed intel in publicly supporting the Iraq invasion) as well as the media are faulted, while former vice president, Dick Cheney, is spared. George H. W. Bush also comes under fire.

The former secretary stresses that the administration did not lie. "The far less dramatic truth is that we were wrong."

Our leader sees end results clearly.

In essence, our Obama's plan
Seems to be like a game of chess
---A series of strategic moves---
We're quick to think his oaths disproves.

However much we may obsess
That this can't be the selfsame man,
The one who roused us when he ran,
And hastily assign him blame,

And be suspicious we've been conned,
Do as he does and look beyond. . .
Believe that he's one and the same:
That's how it's played, it's just a game.

Barack and the Radical Right
(There seems to be no end in sight.)

Everything Obama does
They're going to boo
And lie about it.

Everything Obama says
They're going to parse---
No doubt about it.

All that's because
Their vision's sparse.
What figure's, too---

They want to think
That a huis clos
He wears a fez---

Behind closed doors
That Muslim man
Has hatched a plan---

A devilish scheme
Brewed with some bey
From old Umm Bei

Aimed to upset
The status quo
With holy wars

And designate
Without regret
A socialist state

Of our US
And nothing less.
I have to ask:

How long will they
Prolong this farce?

Advice to Junior Senators and Representatives

Quid pro quo
Is on the go

New guys come
And old guys go

What's the same
No matter who

Lobbyists
Come after you

So refuse
To play their game

Stand your ground
And just say no

We have heard Senator McCain continuing to extol Ms. Palin and her attributes. We have seen him standing behind her on the stage, grinning foolishly, no longer needed and irrelevant.

What's with Senator McCain?
Targeted by her disdain,
Still a Sarah loyalist,
Even though he's been dismissed.

Is it that he won't admit
He was wrong and she's unfit?

Republican Representative Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota's sixth Congressional district and Sarah Palin have so much in common: a shared allegiance to the Tea Party movement, ego, indifference to the truth and a preoccupation with guns and God.

Back in 2010, they began to hold joint rallies and fundraisers.

Now, though, it looks as if the two could become rivals for the 2012 presidential nomination. Quo vadis, Sarah and quo vadis, Michelle? Could this be how your association ends?

The two were once the best of friends---
In no time they were on a par,
The rising Minnesota star
And Sarah---maybe they still are.

What's obvious is that a lot
In common is the thing they've got:
Ego, ignorance and guns
Are some of the important ones,

But best not to forget that God
Has both these politicians awed,
While rounding out their partnership---
A penchant to shoot from the hip;

But soon, alas, the acid test
When both are on the self-same quest;
A race to steal each other's votes
Could set them at each other's throats.

Unholy unions often end
When two compeers come to contend.

Will that be how this friendship ends?

Largely responsible for the shootings in Tucson as all the other such tragedies is the lack of sensible gun control fostered by the NRA to which rightists pander, with liberals too craven to counter.

Reckless and inflammatory language, publicly and repeatedly articulated, may or may not directly encourage the rancorous urges and plotted attacks of the hostile and unstable and may or may not rally those impressionable malcontents teetering on the edge of violence. What is real is the toxic climate such language spawns.

Will someone with power, courageous and strong, come forward and organize an expansive and effective campaign to prod the nation and the Congress to act against easy access to firearms and assault weapons? Until serious steps are taken---apart the undaunted activism of lawmakers like Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) whose legislative efforts, though successful, can only proceed slowly and piecemeal---the incidents will recur.

ouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on June 21, 2007, the completion of her "Green the Capitol" plan, detailing ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption in the House by half over the next 10 years.

Against the ongoing project from its inception, self-righteous House Republicans in the new 112th Congress say they must abbreviate (but really terminate) the initiative, although it has already saved 265 tons of unused paper, recycled 1800 tons of paper each year and retained 375,000 watts of energy from the House computer center, among other proven benefits.

As usual, Republicans stubbornly and inconsistently cite costliness as their illogical rationale. Could they really be that shortsighted?

To "Green the Capitol" was her plan,
Hailed a success since it began
And yet to make the budget lean,
They say they'll have to gut the green;

And while Pelosi's plan's effective,
The savings great of every kind,
House rightists cry that it's defective---
To kill it's what they have in mind.

Make no mistake, there'll be a fight
With those lawmakers on The Right,
For though confirmed by every stat,
The author is a Democrat.

How long, it seemed, was the wait for the Bush tenures to end! Once a Democrat was in office, things would get better; and they did.

Ironically and sadly, though, the side effects of such a superior commander-in-chief's tenure seem sometimes to negate the positive.

The rancor, the jealousy, the vengefulness from the opposition party; the unbridled freedom of speech from the radical Right media; the hysteria and credulity of portions of the electorate; the violent acts of demented extremists all seem unstoppable.

Yet this Obama, with his sometimes maddening forebearance and tolerance, may ultimately prove himself to be the almost perfect president and peacemaker the majority of voters envisioned on election day 2008.

How long, this time, must we wait?

It would be disillusioning to believe that President Obama, to gain political points, commended Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for signing Michael Vick. In any case, he's lost others.

Perhaps Mr. Obama's words, spoken on a call to Lurie about his alternative energy project for the team's stadium, were taken out of context or blown out of proportion. He says he just believes in a second chance for one who's paid his debt to society.

Perhaps it's in his nature to take on faith that the heinous Michael Vick, who not only engaged in dog fighting, an illegal as well as an inhumane and profitable activity, but tortured and executed the animals, as well, has mended his ways. It's doubtful, however, that one capable of such acts is rehabilitatable, despite scripted assurances to the contrary and court-ordered volunteer work for the Humane Society.

This person should never be allowed to own an animal again and laws should be considerably strengthened and expanded. 23 months in a federal prison on the charge of dogfighting is woefully inadequate.

Why doesn't the president counter his damaged reputation by adopting homeless and abused dogs himself?

Yet more reprehensible than the president is owner Lurie,

who for profit rehired the monstrous Vick.