Sunday, February 28, 2010

CHENEY wins

CHENEY wins the 2009 Prize
for Most Obvious Dictator
in the English-speaking world
& smiles crookedly:

“Maybe next year, the whole
wide world; it's watching me,
wanting to see how I’ll topple
that college professor Obama
who works from lecture notes;
me, I work by long-range plan.”

& locks up the transparency.

(28 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA) v4

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

CHENEY WALKS

(AP) Surviving 5 heart attacks makes Cheney unusual, showing that he has good medical care as well as a particularly aggressive form of heart disease.


CHENEY walks taller now in a District
that has long known him all too well,
from White House to GWU Hospital.

He’s ‘He Who Walks Tall,’
taller than all of his enemies,

taller than his breaking wave of well-wishers,
admiring his ability to navigate political currents
as political sharks drift lazily down every street,
intent on drawing political blood daily.

Once again, Cheney’s the day’s top story,
thanks to his heart. Thanks to his heart;
thanks to his heart. “Thank you, heart,”
he prays as he falls to his knees again.


(24 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v4

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

CHENEY'S HEART ATTACKS

CHENEY’s heart attacks him
during the CPAC convention
putting him into a DC hospital
where he’s as happy as hell,
particularly when he hears
the CPAC straw-poll results:
Ron Paul 31%, Romney 22%
Palin & Pawlenty, 7% ea.
Gingrich & Huckabee, 4% ea.
6% undecided, 5% Other.
Gingrich bobbles, minimally.

(23 FEB 10m Santa Clara CA)v3

Monday, February 22, 2010

YOO ON TOUR

(WATERBOARDING 2)

“The CIA didn’t want to torture.” – John Yoo


Absolved of abetting criminal intent
John Yoo, now on book tour, tells us

he only provided legal justification
of various options of interrogation
of war prisoners. Just legal recipes.

Now teaching at Cal (UC Berkeley),
in a protected academic environment

he’s safe from waterboarding
by any of his legal colleagues

however much they loathe him,
while no really hard rain falls.



(22 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v2

Saturday, February 20, 2010

HAIG in HELL

In Hell (alpha order): Dubya Bush, Gerald Ford, A. Sinister Force, Alexander Haig, Bob Haldeman, Henry Kissinger Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Schultz, Deep Throat (Mark Felt), Casper Weinberger.

In DC (alpha order) Hillary Clinton, Obama, Woodward & Bernstein.

[Note: all quotes are verbatim.]

Cast assembles around a circular table
for a séance led by A. Sinister Shade
who brings each of the departed back.

Haig: Where am I now?…now I remember:
“I am in control here” the Hell I am, it's
“pending the return of the vice president”
I was "vicar of American foreign policy."

Schultz: Al, “I think of you as a patriot's patriot;
no matter how they sliced you
you came out red, white & blue.
You were always willing to serve”

enter Kissinger: Actually, I was always in charge.
enter Haldeman: Actually, I was in charge.
Nixon: Yes, you were Bob, Kissinger, ah, lies.

Deep Throat: Who can I tell this to?
Shade: Tell me. I will tell no one...

Woodward & Bernstein lurk about, listening.
Kissinger: I was always in charge.
They ignore him & Ford, asleep beside him..

Kissinger: Haig "soon became indispensable"
Weinberger: No, I was indispensable.
Kissinger: I am still indispensable!

In a gesture of comity::

Obama: In “our finest warrior-diplomat tradition
Haig “dedicated his life to public service."

In a gesture of co-comity:

Hillary: Haig “served his country in many capacities
many years, earning honor on the battlefield,
confidence of presidents & prime ministers,
earning "the thanks of a grateful nation."

Deep Throat: Fortunately, he never caught me.
Reagan: Who?
Dubya: That Deep Throw guy.

All rise, except Haig.

CHENEY at the PACS

CHENEY smiles Chenily
at the CPAC convention,
visibly glad to be seen by
everybody, still assuming
they’re all still Cheneyist.

At AIPAC they are,
reports Wonkette.

(20 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v1

Friday, February 19, 2010

Gingrich ober both

Never fully forgetting
The Contract with America (1994),
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America
www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html

suddenly, I realize what I see
governing the tea-baggers only repeats it:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/18/
a-rally-cry-from-mount-vernon/?fbid=yGnnWZIqF7q

ober both, bobbles Newt Gingrich.

(19 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v2

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Boner/beaner

A foggy morning.
Nothing’s visible beyond
The Church of the Valley
on the cor. of Dolores St.

In the parkinglot below, cars
range from: red (3), white (9)
blue (2), grey (1), silver (3)
black (1), tan (1), green (1).

I pop to barking Boehner’s
website, finding he’s an R.C.
from outside Cinncinnatti,
dedicated to much less,

hardened by a life of being
called a boner/beaner.

(17 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v2

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Worser & worser...

The worst thing one can be nowadays is a realistic pessimist. It seems that no one can stand hearing any nay-saying about the prospect of bringing these decades of Reganitic fiscal-delusion to any relatively 'graceful' conclusion..

My "Palinocity" (Feb. 7, 2010, below) may be too much for some with its extrapolating Palin's airheadism, but I expect she's always talking similar jive somewhere to somebody.

[FYI] I want to see this country, & those of us it living within it at this time, not just survive but turn around, BUT that will take the collapse of the nay-saying Republicans & Obama's getting some hardcore Democratic balls around him a mile deep. As even 'bluedog' Democrats voluntarily quit congress (cf. Birch Bayh, et. al.), that seems numerically quite unlikely. Meanwhile, nay-Rs see this & hardnay it. Worser & worser....

Assets?

In today’s world
everything’s
a risky asset:

a house, to refi,
a car, to recall,
a job, to lay-off,
health, to illness,
life, to death.

What’s happening?
Was it always like this?
people wonder.

(17 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v1

Sunday, February 14, 2010

CHENEY reveals

CHENEY reveals a dispute
within the White House
over combatants being tried
in civilian vs military courts.

What came of it? Nothing.
What will ever come of it?
What does it matter while
those disputants walk-free?

(14 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)

Saturday, February 13, 2010

A pitiful sonnet

A Rainbo bread truck appears
& a Bimbo pastry truck leaves.
Does norcal lack terminal-Ws?
(back-East, they always ff-off.)

It’s bright out; sun’s shining,
but mountains are blurry-grey.
I don’t see anybody walking,
this Sat. morning, but soon

a white, 4-door Toyota Prius
exits the parking-lot; people's
expectations are falling
as Silicon Valley shrinks,

& jobs are now pitifully few,
& jobs are now pitifully few.

(13 FEB 2010, Santa Clara CA)v4

Thursday, February 11, 2010

John Cheever

Wikipedia: John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American novelist and short story writer, sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cheever

I think of Cheever as the Turgenev of New England, an hereditary Yankee whose view of the starchy NNE (MA, CT; add NY/NYC) is hopelessly doomed, (as was Hawthorne’s*)

Cheever was & wrote about bitterly proud Yankee descendants living as secretive failures, alcoholics, bisexuals among recent waves of cadent urban & suburban parvenus. The Yankees lose this time: their failures really do call themselves “Swamp Yankees” & they don’t all get into Harvard; Cheever didn’t.

Once you read his Wikipedia entry, you won’t need to know any more about Cheever, but you will need to read at least one of his short stories & one of his novels. You choose, but I’d read all of his collected stories, The Stories of John Cheever (1979, Pulitzer Prize), for an unforgettably deflating experience. After that, read any/all of his novels, his journal & letters, then the biography written by his daughter, novelist Susan.

[* Like Hawthorne, I was born in Salem, once the clipper-ship capital of New England, but now the tourists' witch-capital.]

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Burnt Toast

WASHINGTON (AP) – Even as Republicans publicly welcome President Barack Obama's call for a bipartisan confab on health care, some privately worry that he might be laying a trap to portray their ideas as flimsy.

Pre-game jitters
make Republicans
pre-accuse Obama
of pre-entrapment.

Why? They know
they might do better
as pre-burnt toast.
Onto the back lawn

they now must go as
media squirrels await,
their noses twitching,
tails thrashingly alert.

(09 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v3

Monday, February 8, 2010

dull, ordinary, jobless

It’s a dull, ordinary day here.

A gold & cream ’87 El Camino
pulls up at the corner of Dolores
& South Winchester, next to
The Church of the Valley;

I can’t see the driver inside,
but there must be one there.
I imagine them dressed in white
ordinary, clothes: T-shirt, pants.

They don’t have to get out for
me to see, I just imagine them
as typical Norcalifornians,
non-hispanic, anglo, jobless..

By now you know this isn’t
a fantasy, it's just about life
in pseudocyclically declining
Silicon Valley usa. Jobless.

(08 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v5

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Palinocity

“Ask God’s Help”
Palin urges Tea-Party Convention.

coming soon:

"In God We Trust"
as a rider on all new mortgages.

Next, a new national silver dollar
with Jesus’ profile on both sides.
Early adopter, Las Vegas' strip
declares Jesus’ Dollar new min. coin:
"Whenever Jesus spins, we all win!"

(07 FEB 10, Santa Clara CA)v3

Monday, February 1, 2010

Cuppa & Quilt; Takemitsu & Adams

It’s the Rainy Season here in South (S.F.) Bay. I’m up for visiting Ginny’s for a tepid cuppa Zhena Muzyka's Gypsy Tea, & a nap under a sky blue quilt (that we share.)

On a rare sunny day last week, Ginny drove her Prius 50 mi. S to San Juan Bautista (where) at its junk-Thrift Shop, I got (2) 2nd-hand Takemitsu CDs (USD$3 ea.):

MUSIC OF TAKEMITSU (Rudolf Werthen, cond. I Fiamminghi - The Orchestra of Flanders; Telarc, 1998, 20-bit Surround Sound)

THE FILM MUSIC OF TORU TAKEMITSU (1930-1996) (John Adams* cond. London Sinfonietta; Nonesuch, 1997.)

*Ginny met Adams at the SF Opera production of his "Dr. Atomic."