A Troubling Revelation

When we say we’re gay, bi or lesbian,
The reaction’s often a nervous one
Not because of our orientation
But because sexual revelation
Is to some a troubling one
Creating feelings that to some are queer,
Feelings that strike at the heart of their fear,
The fear our sex lives are better than their’s.

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Futility

 

Throughout history, for what they believed,

Men have willingly sacrificed their lives,

And they were honored for what they achieved.

Yet, little of men or causes survive.

 

–How tenuous, how fleeting, are ambitions.

Posted in Introspection | Leave a comment

A Thanksgiving Potluck

 
I am a member of the cultral council in our community and we have an important meeting coming up next month on the allocation of state funds for a variety of local cultural organizations who have submitted request for grants. Our chairman though it would be a great idea to have a potluck dinner at his home to discuss the proposals and how we might distribute the funds. In his invitation to this potluck, he referrred to it as a potlatch.
 
To which I replied:
 
As to this potlatch. this is actually a Native American tradition. a ceremonial feast held by some Indians of the northwestern coast of North America (as in celebrating a marriage or a new accession) in which the host gives gifts to tribesmen and others to display his superior wealth (sometimes, formerly, to his own impoverishment).
 
So, unless you plan to spend all of your fortune to provide us with a feast we will soon not forget, I suspect a potlatch may be a bit over the top. However, I can step up and provide some traditional Cherokee dishes that might excite the palates and titillate the tongues. Here are some dishes I can offer:
 
Appetizer: Yellow Jacket Poppers. These are delicious. My grandmother on the reservation used to fix these for me to eat when I came home from elementary school where White teachers were trying to teach us the most atrocious English to replace our beautiful Cherokee language. Recipe: We collect the larvae of the yellow jackets from their nests and roast them in the clay ovens. The larvae swell up, brown and then "pop open" on one side. they are to die for. Sprinkle with salt and savor. They taste like a combination of popcorn and bacon.  Nobody can eat just one.
 
Squirrel Dumplings: Let me just say this, nothing on earth tastes quite like a squirrel. I know, I know, there are some diehards who claim that voles have the same deep, dark rich taste, especially when skewered and deepfat fried, but then anything deepfat fried tends to taste pretty good which is why we indulge our predilection for French Fries and corn dogs, but even the most bigoted roadie-lover has to admit that the vole has too little body fat to add any real flavor, much less the oily succulence of squirrel butt. Recipe: 4 or 5 squirrels, 7 cups water, 2 cups day old coffee, 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, onions, ramps, carrots, potatoes, green and red peppers, sage, basil, thyme, and 1/2 cup of moonshine. 1 cup of Irish whiskey can be substituted for the moonshine. Allow squirrel stew to cook at least 6 hours. Prepare dumplings and drop spoon-sized clumps into stew and allow to cook for about 20-30 minutes. Serve over whole grain brown rice which, we sincerely hope, you have previously cooked.
 
Bathtub Brown Bear Butt: Well, I know what you are all thinking. Back on the reservation, my whole damn family has been having the same controversial argument for half a century: Which is better? Backyard shoulder or bathtub butt? There are good arguments on both sides but I have to come down on the side of bathtub butt.
 
OK. So, first, we go hunting and kill a brown bear. We bring the carcass to our back yard, rope it on a cross pole between the two oaks Great Uncle ManKiller planted after the victory against the whites in 1783, and then we skin that sucker down. Some say the meat tastes best if you butcher it then and there. That produces your backyard shoulder. Slow cook that somabitch on low coals for 12-18 hours and there’s nothing that melts more in your mouth and makes you want to suck yellow root for a week. Once you taste that truly delicious meat, Eve is redeemed and you are forever condemned to hell.
 
Howsomever. There is something even more delicious. Bathtub Brown Bear Butt. Here’s how you fix it: Cut down the carcass, cart it back to your bathroom, and dump it in your bathtub (which you have previously scoured with Ajax). Make sure you have the plug in place. Dump in 5 pounds of salt (If you’re in NYC, by all means use Kosher salt). Add 1 gallon of moonshine or 4 1.75 Liters of Tullamore Due. Put in a bush of sage, several pounds of wisi (a wild mushroom that grows all over the reservation) and a tote or two of ramps (this is the wild onion that also grows all over the reservation). Fill the bathtuf with water. Let soak for at least eight hours. (Try not to take a dump during this period as you don’t want to influence the eventual flavor and aroma of the bear meat.)
 
After allowing the bear carcass to marinate for a suitable period, drain the bathtub and butcher your bear. Wrap and freeze the parts you will be cooking or selling to unsuspecting whites later. Section and cut the fat layers into blocks. Wrap and freeze about 3/4. Reserve 1/4. Divide the bear butt and give one half to the family that has that cute young thing you are planning to romance and seduce later. Place your bear butt in the smoker. Stoke the smoke with only hard woods: oak is besk, ash is outstanding, maple is, well, maple. You can also add apple chips and cherry wood. Avoid birch and use pine only to spark up the flame when the hard woods are reluctant. Smoke for a minimum of eight hours.
 
Now, here’s the secret. Take the 1/4 bear fat you have previously reserved and put in a cast iron skillet. Render the fat. Add chopped ramps, onions, green peppers, celery, and a scotch or cherry peppers finely chopped.  When all have softened and glazed and the fat is cheerily bubbling away, drop in your smoked bear butt and brown on all side. Turn and turn. Get it soaked, smoked, and oilly doped. Splash with some moonshine and drop in a mash. Make it flame then platter and slice. Serve that sucker on a bed of mashed potatoes, drippin’s gravy, and wilted spinach.
 
On the other hand, if none of these incredibly delicious Cherokee Indian dishes appeal to you, I could bring a traditional Cherokee Indian rice pudding. I took the liberty of checking, and yes, elderberry, skunk blossoms, and hucklenut roots are in season so I do have all of the ingredients. Including the quart of moonshine.
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Trying the News Media

What does it take to get the truth about these x-scanners before the American public? I have sent the following out to several news organizations. So far, no response.

The pictures that the TSA is releasing–those grainy, skeleton black and white pictures are only meant to mislead the public about the true capability of the x-scanners. As the inventor of the instant x-ray system more than 40 year ago (and yes, the US patents are in my name), I was producing far better quality images than what you are being given as examples of what these airport x-scanners produce. Here is a copy of an email I sent to MSNBC on Monday:

 

Your news segment had a clip of Hiliary Clinton earlier on the the x-scanners at airports in which she observed it came about as a result of the underwear bomber and she asked the question: "Who would have thought?" Actually, I did. Two years ago in my book, Master Spies Die Laughing. Not only did I predict the underwear bomb, I described both it and its components. I also described the next device that will be introduced in airport security–a hand-held sniffer wand.

As to the scanners themselves, the TSA is not coming clean on the resolution of the images. What they have released to the press are low quality, grainy B&W images. Actually, the technology allows for high-quality imaging. I was able to produce high quality images almost 40 years ago with the instant x-ray film development system I developed and patented and which you know and have experienced in your dentist office with instant teeth x-rays. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4029510.html

 

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I have written a novel in that was published almost two years that predicted the underwear bomb, the x-scanners and the new device that the TSA is planning to interduce later this year or early next–a wand sniffer, which is essentially a hand held wand that has both a sniffer chip and a video camera in the tip and is designed to be inserted under a persons clothing in order to scan sensitive parts of the body such as the crotch, under the breasts, and anal areas.

 

Since I have long since ceased to be Director of Research of the ISIS Laboratory at GBS AT&T, I am no longer an expert in current x-ray technology, digital enhancement, and virtal visual structuring, but I can verify that I produce images of such high quality that dentist all over America were using my technology to perform denistry, do root canals, and complete dental surgery. I do know that the quality of the x-ray images we see on NASA site represent deep space phenomena are stunning. Therefore, I suggest you contact current experts in this field to tell the press exactly what the true capabilities are. You can get a glimpse at my web site, www.CitizenPoet.com, but there are far more recent and more reliable sources.

 

Dan Speers

www.CitizenPoet.com

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Is TSA Misleading the Public with the Grainy X-Rays

 

With the national focus and outrage on the pat downs at airports, news organizations may be missing the real story: those images released by the TSA are misleading.

The TSA may not be coming clean on the resolution of the images. What they have released to the press are low quality, grainy B&W images. Actually, the technology allows for high-quality imaging. I was able to produce high quality images almost 40 years ago when I working on an instant x-ray film development system for use in dentist offices. That technology is now commonplace and produces the high quality instant teeth x-rays that your dentist uses routinely.[My original patent on the x-ray system is at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4029510.html ]

I think the TSA may have released low quality images in order to mislead people into thinking that there is little chance that anyone would misuse such obviously bad images. In fact, I think the public would be outraged if they saw the actual image capability–especially in color and subjected to digital enhancement.

I no longer have access to the technology, but I suspect the companies that manufacture these machines and some scientists are intimately familiar with the real capabilities of these devices.

A short disclaimer. I did write a novel a couple of years in which I described these scanners and their use at airports. And the book also includes a scene involving an underwear bomb.

MSNBC also had a clip of Hillary Clinton earlier on the the x-scanners at airports in which she observed that the scanners and pat downs came about as a result of the underwear bomber and she asked the question: "Who would have thought?"

Two years ago in my book, Master Spies Die Laughing, not only did I predict the underwear bomb, I described both it and its components. I also described the next device that will be introduced in airport security–a hand-held sniffer wand. Similar to the RF metal detecting wands that TSA agent use now, the sniffer wand samples bodily emissions and analyzes these for drugs, explosives and other agents.

If you haven’t read Master Spies Die Laughing, get a copy. It is not only a fun read, but you will not believe the technology. And here’s the kicker, every device described in the book actually exists. If you think the government can’t track everything you do, you are so naive.

Dan

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TSA Intrusive Airport Scans Draw Public Ire

 
 
 

I hate to say I told you so

But what they show they really show

X-Scanners

 

MSNBC, CNN, and other news channels and networks are abuzz with the public outcry against the new X-Ray scanners now being introduced and used at airports, primarily because of what the scanners reveal–which is a lot. I predicted much of this in my book, Master Spies Die Laughing, http://citizenpoet.com/MasterSpiesDieLaughing.aspx which was published last year.

 

The scanners were introduced after the attempted Christmas Day bombing and the notorious underwear bomber–which I also predicted in the same book. Everything that happened in real life can be found on Page 55–the liquid trigger, the detonator, the PETN. Has the authorities read my book and heeded the warning, they might have prevented the bombing attempt.

 

When the early announcements about the scanners were made public, I quickly launched a series of Twitter posts, as much to poke fun at the "breaking news" as to sell books, and being a fan of shameless self-promotion when it comes to one’s own books, I thought it might be fun to reprise some of them here. Enjoy the puns and punditties and if you would like to read more about the secret world of spies and what comes next, go to http://citizenpoet.com/MasterSpiesDieLaughing.aspx . There is also a link on that page to the official Master Spies website at www.masterspies.com.

 

If you buy the book, I can assure you that it both a fun read and an alert on what may come next in airport security. Here is an extract from page 237 about a new sniffer device developed to detect "crotch rockets," plastic explosives hidden in panties or more insiduosly, in body cavities. The setup here is that of a deep cover spy taking his naturist family to Orlando on vacation and they are about to go through the scanners at an airport:

 

 

Not that he minded going through security. Virgil felt safe with the government protecting him and his family. He didn’t even mind the indignity inflicted by the new sniffer wands that TSA agents were sticking between people’s legs to see if they were wearing one of those so-called "underwear bombs."

. . . . .

Of course, the fact that some of the TSA screeners were sticking the crotch rods inside people’s shorts, along with the rumors that there were miniature cameras hidden in the tips of the wands, did give some people pause, but not Virgil. Hell, being naturists, he and his whole family would strip naked and fly nude all the way to Orlando if it meant they would be safe from terrorists.

 

 

PunDitties and Epigrams previously published on www.CitizenPoet.com

 

 

Airport scanners show all just fine,     

Give new meaning to "butt in line."

 

Skip underwear with underwire,

Unless a hand pat you desire.  

 

Profiles reveal the inner you.

Scanners display the under you.

 

The latest body scan fashion: 

Are your bra and panties matching?

 

You may as well grin and bare it,      

Your X-scan is going to share it.

 

   Male or female, X-scans will out

  Even those with the slightest doubt.

 

        X-scanners show us what you’ve got,     

       As well as what that you have not.

  

   The full body scan is nothing to fear. 

 Just be sure you’re wearing clean underwear.

 

       From airports to every public venue,

       Scanners will soon reveal the inner you.

 

   A full body scan is what they want done?

 Might fly naked; it’s safer and more fun.

 

       X-scans show patriotic hue,     

       Red butt, white groin and p-p blue.

 

Scanners can’t show what’s hid in your panty

If you fool them by not wearing any.

 

Ja hear? Dat full boooty scan caught Denzil.

Yep. TSA found lead in his pencil.

 

The full body scan you can’t duck.

It shows every nip and tuck.

 

Twits

X-scanners invoke leering eyes / That can see through any disguise.

  

It seems to be slightly obscene / To be exposed by a machine  See body scan pix / It does show your fix

 

Except when scanning from the rear / Male and female details are clear  

 

Had the NSA read my book / For panty bombs they would have looked.

 

Damn. I write this crap as fiction / FOX gives my crap bendiction.

  

The panty bomb is an old bit / But talk about your crotch rocket.

  

Full body scans uncover spies / And market for lead-lined panties.

  

No disrespect, no tie, and no bolero / What does it show if I go commando?

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POLITICAL POETRY — THIS WEEK IN REVIEW

 Oct. 24 – Oct. 30, 2010

  Sun Oct. 24, 2010- Miller Lays Low on Lie

Half-shaven Joe Miller, backed by

Half-governor Sarah Palin,

Tried to thwart the court and deny

His crimes that incurred discipline,

But the records revealed his lie

And Miller went back into hidin’.

 

Mon Oct. 25, 2010-Cottoning to Terrorists in the Muslim

Tea Party Dip, Sharron Angle,

Tends to utter statements so strange

Her handlers have to finagle

Ways to protect her from news range

So they turned to body doubles

And decoys to avoid exchange.

http://tiny.cc/qgx1r

 

 

Tues  Oct. 26, 2010-Freedom of Stomp

One of Rand Paul’s operatives

Adopted the brown shirt tactics

That come from rightwing subversives;

Attacked a female activist

Stomps on her head and then insists

She should be the apologist.

 

 

Wed  Oct. 27, 2010- Miller’s Lying Still

New documents show Joe Miller

Lied about his crime and was caught

What he did was pretty silly

But the coverup shows what was what

He was playing with his Willy

When he should have simply fessed up.

http://tiny.cc/dwsm0

 

Thurs  Oct. 28, 2010-Die and Repent, Gays

 

In Arkansas, a local nut,

A school district vice president,

Named Clint McCance made his debut

On Facebook with a sick, weird rant

He wants gays suicide to commit

Or get aids, die and then repent.

http://tiny.cc/z7wdq

 

 

 

Fri  Oct. 29, 2010-Truth and RepubliCants

 

RepubliCants run ads that say

Obama tripled deficit,

But the President’s first budget foray

Cut Bush’s budget just a bit.

Reality: Bush’s last budget had a $1.416

trillion deficit. Obama’s first budget

reduced that to $1.29 trillion.

Obama raised taxes, they say

But which tax they cannot posit.

Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus"

was on direct tax cuts which appeared in paychecks.

 

Sat  Oct. 30, 2010-Who’s Fault Will It Be?

 

From Keith Oberman, a special comment:

 

Now as promised a Special Comment on the madness of the Tea Party and the elections of next Tuesday.

It is as if a group of moderately talented performers has walked on stage at a comedy club on Improv night. Each hears a shout from the audience, consisting of a bizarre but just barely plausible fear or hatred or neurosis or prejudice.

And the entertainment of the evening is for each to take their thin, absurd premise, and build upon it a campaign for governor or congressman or senator. The problem is, of course, when it turns out there is no audience shouting out gags, just a cabal of corporations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and political insider bloodsuckers like Karl Rove and Dick Armey and the Chicken Little Chorus of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the ’30s, or backward** to hanging union organizers, or backward to the Trusts and the Robber Barons.

Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempt to use Democracy to end this Democracy, to buy America wholesale and pave over the freedoms and the care we take of one another, which have combined to keep us the envy of the world.

You do not think your freedom is at stake next Tuesday?

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for senator from Nevada, Sharron Angle, compared rape to, quoting, "a lemon situation in lemonade." She would deny an abortion even to a teenaged girl who had been raped by her own father.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate to be the only Congressman in Delaware, Glen Urquhart, said "there is no problem that abortion can’t make worse. I know good friends who are the product of rape."

Mr. Urquhart also does not believe the phrase "separation of church and state" was said by Thomas Jefferson.

He thinks it was Hitler: "The next time your liberal friends ask you about the separation of church and state, ask them why they are Nazis."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Ohio 9th, Rich Iott, not only ran around in a Nazi uniform celebrating their military tactics, but implies he is a Veteran and as late as this March listed his occupation as "soldier" even though the volunteer militia to which he belongs has never been called, will never be called, to any active service, in the 29 years in which he has belonged to it.

It’s more than just dress-up. They mean business – literally. The Tea-Party-and-Republican-candidate for New Jersey’s 3rd House seat, Jon Runyan, defended corporate tax loopholes: "Loopholes are there for a reason. They are to avoid people from really having to pay too many taxes."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the Senate in West Virginia, John Raese, explained, "I made **my** money the old-fashioned way, I inherited it. I think that’s a great thing to do. I hope more people in this country have that opportunity as soon as we abolish inheritance tax in this country."

The inheritance tax applies only to estates larger than $3.5 million. For the 99.8 percent of Americans not affected by the estate tax, there is the minimum wage, which Mr. Raese also wants abolished. Or there is Social Security.

The Tea-Party-and-Republican-candidate in the Indiana 9th, Todd Young, says "Social Security, as so many of you know is a Ponzi scheme."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Wisconsin 8th, Reid Ribble, disagrees. Social Security "is, in fact, a Ponzi scheme."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Arizona 8th, Jesse Kelly, wants to resurrect President Bush’s scam to transform Social Security into private investment accounts so the government can force you to spend part of your paycheck on Wall Street commissions, and so that market manipulators can wipe out your retirement money.

The Republican candidate in the Wisconsin 1st, Congressman Paul Ryan, has a more sophisticated plan: Personal investment Social Security, guaranteed dollar for dollar by the government. A fiscal fountain of youth, until you find out its cost: Ryan would pay for it by taxing the health insurance you get from your employer.

If you are not employed, Mrs. Angle of Nevada says unemployment benefits can neither be increased nor extended because that "has caused us to have a spoilage with our ability to go out and get a job… There are jobs that do exist. That’s what we’re saying, is that there are jobs."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senator in Alaska, Joe Miller, says this is academic, because unemployment insurance is unconstitutional. His own wife received unemployment insurance after losing a temp job he got for her. Mr. Miller also called Medicaid unconstitutional. It proved his entire family had received Medicaid funds.

Mr. Miller also claims Social Security is unconstitutional, yet hypocritically he says it should still be paid out, and then the issue dumped into the laps of the states.

The Republican-and-Tea Party candidate for Senator in Colorado, Ken Buck, would not stop at butchering just Social Security. [He said]  "would a Veterans Administration hospital that is run by the private sector be better run then by the public sector? In my view, yes."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Pennsylvania 4th, Keith Rothfus, has promised to overturn anything the Supreme Court decides, with which he disagrees: "Congress’s ultimate weapon is funding. If the Supreme Court rules you have to do something, we’ll just take away funding for it."

Back in Nevada Mrs. Angle decries health care – not reform, but health care itself. "Everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under ‘autism’," she said.  As to educating those children Mrs. Angle won’t pay for, Mr. Buck of Colorado, waxes nostalgic: "In the 1950’s, we had the best schools in the world, and the United States government decided to get more involved in federal education…well, since, we’ve made education worse, we’re gonna even get more involved."

In Ken Buck’s America of 1957, fewer than one in five Black children graduated high school. Fewer than half of white children did.  To the Tea-Party-and-Republican-candidate in the California 11th, David Harmer, Mr. Buck is a wild-eyed liberal.  Mr. Harmer once advocated eliminating public schools altogether, and return education in this country to where it was before 1876: "People acting in a free market found a variety of ways to pay for a variety of schools serving a variety of students, all without central command or control." And without girls, blacks, or even the slightest chance you could go to college.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Virginia 11th, Keith Fimian, is "not so sure we need a federal burocracy for education."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Florida 2nd, Steve Southerland, wants to "de-fund" the Department of Education because "we can’t afford it."

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Texas 17th, Bill Flores, offers a tri-fecta plus a delusion. Get rid of "the pornographic endowment of the arts, department of energy, department of education" and with them, he says, ACORN. ACORN — which went out of business last April 1st.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Arizona 5th, David Schweikert, is "passionately" trying to eliminate the Department of Education because it’s "unconstitutional."

And while one of the few threads uniting the ragamuffins who constitute the slate of Tea Party candidates is so-called ‘strict interpretation’ of that Constitution, Mr. Miller of Alaska wants, in fact, to change the Constitution. He wants to repeal the 17th amendment.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for senator from Utah, Mike Lee called the 17th amendment "a mistake."

Last year, Mr. Buck of Colorado said the 17th amendment "took us down the wrong path."
The 17th amendment, of course, permits the direct election by the voters of U.S. Senators.

Buck and Lee and Miller not only demand you elect them to the Senate; they hope to then deny you the right to elect somebody else, next time.

The ubiquitous Mrs. Angle, meanwhile, wants to repeal the 16th amendment. It provided for a federal income tax. Mrs. Angle does not explain how, without it, the federal government would pay for keeping out the Mexicans she specifically attacks in her newest commercial.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul wishes to repeal the 14th amendment because it interferes with a private business’s right to ban black people from its premises, and also because it allows anyone born here in America to be American. He is worried about anchor babies.

The Republican candidate for the 1st District of Texas, Louie Gohmert, fears not anchor babies but terror babies — unborn infants brought to this country in the womb, ready for American citizenship and pre-programmed to blow things up fifteen or twenty years from now. Curiously, he has not been asked if he is in favor of aborting them.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, sees not terror fetuses but headless bodies in endless deserts murdered by immigrants who are nearly all drug mules.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of Colorado, Dan Maes, believes a bike-sharing program is part of a plot to turn Denver into a metropolis run by the United Nations.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senate from Delaware, Christine O’Donnell, believes she was cleared to read secret classified documents about China because she’s been working for Non-Profit Organizations for the past fifteen years. She also believes China is plotting to take over the United States and the first evidence of this is that  "China is drilling (for oil) off the coast of Florida."

This fear of the Chinese clearly does not extend to the Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Senate from Illinois, Mark Kirk. One day he held a fundraiser with American businessmen in China. The next day, he voted against closing tax incentives for outsourcing American jobs to places like China.

The Tea Party-and-Republican-candidate for Senate from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson is also in favor of relocating employees. He testified against toughening laws on pedophiles and employers who shield them. He argued this could damage a business. A business like the Catholic Church.

In Utah, the anti-bailout Senate candidate Mr. Lee, insists on not raising the liability limits for the next BP from $75 million to $10 billion: "You have a set of settled expectations that you give to a business when it decides to make an investment in this. Our country benefits from this type of activity…"

Asked by the Salt Lake City Tribune if that’s a kind of bailout, if it leaves taxpayers on the hook for part of the damage, Lee admitted, "Well, yea, probably does."

Mr. Paul of Kentucky called the nationwide pressure on BP to increase its damage payments "un-American." He is also opposed to Federal Mine Safety regulations: "The bottom line is: I’m not an expert, so don’t give me the power in Washington to be making rules. You are here, and you have to work in the mines. You’d try to make good rules to protect your people here. If you don’t, I’m thinking that no one will apply for those jobs."

Mr. Paul’s admission that "I’m not an expert" does provide one of the few dovetails of the campaign. It matches nicely with Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin, who refuses to offer any specifics about his plan to deal with homeless veterans. He says, "This election is not about details."

Details have proved devilish for the Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the second district of Virginia, Scott Ridgell  He campaigned against the stimulus bill, including the Cash-for-Clunkers program. Mr. Ridgell is an automobile dealer, and happily made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Cash-for-Clunkers program.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate in the Missouri 4th, Vicky Hartzler, says she and her husband are just small business owners. "We just want the government to leave us alone," she said. Hartzler and her husband have a farm. In the last fourteen years, that government they want to leave them alone, has given them subsidies totaling $774,000.

Mr. Raese of West Virginia told the Associated Press that "America is in an industrial coma" and blamed the "restrictor plate" that is "a bloated federal government." "I can’t think," he added, "of very many times when a government agency has helped me."

The companies Mr. Raese owns have received $2.4 million in contracts from the federal government since 2000, and $32 million in contracts from the state government since 2000.

Back in Colorado, Mr. Buck apparently thought he was speaking to a campaign worker when he self-exposed his hypocrisy. In fact he was talking to a Democratic operative with a recorder in his pocket. Out of the blue, Tea Party nominee Buck blurted, "Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking me about birth certificates while I’m on the camera? God, what am I supposed to do?"

The contempt of Mr. Buck towards his own Tea Party, extends in many cases to reporters – and thus by proxy, to actual citizens.

For instance, the Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of Maine, Paul LePage (Luh-Page), threatened to punch a radio reporter.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Governor of New York, Carl Paladino, threatened to "take out" a reporter from the most conservative newspaper in any major American city.

A spokesman told the reporter that he was now off the Palladino mailing list, which has, in the past, consisted of e-mails featuring racism, pornography, and bestiality. Mr. Miller’s private security guards in Alaska detained and handcuffed a reporter, and threatened to handcuff two more, without any legal right to do so, at an event at a public school.

The security company was operating with an expired license; its chief, has links to extremist organizations; and the defense was that the guards didn’t know the individual was a reporter, which implies it would be just dandy to handcuff an ordinary citizen.

Ms. O’Donnell threatened to sue a Delaware radio station if it did not destroy the videotape of her interview there.When she did not like a question, she snapped her fingers at her own press aide then shoved him. The campaign manager threatened to "crush" the station if it did not comply.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the Senate from Florida, Marco Rubio dreams more of de-portation than de-capitation. He said, in March,  "There are millions of people in America that hate our country, so why can’t we just do a trade? We’ll send you Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo, and Keith Olbermann, and you can send us people that actually love this country."

This, incidentally, carries with it a tinge of irony. I don’t know that any of his opponents has ever accused Mr. Rubio of not loving this country.  He just doesn’t love a lot of its people. The person they all love the least is of course the President.

The Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for Congress from the Florida 22nd, Allen West, had to leave our military after threatening to kill an Iraqi he was interrogating. Now he claims to have a higher security clearance than does the President. Mr. West also told his supporters that they could defeat his Democratic opponent by making the man afraid to leave his own home.

And Tea Party-and-Republican candidate for the House from the Michigan 7th, the ex-Congressman Tim Walberg, wants to blackmail the President into showing his birth certificate… to Rush Limbaugh. He figures he can extort this from President Obama by threatening to impeach him.

You are willing to let these people run this country? This is the America you want? This is the America you are willing to permit? These are the kinds of cranks, menaces, mercenaries and authoritarians you will turn this country over to?

If you sit there next Tuesday and let this happen, whose fault will that be? Not really theirs. They are taught that freedom is to be seized and rationed. They can sleep at night having advanced themselves and their puppeteers and to hell with everybody else.

They see the greatness of America not in its people but in its corporations. They see the success of America not in hard work but in business swindles. They see the worthiness of America not in its quality of life but in its quality of investing. They see the future of America not in progress, but in revolution to establish a theocracy for white males, with dissent caged and individuality suppressed.

They see America not for what is, nor what it can be. They see delusions, specters, fantasies; they see communists under every bed and a gun in every hand. They see tax breaks for the rich and delayed retirement for everyone else. They fight the redistribution of wealth not because they oppose redistribution, but because their sole purpose is to protect wealth and keep it where they think it belongs – in the bank accounts of the wealthy.

They want to make the world safe for Bernie Madoff. But you know better. If you sit there next Tuesday – if you sit there tomorrow, and the rest of this week – and you let this cataclysm unfold, you have enabled this.

It is one thing to be attacked by those who would destroy America from without. It is a worse thing to be attacked by those who would destroy America from within.

But it is the worst thing to sit back and let it happen, to not find the time and the means to convince just one other sane voter to put aside the disappointment of the last two years and look to the future and vote.  Because the disappointment of the last two years will be the "good old days" in a Tea Party America.

This is the week in which the Three Card Monte dealers hope to take over the government —the candidates who want their own way, who will say anything to make palatable their real identities as agents of regression, repression, and corporate sovereignty. They are here, they have energized the self-serving and the greedy and the proudly ill-informed.

And if no other fact convinces you of your obligation to vote and canvass and phone and drag even to the polls the most disheartened moderate or Democrat or Liberal or abandoned Republican or political neutral, to vote for the most tepid of the non-Insane candidates, if no other detail hands you that spark of argument with which to invigorate the apathetic, you need only commit to memory the words of Steffan Broden and Sharron Angle.

She can run from reporters but she cannot run from this quote from January, and all the horror and insurrection it implies: "Thomas Jefferson said it’s good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that’s not where we’re going. But, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those second amendment remedies."

Sharron Angle — too subtle for you?  "Second amendment" remedies — guns instead of elections – too implicit? Fortunately, to our rescue, to the speeding of the falling of the scales from our eyes, comes the Tea Party and Republican nominee for the 30th Congressional District of Texas, "Pastor" Steffan Broden. "Our nation was founded on violence," he said, on tape.

Was armed insurrection, revolution, an option in 2010?  "The option is on the table. I don’t think that we should ever remove anything from the table… However, it is not the first option."

Thank you! The attempt to overthrow the Government of the United States by violence is not The Tea Party’s first option. Next Tuesday is the first option!

The words are those of Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith from the screenplay for the movie "Inherit The Wind." As the attorney for the man on trial for teaching evolution, Spencer Tracy gets to the gist:  "Fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, backward through the glorious ages of that 16th century when bigots burned  the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!"

The angered judge replies, "I hope counsel does not mean to imply that this court is bigoted." The attorney mutters, "Well, your honor has the right to hope." The Judge warns, "I have the right to do more than that." The attorney explodes: "You have the power to do more than that."

And you have the power to do more than that.

 

 

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POLITICAL POETRY – THIS WEEK IN REVIEW

 

Sun Oct. 17, 2010- Shut up, Woman

 

Megan McCain says Christine O’Donnell

Is a “nutjob” on ABC’s The Week;

So Unreal Dan Riehl’s World View’s nutty speil

Uses “Meggie ‘Big Mac’ McCain” to speak

“Self-indulgent set of mega-breasts,” while

Jeff Poor then calls her “boobs” a home for drool.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201010180036

 

 

 

Mon Oct. 18, 2010-Cottoning to Terrorists in the Muslim

 

Kilmeade: “Not all Muslims are terrorists,

“But all terrorists are Muslim.” Say what?

When news acquires a prejudicial twist

It seems to suggest a refuge for bigots,

Not all idiots are news analysts

But all FOX analysts are idiots.

 

 

Tues  Oct. 19, 2010-Delusions, Illusions, and Confusions

 

Christine O’Donnell tells witches: I’m you

Sharon Angle tells Asians: I’m you, too,

Turning his back on the Aqua Buddha,

Rand Paul tells Christians: Ima believah.

John Raese won’t say who he is or isn’t

And John Buck claims Gay choice is transient.

 

Wed  Oct. 20, 2010- Clarence “Uncle” Thomas’ Cabal

 

Virginia Thomas, Ginni, to her friends,

Must have had a itch in that secret place

That harbors regrets and longing for revenge

That spurred her call in Anita Hill’s space

To demand an apology and end

To those inner demons she cannot face.

 

Then on the heels of this revelation,

One Lillian McEwen, a former girlfriend,

Tells ABC Thomas had fixation

On pornography and parts that distend

That bigger things were his obsession

Which, of course, he finally got in the end.

http://tiny.cc/dmqhh

 

 

Thurs  Oct. 21, 2010- The Beckhead Report

 

The Tea Party has ties to racism

Suggests an NACCP report

Which also show links to nativism.

And although the facts were there, Glen Beck’s retort

Was to attack the authors whose system

Listed the facts that Glen Beck could not contort.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201010220002

 

Fri  Oct. 22, 2010-Partialing out Impartiality

 

FOX hirelings call for NPR to be

Defunded forthwith immediately:

Sarah Palin and Bill-O O’Reilly,

Newt Gingrich and, of course, Mike Huckabee,

Steve Hayes, Kilmeade and Sean Hannity

Gretchen Carlson, Wallace, and Steve Doocy.

 

Is there anyone on the planet who,

Doesn’t know what faux news FOX is up to?

 

Sat  Oct. 23, 2010-What’s OK with RepubliCants

 

Now, grasshoppers, gather ye around,

It’s time to review RepubliCant ground.

Don’t let gays or sexual women teach?

Jim DeMint spouts this demented in/outreach.

Not to give seniors a hear-attack scare,

But Rand Paul wants to cut off Medicare.

 

Unemployment has Joe Millers’ ill will,

He maintains its unconstitutional.

 Carl Paladino is still on the horn,

Thinks it’s OK to email bestial porn.

If you’re scared of witches, you can’t beat it,

Christine O’Donnell says you don’t need it.

 

Then there’s those Canadians sneaking in

Along with all those Arizona Asians,

Not to mention Mexican aliens

And were talking about Sharron Angle

If she loses her election attempt

Will draw iron and the Second Amendment.

 

 

John Raese of Palm Beach is not that icky

To think West Virginians are all hickey,

But wants to be senator an awful lot.

And there’s GOP young gun, Rich Iott

Who to be closer to his son, you see.

Thinks it’s fun to dress up like a Nazi.

 

Social Security’s a “Ponzi scheme”

Both it and Medicare we have to end.

This comes from Ron Johnson in Wisconsin

Running for Senate and from his comments

That earth’s climate change is caused by sunspots

And child abuse bills wreak business havoc.

 

Then there’s Ken Buck of Colorado fame,

His warped views of the world were so extreme

He has reversed himself to stay in the game

He wanted to end SS, Medicare,

IUDs, birth control pills, and health care

And now claims that Gay is a choice that’s theirs.

 

Here’s some other great GOP fashions,

The Seventeenth Amendment we should shun,

Joe, again. Doesn’t believe in that one.

And Angle, she wants out of the UN

In Texas, Stephen Broden wants option,

To win with votes or armed revolution.

http://tiny.cc/dllq3m9wzb

 

 

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POLITICAL POETRY – THIS WEEK IN REVIEW

Oct. 10 – Oct. 16, 2010

 

Sun Oct. 10, 2010- Paladino Embraces Children

 

 

Carl P. Paladino said on Sunday

That there were children he wanted to save

From being brainwashed and turned into gay

He thinks he know what knowledge children crave

He’s sent out email that pictures his way

And speaks as an expert on what will deprave.

 

Mon Oct. 11, 2010- Self-Driving Car Self-Arresting

 

Google unveils cars that can drive themselves;

Next step: Add a finger and voice that yells.

Obama says secret donors hold sway.

We can’t find any, RepubliCants say.

Alaska’s Tea Bag, Joe Miller, confounds

Now saying his background is out of bounds.

 

Tues  Oct. 12, 2010-Whitman and Brown Debate

Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown toe-to-toe

In debate where Tom Brokaw let them go,

Whitman’s main claim to fame: 120-mil

While Brown’s is: been there, done that—it worked well.

Whitman blamed Brown for harsh regs and taxes,

But Brown punched back on GOP lapses.

 

Wed  Oct. 13, 2010- First Miners See Light of Day

 

Trapped 68 days, first miner ascends

The end of Chili’s black nightmare begins,

Christine O’Donnell stares in wide-eyed blithe

Can’t name any case she disagreed with.

Judge rules military cannot enforce

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell against US forces.

 

 

Thurs  Oct. 14, 2010- Bill O’Reilly Identifies the “Pinhead”

Bill O’Reilly asserts Moslems “killed us.”

–Moslems, is what he said, not terrorists

Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg left

The set of The View and this man so bereft

Of humanity that he insults the dead

And shows the world that he is a real Pinhead.

 

 

Fri  Oct. 15, 2010- FAUX News Host Brian Kilmeade Sucks Foot

“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all

“Terrorists are Muslims.” Who has the gall?

FAUX News Dimwit Brian Kilmeade, that’s who.

Speaking of halfwits, Lush Lamebrain’s doo doo

Exposed GOP senate con John Raese

Lives in Florida, but runs W.Va. race.

 

 

Sat  Oct. 16, 2010- Dems Hope to Make Real History

 

DNC Ad: “Make History Again”

If Dems succeed, will be all-time win.

Bill Clinton in California campaigns

Wherever he appears, the party gains

Left Coast overcoming GOP trends

Both Boxer and Brown seem headed for wins.

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Josie – A New Kind of Short Story

 

A short delay.

 

  I am falling a bit behind on the next installment of Josie, a love story.  I had hoped to have Parts II and IV ready to post this evening, but between the demands of the day,   I’ve never written a story quite like Josie before but I already know this is most significant expression of human love that I have written since, “I Am a Poem, Bisensual,” in which the poem itself achieved a sentient life of its own and became not only intimately aware of its readers, but able to penetrate the thin veneer of humanity and go straight to the very heart and soul love itself as it seduces and makes unequivocal love to its own reader.

 

Josie is the story of a young man who falls in love, but he has no idea if the object of his affection is a male or a female. Unbelievable? Not really. I have met and know a real life Josie, an incredibly attractive, succulently sensuous, and completely guileless individual that anyone no matter how erudite or imbued with worldly experience would be hard-pressed to ascribe a gender.

 

  I know from the emails that I am receiving that a lot of my readers are impatient for the next installment, but it is well underway and yes, it will published no later than tomorrow. In response to Heather, yes, I already know the story and how it will end. Typically, for me, a story goes through several stages. First, there is the idea. I make notes on a notepad, think about the characters, the situations. Sometimes, I write bits of dialog, bits of prose. Sometimes I only write significant words—not actually a good practice since I sometimes forget why I wrote the word in the first place. But in this case, I know the story and how it will end. My work is to organize the words.

 

  Which is why I am taking another day. The next part of the story will appear tomorrow, Thursday.

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