pomes of buddy don: It Can't Be Our Fault

It Can’t Be Our Fault

You fought through the war, you’re home and upset,
But we don’t want to hear nothing no how,
We don’t want to see you on our Tee Vee set
Fighting the wars we don’t care about now.

The bombs, the destruction, it all brings us down —
We don’t want to seem the least bit unkind —
But we have a game, our team is in town,
So why should we sully our beautiful mind?

Why should we care about demons who haunt
You soldiers, you sailors, airmen or marines?
You come home brooding and looking so gaunt
As if we should share in the trouble you’ve seen!

We just want to relax, knock back a few beers,
It can’t be our fault since you’re all volunteers!

pomes of buddy don: No Matter What He Does

No Matter What He Does

We used to talk about the famous “up or down vote,”
As if that were the only thing that mattered,
But now that things have changed, we all must chant another note
In shocked tones that suggest we’ve been mad hattered!

We do not even know who our next enemy will be,
And yet we know for certain we oppose this great unknown,
Obstructive fights could be avoided if the nominee
Were wisely chosen from our very own!

For "empathy" for wealthy folks (now that we’re on the run!)
Is something that fits well with our great creed —
And that would be OK since we will back most anyone
Who understands the poor rich man’s great need!

No matter what he does, we can be sure it will be wrong —
If that weren’t true, we’d have to go and learn another song!

pomes of buddy don: What Are These Fools Thinking?!?

What Are These Fools Thinking?!?

What are these fools thinking, when they attack,
The high-minded lawyers who came to assist
Our leaders who wanted to invade Iraq
Yet couldn’t procure proof from nabbed terrorists?

We’d learned in Korea lessons that SERE’d
As torture induced downed airmen to confess
To crimes for which their homeland could be smeared,
For one will say anything under duress.

Though in those old days 'to waterboard'
Was widely called torture, even by us,
Its use as a tool *now* can’t be ignored!!!
Time bombs could be ticking!!! What’s all the fuss?!?

We’ve all heard it said, 'We don't torture' it’s true —
But we get 'good intell' if we ever do!

pomes of buddy don: Our Only Shield

Our Only Shield

Although we outspend all other nations
To defend ideals we oft forget,
We feel a sense of growing desperation,
As bands of criminals still pose a threat.

Like British redcoats marching in their files
Through rugged wilderness of colonies
To be defeated by guerrilla wiles,
We think our navy master of the seas.

We do not understand the changed terrain —
Of nations whose people are set ablaze
By terrorists, by pirates, the insane —
Who grow by declaiming our errant ways.

Great power is an awesome thing to wield,
But moral high ground is our only shield.

quik note of buddy don: whut i wood do

everbidy is upset over the aig bonuses, witch they accounted fer about .0916% of all the money we dun give aig ... n they pertend to be outraged over earmarks, witch they amounted to lessn 2% of the budget n wuz money that wuz a'gone be spent no matter whut, so why wood folks be upset that how it wood be spent wood be deecided by them that represents the ackshull people they represent?

seems to me we putt way to much thought into the lil thangs that dont hardly matter nun n ignore the big thangs that do. whut is aig a'doin with tuther money they gut?

speakin of givin way too much creedents to lil thangs that dont hardly matter, lust aint the problem, deespite whut the far right relijus theeocrats of the cuntry lacks to preach.

point is, taint lust but greed thats the problem.

why am i talkin bout lust n greed (two of the gratest of the seven dedlies)? on a counta we dun kickd out a feller that knew how to brang greedy insiders to heel on a counta his lust. i am talkin bout eliot spitzer.

aint nobidy in washingtun dee cee thats gut the guts to up-point the lusty mr spitzer to whar they gut that tim geitner guy, but twood be a smart move, in my lil hillbilly's pinion.

amazement of buddy don: still pinchin myself

me n miz bd couldnt go to bed till we herd the winner announced, witch we caint hardly bleeve thangs cum out lack they dun.

tiz a grate day fer these here united states. i half to add mitt that i never thunk i wood see such a thang, but tiz a thang of beeyooty. i real eyes that the challenges are nigh onto impossibull, but thays more to a eleckshun than choosin policy: thays also whut it duz in terms of leadin us cultchurally.

n that whar we are a'gone change n thats the only change that really matters.

i seen this here mannikin in a store befor the eleckshun, but i dint wonta publish a pitcher of it till the votin wuz dun on a counta i dint wonta janx nuthin ...



(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: No Time to Use Common Sense

No Time to Use Common Sense

The bankers who ruined the economy,
Who profited under the lax oversight
Of dogmatic zealots who chose not to see
The very abuses they’re charged to set right

Have now sent their lackeys to Capitol Hill
To beg for a bailout with no strings attached,
That, should it be granted, like a poison pill,
Will stop all spending plans from being hatched

And put further tax cuts on permanent hold
(Since sooner or later our bill must be paid),
All of which means that we will have sold
Our grandchildren’s dreams before they are made.

The need is urgent, the danger immense,
So this is no time to use common sense!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: Greed

But Greed Was Good!

But greed was good back when the Keating Five
Were being helped out of their major jam
By promises that help would soon arrive
In part from grandchildren of Uncle Sam.

And greed was good to help deregulate
The markets so the inside crowd could play
In confidence that crumbs from their full plate
Would trickle down to workers one fine day.

And greed was good to insulate the gains
From taxes on investment, not on work,
Since capital cannot abide the chains
That labor has no legal way to shirk.

Greed! Privatizes profits for the few
And socializes risk to me and you.

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: Desperate Straits

Today's news is nothing if not scary. I imagine the markets will be way down today, as they are so far in Europe and the far east. Lehman is gone. Merrill's been sold. The US taxpayer is on the line for a load of the bailouts for other institutions. There is fear up and down the street. We could be in ...

Desperate Straits

Some say it’s just the marketplace at work —
The winners thrive; the rest? Eliminated!
But when the risk’s too great, the losers shirk
And stick us with the losses they created.

For since we have no lobbyists to plead
Our case before the world except in votes,
Huge losses can be spread until we bleed
As our complaints are strangled in our throats.

We pay our tax dollars to avoid risk
To those who have achieved deregulation,
To those whose growth in wealth is rather brisk
While we can barely keep up with inflation.

Rich folks in sheltered neighborhoods with gates
Are those we must protect from desperate straits!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: Still a Prisoner

Still a Prisoner

Five million makes you rich, but not elite,
No, that results from working your way up!
The smart man marries well (though with pre-nup)
And looks down on those who can’t make ends meet.

No need to be true to your faithful wife,
Especially when she’s lost her youthful looks!
A trophy blonde is where you sink your hooks
Since after all you have a right to life!

As long as you were once a maverick
It doesn’t matter what you stand for now
Or which bold stands you simply disavow —
To follow your base shows such leadership!

Your lack of backbone should not trouble you —
You’re still a prisoner … of W.

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pinions of buddy don: how cum bleevers caint have faith in whut they claim to bleeve?

thays a pluralty of christchuns in this cuntry that dont seem to thank god is up to the task of doin the judgin jesus eggsplained wuz hisn, not ourn, to do, witch he taught that in the sermon on the mount in the seventh chaptur of matthew:

1Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

ifn ye truly bleeve in whut jesus sed in that famus sermon, then ye dont need to git yer gummint to ban aborshun, speshly in a demockrussy whar most folks ackshly supports the rite of a woman to make her own choices bout whuther to have a baby n risk eternull damnayshun by treatin her lil zygote lack the millyuns of other lil zygotes kept on ice after inveetro fertilizayshun: gittin rid of it.

i aint sayin thats rite, only that tiz up to god to judge, not me ... n not my gummint. (thanks to them publicans n them spineless dimcrats, thar way too far up in our bedrooms n phones n emails alreddy!)

it also aint the role of our gummint to enforce laws on the basis of relijun. taint to say gummint should let jes anythang go -- ye caint sankshun murder or robbin folks (lessn tiz dun on a verr large scale, witch enron showd us all how that wurks) -- but the gummint aint gut no bizness trine to enforce the viewpoints of a relijus group that dont represent the majorty.

why caint that same group putt thar faith in god? caint he be trusted to do the judgin? kin it be they dont trust god to hold up his end of the bargain? aint they jes faithless bleevers? (god kin judge whuther thar faithless, but thats how it looks to this here sinner.)

aint it hard a nuff to live a christchun life without trine to force the gummint to poke out the motes in everybidy elses eyes? shouldnt them that bleeves spend thar time trine to live rite? aint that a big a nuff task fer a lifetime? (i know based on personull eggzperients that it takes everthang a bidy kin do to live rite n even then ye mite fall short.)

i sumtimes wunder whut kinda thankin wood lead sumbidy to wonta dicktate to everbidy else how they kin live. seems to me it cums down to this.

furst, ye gut to bleeve that god is more innerested in the kinda justus that results in eternull sufferin frum witch thar aint never no chants of eggscape fer innybidy that fails to bleeve eggzackly the rite tale bout how to git saved. (that bleef is a stumblin block fer me on a counta i caint bleeve in such a cruel god n tend to thank he wood half to be more mercifull than that.)

but ifn ye kin bleeve that, ifn ye bleeve in eternull torment fer them that bleeves the rong thang, then secunt, why woodnt ye wont folks to be punished fer the rest of thar lives ifn they do innythang that the faithless bleevers thanks is rong, such as gittin pregnunt ere yer marrd? ifn ye do such a evil thang, ye deeserve yer punishment, witch that means havin the child, period, n probly bein forced into a marrg when yer barely outta hi skool.

n thurd, bad luck should be punishd: must be gods will or sumthin.

corse, bad luck dont mean the woman wood half to git marrd: ifn a woman should have the terrbull luck of gittin raped, speshly ifn twuz her father or her bruther or her uncle or sum criminull rapist she dont never see agin in life, least she wont half to marr the bum.

but ifn them faithless bleevers gits thar way, she also wont have the opshun of gittin rid of the lil zygote n takin a risk that wood only apply to her, gods judgment.

in sted, she will be judged -- n punished -- by the gummint them faithless bleevers wonts to force on the rest of us.

ifn ye have faith, ye know that god knows how to handle the situwayshun, both fer the judgers n the judged. n ifn ye bleeve life cummences with concepshun (n not with the 'breath of life' frum genesis), then ye orta try to cunvints everbidy that tiz evil n rong to abort. tiz yer rite to do that. but ye dont have to take away the rites that the majorty of murkins bleeves women orta have.

ifn ye truly bleeve, why not have the faith to let god do the judgin? could it be ye fear gods mercy? on a counta thays a lot of it in that thar new testamint, witch thats whar tiz claimed that tiz god, not humans, that duz the judgin of everbidy.

but most of all, how cum bleevers caint have faith in whut they claim to bleeve?

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

empty hed of buddy don: i gut nuthin

i dun spent my hole mornin readin bout the latest soap opry, thisn bout the sainted mccains purrfeck choice fer vice presdint. shows he kin thank with his gut ever bit as good as the grate george w.

ye gut to add mire a fambly woman that wood putt her fambly furst, git lodes of publissty fer her own dawter bein pregnunt out of wedlock (we cum a fur piece frum the daze when that other grate vee pee nominee, dan quayle, wuz attackin murphy brown fer her havin a child out of wedlock on a tee vee show, even tho thatn wuz made up n thisn is real).

sum folks mite could thank tiz a lil cold harted to wonta take a job as vee pee that dont leave ye hardly time fer sleep when ye gut a down syndrome child to raze n a nuthern that dint seem to git the point frum abstinence-only educayshun, not even frum her own mama (corse, she wuz a'follerin her mamas eggsample, not her preechin on the topick), but when yer facin the evil empire russia jes a few miles acrost the bearin strates, ye gut to larn to be cold harted!

fer them kids of hern, she kin hope her husbin kin stay outta truble n keep away frum a secesshunist party long a nuff to take keer of the kids. orta be a cakewalk.

as ye kin planely see, this lady is the best of all possibull vee pee choices, so all yer librul blogs n such, please quit yer badmouthin of this purty woman! she dun cum a long way, baby!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: The Great War Hero

The Great War Hero

How could he be expected to recall
How many houses his wife bought for him?
He is the great war hero, after all,
Whose memory, with age, begins to dim.

And how could he remember which great team —
The Packers? Or the Steelers? — Do we care?
The point is he had undergone extreme
Enhanced interrogation over there!

And isn’t everyone pretty confused
Concerning Shia, Sunni, and Iran?
It’s just a talking point the poor man used —
At least he thought to bring his Lieberman!

His inconsistent views? Oh, what a bore:
That flip-flop stuff is so two thousand four!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: Decreasing Demand

Decreasing Demand

Your businessmen don’t like efficiency
Since it just cuts down customer need —
Covertly they cheer a deficiency
For giving them cover to satisfy greed.

They're all quite sure it’s a grand waste of time
To limit demand for oil and such —
Instead they would like to pump more of the grime
To sell at a price that’s not quite too much.

To them conservation is just a big joke —
They need to make fun of those who believe
That reducing demand just might provoke
Curtailment of costs good sense could achieve.

It’s just like their drug war, a thing of supply —
Decreasing demand "costs too much" to apply.

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: sovereignty

Sovereignty

The problem with these new democracies
Is that they fail to understand their vote
Can make it look as if we would appease
The very folks we never would promote.

How dare Iraqis we gave liberty
Raise questions about our noble intent
Or whine about our gift of sovereignty
When it’s their freedom we helped implement?

Why must their legislature act as though
Allowing our troops to extend their stay
Until we have decided we should go
Should put their sovereignty in disarray?

Our ways are very simple, can’t they see?
By force we’ll make them stand up and be free!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: The American Dream

(Reflecting on the Democratic Nomination of Barack Obama for President of the United States of America)

The American Dream

Arriving in chains in 1619
To be sold as chattel, fed leftover swill,
To be used as tools to help others fulfill
What grandly is called the American dream –

Stripped of their dignity, their divine right
To keep their own customs, live with their kin,
Or even to speak their own language again –
Forbidden to learn how to read and to write,

They cooked all the meals, they worked in the field,
Bore for their masters more slaves to be sold,
To be broken long before they were old
While keeping their hopes for freedom concealed –

Yet their deepest dreams could not be curtailed,
They not only endured – they finally prevailed.

When given freedom, “emancipation,”
And told they’d receive both land and a mule,
Jim Crow came along with methods so cruel
As to keep them bound in poor desperation

By lynchings and terror and burning crosses,
Through use of the poll tax, strict segregation
And harsh laws against miscegenation,
They were left free to serve the same bosses.

Yet they would not let their struggle die
As they nourished dreams, refused to succumb,
Promised themselves they would overcome
And lift every voice, to sing to the sky,

That their deepest dreams would not be curtailed –
They not only endured – they finally prevailed.

Today we have seen what we never believed
We could see in a land so divided by race
That seemed destined to live with the disgrace
Of ideals long cherished, never achieved.

Yet OUR deepest dreams no one could curtail –
We ALL have endured and begun to prevail!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: Folly Must Be Wise

Folly Must Be Wise

Once he had left the White House and thus lost
The Talking Points that filled his mouth with “News!”
And written down the Truth at his own cost,
Revealing he was just a tool they used –
He found the Means he’d used for his old Boss
Were turned on him in order to confuse
A Public that has learned to accept loss
Of Truth from those whose words are just a ruse.

So Kill the Messenger! the Wingnuts shout,
For we know that he’s always told the Lies
That our Brave Hero hired him to spout,
The kind of patter he used to disguise
Mere facts that would make Voters tend to doubt
That our Great Leader’s Folly must be Wise.

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pomes of buddy don: Our Country, Right or Wrong

Our Country, Right or Wrong

Why can’t these peace-niks see how well it works
To rough up someone who might know some thing*
That might help us to find the evil jerks
Who might attack us like a bee might sting?

Why do surrender monkeys** all insist
That harshly enhanced methods can’t succeed
In getting scum we’ve captured to assist
In telling us most everything we need?

Why do these agents of the FBI***
Claim to have witnessed some unlawful scenes
Or methods that they claim must go awry
As if the ends don’t justify the means?

Can’t they see our good nation, brave and strong,
Can’t be defined by actions, right or wrong?±

*Roots of US war prisoners' rights run deep

But George Washington and his compatriots took their founding principles quite seriously. On Aug. 11, 1775, Washington sent a blistering letter to a British counterpart, Thomas Gage. He complained about gravely wounded and untreated American soldiers being thrown into a jail with common criminals.

Eight days later, despite threatening to treat British soldiers with equal cruelty, Washington admitted that he could not and would not retaliate in kind, writing: "Not only your Officers, and Soldiers have been treated with a Tenderness due to Fellow Citizens, & Brethren; but even those execrable Parricides [traitors] whose Counsels & Aid have deluged their Country with Blood, have been protected from the Fury of a justly enraged People."

Imagine that; a government on the run fighting a desperate war against a hated enemy and treating captured prisoners with compassion and decency. No doubt many of the captured British troops had intelligence that might have been useful to the Revolutionary cause - still, decent treatment was the norm. In the current war on terror, that would be described as being "soft."

**McCain fights exception to torture ban; Ex-POW assails bid to exempt the CIA

WASHINGTON -- Senator John McCain yesterday warned that a push by the White House to exempt overseas CIA agents from a proposed ban on mistreating prisoners in US custody would exacerbate the problem of detainee abuse by giving interrogators legal authority to torture suspected terrorists.

''I don't see how you could possibly agree to legitimizing an agent of the government engaging in torture," said the Arizona Republican, who survived torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. ''No amendment at all would be better than that."

McCain went public with his concerns after published reports yesterday that Vice President Dick Cheney met with him to urge changes to his widely supported proposal to outlaw cruel and degrading treatment of detainees by any US official. Cheney suggested exempting CIA counter-terrorism agents working overseas, but McCain balked.

***Interrogation Tactics Were Challenged at White House

Five years ago, as troubling reports emerged about the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a career lawyer at the Justice Department began a long and relatively lonely campaign to alert top Bush administration officials to a strategy he considered “wrongheaded.”

Bruce C. Swartz, a criminal division deputy in charge of international issues, repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of harsh interrogation tactics at White House meetings of a special group formed to decide detainee matters, with representatives present from the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA.

Swartz warned that the abuse of Guantanamo inmates would do “grave damage” to the country’s reputation and to its law enforcement record, according to an investigative audit released earlier this week by the Justice Department’s inspector general. Swartz was joined by a handful of other top Justice and FBI officials who said the abuse would almost certainly taint any legal proceedings against the detainees.

Now their predictions appear to be coming true. A top Pentagon official chose this month to drop charges against a detainee who was roughly interrogated at Guantanamo, and U.S. officials believe it may be difficult to charge him at all. Defense lawyers for a group of alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in U.S. custody have said they plan to raise concerns about harsh techniques used by the CIA and will seek to keep evidence derived from such tactics out of court.

±Matthew 7:15-20

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

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lame limricks of buddy don: no glitch

“The change you deserve,” is a sales pitch,
To hawk remedies meant to help switch
The depressing thick haze
Of sad days to glad days –
That one party needs it is no glitch!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)

pomes of buddy don: God's Words Matter Little

God’s Words Matter Little

Your Rushes, your Newts, your Rudys, your Freds,
And even your straight-shootin’ Saint John McCains,
Have all left their marks in and out of the beds
Of the ladies they loved as they ran their campaigns,
Proclaiming the need to sanctify marriage,
Not by being true to the ones they first married
But by making sure that they loudly disparaged
The wish to be wed by the gay folks they harried
With claims same-sex unions would somehow demean
The same marriage vows they themselves violated,
Pretending their own deeds were not so obscene
Despite the great values that they desecrated!

They know they won’t be called on their phoniness:
God’s words matter little since they own the press!

(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)