[Gail White]

I received the following in my e-mail and have been passing it on to as many poets as I could. With the election only 2 days away, I thought it was time to send it to all good Eratospherians.

This is a short poem in the Japanese manner made up entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush.

These have been arranged, for aesthetic purposes only,
by Richard Thon of the Washington Poet.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbill on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
I am the Decider!

(Help cure Mad Cowboy Disease on November 7th -- thank
you!)

[Roger Slater]

If only what George says were true. But I am afraid that the fish are out to destroy us.

[Lee Harlin Bahan]

No "nuke-ular?"

I think the "pitbill" missed a golden opportunity to make best use of the executive pantleg.

Thanks, Gail. You have my vote.

Best,
Lee

[Alan Sullivan]

For someone with a crippling speech impediment, Bush has done pretty well, IMO. Of course he's not the first disabled person in the White House. FDR was a real cripple. For some reason Democrats didn't sneer at him.

Alan

[Lee Harlin Bahan]

Hi, Alan. Could you please tell me the source where you learned that President George W. Bush suffers from a diagnosed, bona fide speech impediment? I searched the Net a little bit but could not find anything more than unsubstantiated assertions on this subject.

Unlike the parents of James Earl Jones, W's could afford to buy him a speech therapist. If W were treated for a speech disability, or even corrected his speech himself, it's too bad he used the gift of improved speech to mislead the American public about WMD in Iraq. It out-Roves Rove to call--um--lack of complete truthfulness a speech impediment.

"Nuke-ular" is Texas dialect, not the result of a speech impediment. (Come on, guys, no smart remarks!) If W has overcome a serious speech impediment, he surely could train himself to use the standard pronunciation for "nuclear." (I heard the First Lady make fun of him on this one.) As for "pitbill," I don't know, but if I have it proved to me that W has a real speech disability, I will apologize for any remark that made fun of that disability, and will cease to laugh at speech errors stemming from that specific disability.

There are plenty other things about which to be unhappy regarding W.

Respectfully,
Lee

[Bruce McBirney]

Alan, like Lee, I'm not aware of George Bush claiming any disability.

To the extent something unintended comes out when he speaks, whether due to dyslexia or something else, I think most people find it makes him more human and sympathetic, even endearing. But what he actually stands for, ... well, frankly, not so much.

But let's not waste a lovely Sunday afternoon being serious. Let's do as our fearless leader does and think pleasant thoughts. Or write a haiku. Or both!


GEORGE CHEERS UP

Folks livid over
war, bigotry, lies and greed.
Let them eat tax cuts!


There, I can feel the stress just melting away.

Gail, Roger, and Lee, 'see you at the polls Tuesday!

[Mark Allinson]

[Quincy Lehr]

Come on, Mark, you're not even a bona fide right-winger, so give it a damn rest.

[Robert Meyer]

Alan Sullivan:
For someone with a crippling speech impediment, Bush has done pretty well, IMO. Of course he's not the first disabled person in the White House. FDR was a real cripple. For some reason Democrats didn't sneer at him.

Give me a break, Alan, "crippling speech impediment"? HOGWASH! I can tell you about "a crippling speech impediment" - my aphasia caused by a brain hemorrhage, a speech impediment that I have to deal with every day since May 3, 1978. Not only that but right-side paralysis too, and it will never go away. Of course, your darling Ronald Reagan decided that my "disability had ceased" even though I'm STILL paralyzed. Now I'm supposed feel sorry for oily George? When George W Bush has a stroke, is forced into bankrupcy, has to work in a minimum wage job, has to struggle with a wheelchair just to get to that job, is run down by a car while crossing the street in a crosswalk in that wheelchair and when the cops arrive they give him a ticket rather than the driver of the car, and he keeps on working for a quarter of a century more, THEN and only then will I even consider my president a human being. To me, he's just a whiney little brat who had an easy life; but rather than being grateful for his fortune, he says he's "taxed to death." And what does he know about death? My mom died in my arms. I know death. I have seen dozens of my friends die. His words are garbage. And what of his great philosophy - the work ethic? When the handicapped need money, we work; but when he wants money, he just gets another tax cut. If he wants to be a lazy bum, at least he should be honest about it and not preach some phony philosophy that he himself doesn't care to even try to live up to. Ronald Reagan is in the Lake of Fire right now, and George W Bush is going down the same road.

Robert Meyer


[This message has been edited by Robert Meyer (edited November 06, 2006).]

[Gail White]

Moreover, the harm done to women world-wide by this administration can hardly be overestimated. The issue of contraception tends to fly under radar because the abortion issue looms so large. But next to the Vatican, Bush & Company is the world's biggest opponent of birth control. The assumption that every woman in the world has the power to "just say no" to sex will not bear close inspection. And I don't see how anyone who opposes the distribution of condoms in AIDS-ridden Africa can sleep at night.