Today's Stories

November 19, 2008

M. Shahid Alam
Obama and the Politics of Race and Religion in America

November 18, 2008

Chellis Glendinning
Cheering for Morgan Stanley

George C. Wilson
Perils of Pakistan: Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?

Franklin Lamb
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon: Hezbollah or the UN?

Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State

Roger Burbach
Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia: How Bush Tried to Bring Down Morales

John Ross
Drilling vs. Direct Democracy in Mexico

Wajahat Ali
Is Obama the Muslim World's Superman?

Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
What Really Happened in Washington? The G20 and the Inconsistent Script

Marc Gardner
When Mooning is a Sex Crime

Eric Walberg
Courting the Bear: a New Era for Russian/Western Relations?

Wendy Williams
The Bottled Water Con

Website of the Day
Where's Zappa When We Need Him?

November 17, 2008

Michael Hudson
Bankers Shake Down Congress and the G-20

Paul Craig Roberts
When It's a Clear Day and You Can't See GM

Mike Whitney
Busted in Washington

Steve Conn
Where is Nader Country 2008? Mapping the Nader Votes

Andy Worthington
Closing Guantánamo: Advice for Obama

Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of Israel's Blockade of Gaza: "They Are All Hamas"

Rannie Amiri
Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama

David Macaray
Bailing Out the Automakers

David Michael Green
Twelve Victories

Charles Modiano
Sports Illustrated and Sexism: Tokenism or a New Day?

Website of the Day
The South Sea Bubble

November 14 / 16, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Heading for the First Hundred Days

Jeffrey St. Clair
How Bill Clinton Doomed the Spotted Owl: a Cautionary Tale for Greens in the Age of Obama

Mike Whitney
Paulson the Bungler

Sasan Fayazmanesh
RIP: the Experts, 1929-2008

Moshe Adler
Keynes: China's Greatest Export?

Anthony DiMaggio
Transcending Race?

Jean Bricmont
Cats, Dogs and Creationism

Sheldon Rampton
The Eisenstadt Hoax: a Real Life Example of a "Fake Fake"

Douglas Valentine
Let the Trials Begin!

Joseph Nevins /
Timothy Dunn
Barricading the Border

Tom Barry
Rahm Emanuel's Political Pragmatism on Immigration

Ron Jacobs
Che Guevara Meets Trashman: the Genius of Spain Rodriguez

Larry Portis
The State of the Israeli State

Mary Lynn Cramer Obama's Brain Trust: Seems Like Old Times

Sherry Wolf
The Myth of the Black/Gay Divide

Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Secretary of Greed: How Larry Summers Championed Wall Street by Impoverishing the Mexican People

Jacob Hornberger
The Conservative Malaise: Hey, Brother, Can You Spare Some Habeas Corpus?

Lance Selfa
The Center-Right Nation Con

Benjamin Dangl
Vermont Against General Dynamics

Seth Sandronsky
Lifelines in Hard Times

Russell Mokhiber
Time to Give the Friends of Big Coal the Boot

Allan Stellar
Nuke a Gay Whale for the Navy

Kelly Overton
Get Thee to a Shelter: the Obamas and the Million-Mutt March

Martha Rosenberg
Why Mink are Cheering the Economic Crisis

Richard Rhames
Palling Around with Ray the Plumber

David Yearsley
How I Played Hooky from "High School Musical 3"

Lorenzo Wolff
Zach is Back: Songs of Hurt, Rage and Resistance

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Ford and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
The Eyes Have It

November 13, 2008

Pam Martens
The Two Trillion DollarBlack Hole

Vijay Prashad
Guilt by Participation: Sonal Shah's Membership Has Expired

Patrick Cockburn
Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?

Jonathan Cook
The Withering Palestinian Economy

Ralph Nader
Obama and the Rogue Regime

Bill Quigley
McCain Owes America an Apology

Lee Sustar
Bailing Out the Big Three

Omar Barghouti
Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products

Steve Conn
More Alaska Fun

Howard Lisnoff
The Last Bastion of Hate

Jeff Cohen
What Indy Media Heroes Can Teach Us

Website of the Day
Who are the Obamagelicals?

November 12, 2008

Johanna Berrigan
Scattered Families: the Iraq Refugee Crisis

Steve Conn
The Big Mystery Election in Alaska

Patrick Bond
Against Volcker

Bokar Ture /
Dedrick Muhammad
Remembering a Black Radical in a Barack Obama America

Alan Farago
The Hispanic Vote in South Florida: Not Dyed Blue Yet

Dave Lindorff
Rescuing Joe Lieberman

Karl Grossman
Break Up Big Oil: Tyranny in the Tank

David Macaray
An Obama Litmus Test: Will Labor Have a Seat at the Table?

George Wuerthner
Act Now to Save America's Public Forests

Susie Day
Heavy Weather

Website of the Day
Does the Planet Have a Future? an Interview with Derrick Jensen

November 11, 2008

James G. Abourezk
How to Vote Against Your Own Interests

Allan J. Lichtman
What Obama Can Learn From FDR

Eric Toussaint
Financing the Bailout: a Holy Union for a Deuce of a Swindle

Ron Jacobs
Moving Beyond Hope: a Leftist Looks at the Near Future

Peter Montague
Green Coal?

Corporate Crime Reporter
BP's Big Spill on the North Slope

Laura Carlsen
Latin America Sends Obama a Piece of Its Mind

Col. Dan Smith
A New Unifying Paradigm?

Morton Skorodin
The Machine Grinds On

David Michael Green
My Michelle Moment

Charles R. Larson
Ask Your Doctor for a Free Sample

Website of the Day
Will Old Faithful Be Sucked Dry?

November 10, 2008

David Roediger
Obama's Victory and the Future of Race in the United States

Paul Craig Roberts
Conned Again?

Peter Lee
Obama's Man in Afghanistan

Corey D. B. Walker
And We Are Not Saved

Jeff Halper
A Bone in America's Throat

Bill Hatch
Look on the Bright Side, Dammit!

Andy Worthington
Guilty By Torture

Bill Quigley
Anger and Hope: Haitian Families Furious Over School Collapse

Peter Morici
Paulson's Folly

Anthony Olszewski
The Advent of a New Black Politician

Kim Nicolini
Exile and Displacement on Bunker Hill

Cpt. Paul Watson
Farley Mowat's Last Book? Maybe Not

Website of the Day
Boondocks, Another Banned Episode

November 7 / 9, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Hail to the Chief of Staff

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Fire

Vijay Prashad
Obama's Indian: the Many Faces of Sonal Shah

Tariq Ali
Great Expectations

Jean Bricmont
Our Obama Problem

John V. Whitbeck
Obama, Emanuel and Israel

Saul Landau
Politics Among the Ruins: Obama Faces an Economic Disaster

Peter Morici
Gone, Baby, Gone: Another 240,000 Jobs Lost

Lawrence Velvel
Obama and Afghanistan: the Return of Clintonia?

Karyn Strickler
Don't Govern From the Middle

Nativo V. Lopez
Banking on Obama with Open Eyes: Latinos and Obama

Christopher Fons
A Generational Moment: From Jackson to Obama

Alan Farago
Sarah Palin's Limited Engagement

David Yearsley
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Christopher Brauchli
Pardoning Industry: Bush's Latest Executive Orders

Samah Sabawi
Gaza's New Cemetery

Dave Lindorff
Getting the Change We've Earned

Deepak Tripathi
A Revolution to Remember

Beth Sherouse
In the Wake of Lost Initiatives: the Gay Glass is Half Empty

Patrick Irelan
La Belle Dame Sans Regrets: Back to Alaska

Stephen Martin
Barack and the Temple

Richard Rhames
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

J. Murray
White Cherokee Mythology

Lorenzo Wolff
Anthems for the Average Kid

Kim Nicolini
Exile and Displacement on Bunker Hill: Art Meets Realism in "The Exiles"

Poets' Basement
Farrelly, Fleming and Browne

Website of the Day
Take Who Takes You (For the New Big O)

November 6, 2008

Frank J. Menetrez
Now What?

John Chuckman
The Big Leap: From Hope to Change

P. Sainath
A Magic Moment (But Still Behind the Global Curve)

Joshua Frank
A Look Under the Hood of an Obama Administration

Edna Canetti
Come, Obama, Change My Life: a Plea from Israel

John Ross
Brad Will is Still Dead

Norman Solomon
Sorry Joe: a Mandate for Spreading the Wealth

Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Morning After: Pakistan and Its New Bedfellow

Robert Weissman
Mordor Brightens: Obama's Challenge--and Our Own

Harvey Wasserman
A Blow to Nuclear Power in Chicago

Website of the Day
Pot Wins Big

November 5, 2008

Cockburn / St. Clair
Why McCain Lost

Chuck Spinney
How Obama Won

Ishmael Reed
Morning in Obamerica: the Promised Land?

Chris Floyd
A Prism for the New Paradigm: "What If Bush Did It?"

Binoy Kampmark
Obama's Victory: a Nation Divided

Michael Donnelly
The Rebooting of America, 2008

David Macaray
Who Should be Secretary of Labor?

Peter Morici
Obama's First Moves on the Economy

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
What Real Change Should Bring

William Willers
Will We be Forced to Sell Off the Public Lands?

Website of the Day
The Killing Fields of South Africa

November 4, 2008

Kathleen Christison
McCain, Obama and Khalidi

James Ridgeway
A New World?

Winslow T. Wheeler
Cleaning Out the Pentagon Pig Sty

Mike Whitney
Obama's Little Red Book

Conn Hallinan
A New Foreign Policy

Holly M. Barker
The Inequities of Climate Change and the Small Island Experience

Ashley Smith
Where is the Occupation of Iraq Heading?

Andy Worthington
Guilty Verdict Fails to Justify Gitmo Trials

Martha Rosenberg
AIG: Too Big to Play Fair

Stephen Martin
Breakdown of the Globalisation Agenda

Doug Lummis
Full Moon Over Okinawa

Carlos Fierro
An Anarchist View of Elections

Website of the Day
La Pequeña as Sarah Palin

November 3, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Friends Like These

John Kennedy O'Hara
Voter Lockdown: Prosecuting Voters

Peter Montague
Is Nuclear Power Green?

Steve Conn
Nader and the Youth Vote

Andrew Gebhardt
How Much Do the Differences Between Obama, McCain and Bush Really Matter?

Ron Jacobs
Bombing Syria: Borders are for Sissies

Ralph Nader
Between Hope and Reality: an Open Letter to Senator Obama

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Cleaning Up After Bush

Uri Avnery
Obama and the Order of the Optimists

Dave Lindorff
Studs and Me

Fred Gardner
Adieu, Rimonabant

DC Larson
You Are How You Vote

David Michael Green
McCain Finally Gets Tough

Val Strange
Hopeless Hoi Polloi or Step in the Right Direction?

Tuli Kupferberg /
Jeffrey Lewis
Wailing Wall Street:
Bring Spare Money!

Website of the Day
Pranking Palin (the Uncut Version)

October 31 , 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Change You Can See

Jeffrey St. Clair
Killing Leroy Jackson: the Indian Wars Have Never Ended

Douglas Valentine
Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy: McCain's 14th Amendment Problem

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Great Bailout Fraud: Misrepresenting the Financial Crisis

Dr. Ignacy Nowopolski
Is the Global Economy a Mistake? an Interview with Paul Craig Roberts

Alan Maass
What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Spreading the Wealth?

William P. O’Connor
Reflections of an Average Joe

Patrick Irelan
Johnny's Tantrums: McCain the "Gook Hater"

Brian Cloughley
Out of Control: Memo From Islamabad

Mats Svensson
The Last Dance in Ramallah

Binoy Kampmark
Into Syria We Went

Steve Conn
The Future of Ted and Sarah

Alan Farago
The Division of Florida: the Politics of Growth

Morton Skorodin
The Bush-Obama-McCain Administration

Robert Bryce
Not McCain

Wajahat Ali
Dear John McCain, Please Stop...

David Yearsley
Palin's Flute, Obama's Voice

Dennis Loo
What to Do with Bush and Cheney?

Pam Martens
Why 2008 Feels Like 1932

Stephen Martin
Defense Strategies in Economic Warfare

Richard Rhames
Nothing for Something: the Doomed Rustic's Lament

Ramzy Baroud
A Third Palestinian Intifada

Missy Beattie
I'm Sick of Their Voices

Howard Lisnoff
Burning Reason: More From the Religious Right

Richard Neville
Pickled Heads: First the Revelation, Then the Revolution

Saul Landau /
Farrah Hassan
Bush Ultra Lite: Oliver Stone's Oedipal Problem

Kim Nicolini
Max Payne: Vigilante Violence as Sex Story

Lorenzo Wolff
Dance to the Music--or Else!

Poets' Basement
Four Poems from the Japanese Trans. by Rexroth

Website of the Weekend
Art Against Empire

October 30, 2008

Cockburn / St. Clair
McCain's Women Problems

Vijay Prashad
Smearing Rashid Khalidi

Paul Craig Roberts
World Tires of Rule by Dollar

Glen Ford
Turning the Tide of Ethnic Cleansing in America's Cities

Stanley Heller
Wall Street Bonus Madness

William Loren Katz
"Kill Him!:" a Political Chronicle

Joshua Frank
Memo to Progressives for Obama: What Happens After the Election?

James McEnteer
The Year of Unreliable Witnesses

Felice Pace
The Big Change: Can "Civic Unreasonableness" Save the Earth?

Jonathan Cook
The Executions at Kafr Qassem

Reza Fiyouzat
Boycott the Elections!

Website of the Day
An Open Letter to Whole Foods

October 29, 2008

Arno J. Mayer
The US Empire will Survive Bush

Eric Toussaint
How the Food and Financial Crises are Interconnected

Matt Gonzalez
What Do They Have to Do to Lose Your Vote?

Steven Conn
Obama and the Camp Followers

Jonathan Cook
Israel Bars Visit to a Father's Grave

Patrick Bond
Strauss-Kahn Strikes Again!

Ramzi Kysia
A Freedom Rider in Gaza City

Douglas Valentine
A Glimpse Inside the Head of Joe the Plumber

Stephen Martin
What America is Owed

Margaret Dooley-Sammuli
Alternatives to Incarceration

Amee Chew
Support Obama, Vote McKinney?

Website of the Day
N-Word Chant Doesn't Phase Palin

October 28, 2008

James G. Abourezk
How to Bail Out the Taxpayers

Andy Worthington
The Empty Chair at Guantánamo

Gary Leupp
The Specter of the Sixties: Palin v. Ayers

Paul Craig Roberts
The End of the American Road

Mike Whitney
Meet the World's New Currency

Gregory V. Button
What the Next President Must Do to Save FEMA

Ralph Nader
Share the Sacrifices, Share the Benefits

P. Sainath
Haunted by Socialism

Martha Rosenberg
Melting Pot in Hell

Charles R. Larson
Palin/Wurzelbacher 2012!

Website of the Day
Why You Can't See Across the Grand Canyon

October 27, 2008

Michael Hudson
Scenes From the Global Class War

Barbara Rose Johnston
The Clean, Green Nuclear Machine?

John Dinges
Palling Around with Dictators: McCain and Pinochet

Mike Whitney
Chickenhawks and the Horrors of War

Mary Lynn Cramer Greenspan's Higher Power

Alan Farago
Origins of the Fall

David Michael Green
Remind Me Again: Who Won the Cold War?

Andy Worthington
The Collapse of Omar Khadr's Guantánamo Trial

George Wuerthner
Is Ranching Sustainable? The Story of Bob the Rancher

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Obamanations of Barack

Website of the Day
Heartland of Darkness

October 24 / 26, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Waiting for the Curtain to Rise

Ishmael Reed
Boogiemen: How Lee Atwater Perfected the G.O.P.'s Appeal to Racism

Mike Whitney
Down for the Count

Don Santina
How Maria Fell: Death in the Central Valley

Scott Boehm
Manufacturing Sympathy: Palin, Special Needs and Identity Politics

Saul Landau
Faith-Based Surge: Whining About Winning in Iraq

Ron Jacobs
Iraq and the Arrogance of Washington

Binoy Kampmark
Afghanistan the Un-Winnable

Linn Washington Jr.
The Great Vote Fraud Hoax

Nicole Colson
Mocking Our Rights: McCain's Disdain for Women's Health

Bernard Chazelle
The Humorology of Power

Brian Jones
Campaign by Codeword

Christopher Brauchli
Down the Drain with McCain's Vetters

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Rejects Neoliberalism

Val Strange
The Fraternity of John McCain: Scenes from North Carolina

Joe Mowrey
Name That Candidate: He Supports Petraeus, the Death Penalty, the Bailout, Nuclear Power, the Occupation...

Steve Early
SEIU Learns the Meaning of "No"

David Macaray
Patriotism and the Labor Movement

Allison Kilkenny
You Have the Right to Airport Harassment

Richard Rhames
Open Season

Jim Bell
Nuclear Power's Big Con

Kris De Welde
Domestic Violence and Financial Stress

Barry Clemson
John Wayne Syndrome

Adam Engel
Last Exit to Disneyland

Mark Scaramella
The World's Weirdest Pipe Organ?

Tuli Kupferberg
Nobody for President: the Original Version (Annotated)

Lorenzo Wolff
A Frustrated, Broken-Hearted Joy from Kidnapkin

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Swartzfager and Payne

Website of the Weekend
Patrick Cockburn Dismantles the Surge

October 23, 2008

Allan J. Lichtman
What Voter Fraud?

Todd Chretien
Why I'm Not Voting for Obama

John Ross
No Child Left Behind, Mexican-Style

Peter Morici
Strategies to End the Crisis

Mats Svensson
Short Film Clips at a Checkpoint

Marlene Martin
Don't Let Them Execute an Innocent Man

Robert Jensen /
Pat Youngblood
Looking Beyond the Election and Beyond Elections

Margaret Kimberley
Rightwing Obama Love

Deepak Tripathi
Post-Bush Scenarios

David Morris
Why Joe the Plumber is a Socialist (And You Are, Too)

Website of the Day
Voting While Black in North Carolina

October 22, 2008

Brian Cloughley
Kid Killers are Barbarians

Heather Gray
Raising Hell in the South: the Legacy of J. L. Chestnut, Jr.

Jeff Birkenstein
McCain's Disdain for Spain

Ralph Nader
The Song Remains the Same: Convergence and Avoidance in the Presidential Election

DC Larson
The Growing of a Heartland Nader Raider

David Swanson
Colin Powell, Not Qualified for Government Service

Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor Race and the Election: When the "Real" America Enters the Voting Booth

Larry Everest
9/11 and the Imperial Adventure in Afghanistan

Robert Fantina
Anything to Win

Martha Rosenberg
The Financier's Playbook

Stephen Martin
Giving It Up to the Combine

Website of the Day
Brokers with Hands on Their Faces

October 21, 2008

Vijay Prashad
Wealth's Apostles

Paul Craig Roberts
How Inflation Works: Why I Can't Buy an Old Ferrari

Corey D. B. Walker
Empire and White Supremacy

Steve Breyman
How to "Win" in Afghanistan

Eric Toussaint
The Economic Crisis and Latin America: Time to Delink

Wajahat Ali
Boo Radley Comes Out to Play: the Emerging Muslim-American Electorate

Robert Weitzel
Wasting a Vote for Lincoln's Radical Ideal (Or Why I'm Voting for Nader)

Brendan Cooney
Palinoscopy: an Exploration of Why Liberals are So Obsessed with Sarah Palin

Dave Lindorff
Cuba's Oil Reserves: a Game-Changer?

Marqueece Harris-Dawson / Bob Wing
When You're a Black Candidate There's No Such Thing as a Safe Lead

Patrick B. Barr
Socialist, Socialist, SOCIALIST!

Omar Barghouti
The Boycott and Palestinian Groups: Countering the Critics

Website of the Day
How to Dismantle a US War Plane (and Get Away With It)

October 20, 2008

Michael Hudson
The ABCs of Paulson's Bailout

Anthony DiMaggio
The Scandal That Never Was: ACORN, Rightwing Media and Election "Fraud"

Tariq Ali
Zardari Bans My Books

Uri Avnery
Is Akko Burning?

Bill Quigley
Hammered by the Swedes

Ben Rosenfeld
The Politics of St. Joe, Martyr to a Lie

David Michael Green
Payback's a Bitch: McCain on the Ash Heap

William S. Lind
The Afghanistan Advantage

Chris Genovali
Drill, Baby, Drill (Wink, Wink)

Stephen Martin
The Last Man in America

Howard Lisnoff
Bad News for War Resisters

David Yearsley
Organ Meat

Website of the Day
Our Brother is Sick: the Steve Ferguson Cancer Fund

October 17 / 19, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Blow Ups and Bombers

Jeffrey St. Clair
Inside Hanford: a Trip to America's Most Toxic Place

Pam Martens
How the Banksters are Making a Killing Off the Bailout

Paul Craig Roberts
Government of Thieves

Mike Whtney
No More Investment Banks

Michael D. Yates
Bowling Alley Blues: Racism Dies Hard in Johnstown, PA

Suzanne Smith
The Energy-War Connection: McCain Said It, Why Don't We?

Carl Boggs
Prosecuting Bush

Ralph Nader
Closing the Courthouse Doors

Fidel Castro
The Global Crash

Dave Marsh
The Great Levi Stubbs

Saul Landau
Denial, the Election Musical Comedy

Jo Guldi
The Floods of Heaven

Kevin Zeese
Now the Cost of War Really Matters

Larry Everest
Afghanistan, Not a Good War Gone Bad

Steve Early
Stop, in the Name of Joe!

David Macaray
Hey, Joe

Ben Terrall
When Ike Hit Haiti

Missy Beattie
Palin and God's Children

Don Monkerud
American Exceptionalism

Helen Redmond
Health Care Now's Big Con

Dan Bacher
Schwarzenegger's Delta Vision: Canals and Dams to Bail Out Big Ag

Wajahat Ali
Bush Gets Stoned

Farzana Versey
The White Tiger's Stripes and Gripes

Vladimir Frolov
Medvedev to Obama: We Come Not to Bury America, But to Buy It

Kim Nicolini
Frozen River: At Last, a Great Movie That's Neither Hip Nor Cool

Poets Basement
Gibbons, Corsale, Davis and Fleming

Website of the Day
The Real Sarah Palin?

November 19, 2008

In the Time of Money for Nothing

The Other Side of the Pleasure-Dome

By STEPHEN MARTIN

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge : ‘Kubla Khan’ or ‘A Vision in a dream: A fragment’

Now that aint workin, thats the way you do it
Lemme tell ya,  them guys aint dumb…

--Dire Straits. ‘Money for nothing’

Jester does not promise ye herein a ‘Rose Garden’!

This be the take of mere fool on ‘puppetry political’ American.

Ye being of nervous disposition such as should ‘switcheth channel’ - as may yet ecstatic be over results of the Election and which ‘money man’ hath won, and hope herein sincere be that thy hopes, so far as they are for ‘greater good’ are realised; that whatever reality promised turns out to be, not just sugar coat….

Not to melt away, not to  reveal: ‘same old shtick.’?

- Jester wishes ye well - and such ‘shtick’ be gone before appearance!
That such ecstasy may result in all that ye hope for other; for ‘humanity’.

Oh, such is the hoping enjoined!

Reading on as matter of particular election thine own and true - hence ye be possibly from  ‘smart side’; goodness knows ye are  why as such as why this Jester submits to Orwellian fantasy of ‘hope’ for humanity, and put thoughts way of freedom realised idiosyncratic this  organ of Democracy American.

‘Hath the ‘smart money’ won’?

Election 2008  -  above should not be the question!

Writing now, Jester knows result of Election 2008 - also as having knowledge Citizens turned out in droves.

What a mere Jester should know of ‘Democracy’?

Just as in the prayer for a parallel of Roosevelt, and hope found in ‘Ba’ – who may even now, as Jester writes, be as ‘toast’ political; of  bread burned or of the spirit in glass raised as question, while recognising that in the sidelines political, real truth was stated and other toast made - if not to be enacted in the attempt political, courtesy of money rather than people, decree rather than vote, puppet rather than man -and case tragic as may be concerning the ‘bread burned’ when far better it be it that ‘glass be raised’ in honour; fond words uttered thereby….

Standing before thee, smile wide, pretending as to life, while hand up ‘backside’ , voice cast as by the ventriloquism  - indeed as puppet be!
Such as  Mr. Nader  or  Ms. McKinney be not.

As to your belief?

As not to melt away to ‘shtick’?

Few for the life saw even shade of such in ‘Old Macky’ – turning ‘that one’ against as vernacular in petard; lowering of barrier accepted as in – ‘ Spread the wealth, plumbing depths new; dear’ hissing’  John?’

In the ‘backfire or blowback’ thy found thy nemesis – for such spread indeed the desire, if not need…

Thy should have left such jest behind - as Jester advise;  ‘kiddeth not the kidder’ - dear sire!

This small article opened by two quotes; seeming far apart; AD 1798  - thence in the switching,  to AD 1985.

These times, these days; they breed a sense of ‘so far apart’.
Deliberation by way of Zeitgeist delineation, apropos of dynamic eternal; folly and wisdom as sayeth ‘Will’?

Not that years all that much; so much can happen in the interval; the ‘interregnum’ as it were in the being…

For particular sins this Jester; condemned to study ‘Metaphysics’ – alongside other, much more practical discipline.

Such ‘mind fuck’ as can be sitting round a table discussing whether or not such exists with others - who may themselves be as product ‘solipsistic’!

‘Promethean’ baptism concerning the belief that money be, and of the ‘wisdom’ of Cheney –   that be ‘Dick’ in the abbreviation, and  concerning impossibility of sexual act in the utterance uncouth.

- Damn if the spellchecker be not broken by that pertaining to sole sentient being - metaphysical jargon tending towards such these days!

Anyway, Jester hath no desire to rain on ‘parade’, far let alone to ‘piss’ on same…

But having ‘pipe to rip’ as it were, not the least being that, unfortunately, from the mouth of ‘Sam’ - nothing good coming from Opium dream?

Jardine Matheson corporate entity included, days of yore, and as of Empire passed -small jest yet to play there may be concerning the screwing of as in the turning eternal.

A challenge to power prevailing – expression of your grace!

Not that the concept of ‘Dire Straits’ either be admired, as lived, such time of meltdown as is getting better in the knowing by number, in the intimacy of the material, the Citizen thereof, as  learning ‘the Blues’ musical in the singing..

How cometh it to be?

‘Joe six pack’ as become ‘Joe no pack’ or indeed ‘Joe oweth a few packs’?

Something wondrous about ‘belief’ is there not?

That thine ‘interest’ be raised, such further turn of screw?

Do not question on which such screw turneth -   as of in puppet show political?

Where ‘we’ are now; midst of ‘metaphysical nightmare’ for some – and ‘pipe dream’ for other, expression of such belief?

There; in the twisted scowl of ‘Dick’, ‘heart’ still beating courtesy of machine,  skeletal grim form of ‘Don’, rubber stamper of deaths (retired) Condoleeza Rice, of musical accomplishment better than as of Nero mere fiddler to much smaller burning, and George W as kleptocratic heir; idiocy - in the power bequeathed as contempt for humanity in the ‘representation’ thereof?

There; in ‘Colon’ on world stage, uttering such as contained within anatomy part, to drumbeat of war, no less…

Mine blade is double scythed!

There; in whispering hiss ‘Old Macky’; in the ‘pit-bull with lipstick’ sidekick; of female equivalent ‘George W’ concerning vacuity - and antonym of transigence the making thereof?

If ‘they’ have ‘won’ - in even deeper trouble than is known?

As per yourself, perchance?

Questioning such ‘toll of bell’?

Or ‘turn of screw’?

That by such toll screwed indeed?

It falling by way of Jester to be the bearer of such tiding?  

Unqualified thereby – as expression lack of  knowledge, but that can almost weep in the watching of Citizen loyal and true in the queue waiting to vote American Election 2008, and see game as played, some sense of history, of proverb French, and language of Fascism - apropos of  ‘cheese eating surrender monkey’ - or ‘Untermenschen’ perchance?

As can see flea riding elephant,  power of AIPAC, make or break, and in the downing on bended knee before; such selling out as hand in puppet

‘Plus ca change’ ?

As trying to reconcile Coleridge with Dire Straits; such times we live - happy for most they not be.

- But worry not, for Jester is here, a smile in the wry to raise -  that it be caught – in the getting of it, or getting it not!

What become clear; that America as a beauty wondrous and true in such times a dynamic between that of ‘State’ and ‘Individual’ – and that ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’  be not so  nurtured now?

This; seen in queue to vote; of ‘turnout’ as belief – and hope for ‘change’ concerning growing numbers of unemployed?

Nestling such nurture, heart of American Dream, something going back, demanding ‘rebirth’; and such as would prevent Roosevelt parallel as is desperate in the requirement for a truly great country - in the Constitution realised; as in the articulation can put Magna Carta ‘neath shade - something which in openness of embrace as cannot help but be admired, even by Jester?

Something glorious, within this America, as beat of heart; as not found in puppet?

But such also giving meaning to ‘money men’ in Political ‘reality’ - more be the tragedy?

The margins between ‘Old Macky’   and  ‘Ba’  so slim?

In the ‘squeeze’ to be of same is hope for the future of America that such realises in the re-establishment of balance, or progress towards?
That the vote as queued for by Citizen as heart be realised in the head; that there be pullback from the brink, that it be not the case that who counts the vote transcends in the desire the will of those who casteth same, form of decree far from the pleasure as found such dome?

Once again.

Let there be truth - proclaimeth the Jester!

Money for  nothing? 

Pleasure dome decreed?

What be the ‘something’ -  and whom it to be for?

What be  the pleasure  of being American if it is ‘all’ as lie;  no more than ‘re-hash’ of such as George W Bush as empty, transient vehicle as per drift, hollow as per blow of wind dominant by fortune; rule by expression of money through puppet; moral or charismatic,  contempt in the imposition as of rule by vote counter rather than by voter as Citizen – be the former  as ‘ruler’ technological invention, bringing home as ‘delivery’, to ‘scheme’ black in the box as in the ‘heart’  there from  - if  indeed, possessed?

There is already too much tragedy, this world, for such as Jester?

Or in such - a ‘beckoning hence’ there be?

No ‘money for nothing’; no ‘stately pleasure- dome’ as in decree? Never has been - but as of pipe dream?

But what there can be - America resurgent; conscious realisation result of ‘Nationhood expressed’, Constitution alive yet that there be will of the people, of Citizenry, that can reconstruct dynamic;  re-establishment of balance harmonious of State and Individual, as can render poverty all but obsolete through compassion, reach out in rise above; making of huddled masses yearning to breathe free…  a power of humanity in the desiring?

Call it idealism, call it ‘pipe dream’, call it ‘money for nothing’ – but do not doubt  earnest hope herein as from mere Jester realised for the Citizen of America; that  ‘Champion of the People’ be found, that the balance recognises ‘pleasure true’ , that all such  ‘currency’  be for ‘something’!

On such grounds the hopes of Citizens true, body of Humanity American, rest?

America in ‘hubris?

China in ‘ascendance’?

Do not shoot the messenger -  he mere Jester be!

China hath troubles, and can but America shift emphasis from Wall Street to Main Street accordant ‘balance’; can but manage ‘power’ humanely to Citizen parochial as to Citizen worldly, then there may be hope; may yet be other than insularity of Fascism, welcome in such transcendence; avoidance of ‘prying of gun from dead hand’  mentality?
The ‘barbed wire snare’ which  dear ‘Ike’ warned grown in ‘strength’ - but only by usurpation of vote, corruption  of  American Way; constraint of freedom of Citizen and corruption of Democracy as in  Constitution writ?

I speak of you, dear Citizen, and to you - no less!

This vote may see reverse of trend; may see ‘something’, may see real pleasure as not of decree - but by way of will?

In this that there be the maturity of seeing that a large part of something is better than all of nothing - that giving is exceeded in the receiving reciprocated, that   ‘jaw, jaw’ is indeed better than ‘war, war’; that control can be way of soft talk and big stick - and ever the better such as stick caste aside in maturity and spirit entered  -  indeed that the voice of citizen as body of humanity attain power.

Oh let it be - when I turn on my t.v.–  that Jester doth see…
America  t’is of thee.

Jester: a clown or buffoon who is employed by a noble or royal for entertainment; also called fool. In societies where freedom of speech was not recognized as a right, the court Jester - precisely because anything he said was by definition "a jest" and "the uttering of a fool" - could speak frankly on controversial issues in a way in which anyone else would have been severely punished for, and monarchs understood the usefulness of having such a person at their side. Still, even the Jester was not entirely immune from punishment, and he needed to walk a thin line and exercise careful judgment in how far he might go - which required him to be far from a "fool" in the modern sense.
America after ‘election’ 2008 requires Jesters?  

- Dost thou think all that money was spent on mere puppet show, same hands disguised ‘neath same?

- ‘Only kidding!’  - as Jesters say when knuckle transgressed; too close to the bone as for there to ‘comfort be’.  

Nor ‘be’eth’ I from Connecticut - such as but part of jest, mere device as of heuristic, as are manifold and multiple up Jester’s sleeves  - the ‘Twain’ as be admired, not the case thy can see mine humor therein?

Is laughter not indeed the ‘best’ of medicines – and such in the Freedom realised despised  - only as by Darkness visible?

Or indeed by that behind hand as works puppet, mouth as throws voice? - regardless of race, color, creed or religion - ‘Egalitarian’  - subsumed by ‘Nicc’?

Explicandum; way of ‘CP’ and ‘ naming the names’:

Ba: An abbreviation of Barack, with play on sound, as of sheep bleating in Nursery Ryhme.  As of the Obama?

Will: An abbreviation of William, as play upon aspect of élan vitale separating man from mere puppet, and persistence leading to the optimistic. As of the Blake.

Dick: An abbreviation of Richard, as play upon penile appendage. As of the Cheney.

Ike: an abbreviation found in name of POTUS 34, play upon truth poetic Sylvia Plath concerning barb wire snare - as ‘Military Industrial Complex’ representational.  As of the Eisenhower.

Colon: A play upon the pronunciation idiosyncratic of Colin as insisted upon, reference to anatomy intestinal as full of waste matter to be expelled through peristalsis.  In front of United Nations.  As of the Powell.

Nicc: An abbreviation of Niccolo, as play upon Nick as in the Old, concerning the Devil, and as of way the world works - and how puppets political are made. As of the Macchiavelli.

‘Don’: An abbreviation of Donald, as play upon the Gangster nomenclature, apropos of Smedley Butler gift concerning ‘racket’. As  of the Rumsfeld.

CP: abbreviation for a political newsletter, and of the ‘Only in America’ as telling of facts. As of the Counterpunch.

Stephen Martin can be reached at: stephenmarti@yahoo.com

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