Here's an old poem I wrote as a parody of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's classic, "How Do I Love Thee?"

On re-reading it this morning when I used it in a comment on Deanie Mills blog, I realized how perfectly it describes how I feel about this arrogant, incompetent and corrupt administration.

With apologies to EBB, here it is:

How Do I Loathe Thee?

How do I loathe thee? Let me shout for days.

I loathe thee to the height and left and right

The sky can stretch, while reaching for sun bright

For all the speeding cars a dog might chase.

I loathe thee beyond the luminous rays

Of blistering sun. As 7-Up loathes Sprite.

I loathe thee surely as day turns to night.

I loathe thee truly as dark as night stays.

I loathe thee with such pure heartfelt disdain.

The fire of hell is cool when it's compared

To the searing, scalding and horrid pain

I would soon inflict if I only dared.

A thousand lashes from Singapore's cane

I've been working on a book about PTSD. It's not difficult to predict that this group of military people will suffer the most severe forms of that horrible affliction.

More and longer deployments, extensions of deployments because our military has been pushed to the brink by poor planning and incompetent leadership, constant danger and fear for every minute of the deployment, physical, emotional and psychological exhaustion, etc., etc., etc.... All these factors will no doubt lead to an epidemic of PTSD never before imagined in our country.

New statistics about to be released by the Department of Defense show the suicide rate among soldiers has reached a 26 year high.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_suicides

The arrogance and incompetence of our executive branch and former Secretary of Defense are directly responsible for these deaths.

It has become painfully obvious that these people have no shame. They are without souls. They are monsters who continue to send these young men and women into unspeakable horror in order to continue the flow of oil and, as a direct result, money into offshore accounts.

Haliburton continues to benefit from the corrupt and immoral actions of this administration. Republicans continue to support the failed policies of "Georgie."

When will it all end? When will the Democrats in Congress stand up to these demons?

Yesterday it was reported in the Washington Post that the long awaited September report from General Patreaus is actually being written by White House staff as we speak.

Patreaus will make "suggestions" but the policies and decisions will be made by, guess who? "Georgie!" So what's new? The "Decider" who is directly responsible for more than 3,600 American deaths and uncountable Iraqi deaths is, once again, going to overrule reason, public opinion and common sense with his arrogance!

Please! Someone stand up to these people. Someone begin impeachment proceedings. Someone find the courage to fight for the very lives of these brave Americans who continue, in record numbers, to die by their own hands. Someone PLEASE speak up. "We The People" are not being heard.

This insanity MUST be stopped. Take to the streets. Write your Representatives and Senators. SCREAM against the hurricane of evil until sanity prevails. PLEASE! Before another American dies, Before another Iraqi dies, before world opinion causes us to lose what little respect we have left... Stop "THEM!"

Well, TheraP, Glenn, Deanie, Tom, Tom, cscs and other fellow patriots... Here is a sonnet in response to TheraP's blog:

Why I Care (A Sonnet)

Ah, as all true patriots must… I care.

There is no other option; for my soul

Cannot remain silent while leaders dare

To deceive the masses as the death toll

Sickeningly rises each hour, each day.

Demons have risen to control the reins.

Dissent is “unpatriotic,” they say.

Our constitution is covered with stains.

The blood of thousands flood Iraqi streets

As corrupt corporate whores legislate

And manipulate votes to hold their seats.

“We The People” of a nation, once great,

Steadfast, shall be silenced only by death.

“We” will condemn “Them” with our dying breath.

A parody of Shakespeare's Sonnet # 18

which reads:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

..

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Should I compare a brilliant man to thee?

Thou art less cunning and less reasoning:

Though lies did lead to things that should not be,

And lack of plans hath caus’d a tragic thing:

Sometime too cold the pit of Hell so deep,

And often is your gold concealed offshore;

The “Decider” should enter endless sleep

So history could doom him to folklore.

But thy eternal evil shall not fade

Nor lose possession of the title earned;

For most mistakes a human ever made,

While doomed you are to be forever burned:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

Your buddy Dick should burn along with thee.