It's true that the most recent of these pieces was written five years ago; but there seems little need to update, for now. We'll see how it goes..

September 1998 in Washington

[On September 11, 1998 the United States House of Representative voted to receive the Starr report on the "Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.". The House Judiciary Committee took possession of the 18 boxes of materials and released the first 445 pages to the public. A week later the Committee agreed to release President Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony and more than 3,000 pages of supporting material from the Starr report, including Miss Lewinsky's sexually explicit testimony.]

Well you've shamed him now and you've brought him low.

      No doubt what you claim is true.

You say he lied.  Of course he lied,

      it's what politicians do.

Though not with spies or gangsters' molls,

      he did what Kennedy did--

but Kennedy's friends and enemies

      kept the womanizing hid.

Johnson, too, was a ladies' man--

      but sexual impropriety

was not what sent him back to the ranch

      or broke the Great Society.

Discreetly, Ike had an extra lady,

      maybe only one.

Would you have twinkled your little Starr

      at him?  Would you really have done?

Oh you dug out the foolishness, published the lot.

      The house you destroyed is your own.

The doors are off and the barriers down

      and you're there with the wolves, alone.

News Report November 2001

I watch TV reports, peruse

the pundits' points of view.

Why do I not believe the news?

Some of it might be true.

Some of it might be true, my love.

Oh, some of it might be true.

So why do I not believe the news?

Do you, do you have a clue?

The script read by the talking head

repeats the Army's word:

There haven't been many civilian dead;

to say that there have is absurd.

Some of it might be true, my love.

Oh, some of it might be true.

So why do I not believe the news?

Oh I am filled with rue.

Afghanistan's new government

will surely be peachy keen,

with the tribes no longer turbulent

and all the toilets clean.

Some of it might be true, my love.

Oh, some of it might be true.

So why do I not believe the news?

Do I seem unbalanced to you?

Japan has sent its navy out

to support the U.S.A.,

and all the peoples of Asia shout:

"Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!"

Some of it might be true, my love.

Oh, some of it might be true.

So why do I not believe the news?

And why does it not seem new?

Did they use a script from years before,

sending B-52s to bomb?

No! This is a totally different war:

Afghanistan, not Vietnam.

Some of it might be true, my love.

Oh, some of it might be true.

So why do I not believe the news?

Oh who can tell me, who?

The folks over there in Palestine

will surely stop their fight,

for Sharon wants it, and he's just fine;

and Hamas wants it, right?

Some of it might be true, my love.

Oh, some of it might be true.

So why do I not believe the news?

Don't tell me you're doubtful too!

America never resorts to terror;

never at any time!

To say that it does is more than error,

may even be a crime.

Some of it might be true, my love.

Oh, some of it might be true.

So why do I not believe the news

as so many people do?

I could keep on writing verse after verse

expounding my valuable views;

but the doggerel likely would just get worse.

Besides, it's time for the news.

September 5, 2003

This year, thus far, has been a bummer.

War in Iraq has lost its glamour.

The Church of Rome continues to simmer,.

even parishioners joining the clamor

as priest after priest is proved a sinner,

some doing penance away in the slammer.

The Russians have sunk another boomer.

Leaders are getting every day dumber.

AIDS and SARS provide a glimmer,

perhaps, of a future even grimmer.

Smokestacks belch, the globe gets warmer.

War on the poor: the poor are poorer.

The homeless are homeless in winter and summer.

Convicts are darker and prisons are fuller.

Millions are dying of war and terror,

sickness, earthquake, storm, and murder;

half the world requires a mourner.

But hey, don't lose your sense of humor!

The U.S. President (Bush, not Hoover)

says the economy's better and better

and soon there'll be lots of jobs, scout's honor.

Prosperity's just around the corner!

Blue Screen and the World

Ides of June 2004,

writing about the news once more.

Three years on, it's changed but little--

here a jot, there a tittle:

world still governed by hopeless fools;

journalists following adman's rules;

people confused, politics rotten;

most of all of the people forgotten

by most of the people with most of the money.

So-called nameless, faceless poor:

Each one has a face, a name

that you who make their roof your floor

don't care to know. For shame!

In world supposed to be one nation,

most of us suffer hunger, thirst,

every illness, all vexation.

The dam of patience has burst.

The flood from the fathomless lake of tears

is breaking the barriers down. Your fears

are surely justified, but late.

Look at the media: full of talk

about Iraq, Iraq, Iraq,

and hardly ever a word at all

about Chiapas or Nepal,

about Mapuche or Cakchikel.

Few reporters care to tell

the tales of Darfur, Bukavu,

refugee prison on Nauru,

dead raped girls of Juárez.

It's strange, instructive, far from funny,

to watch the folks who've been at the top

go sliding down the slippery slope,

soon to splash in the sewer, can't stop,

down the drain they go, no hope,

flop.

Dinosaurs cede to mammals and birds.

Laws, latent in the primitive age,

kindled now by holy words,

drive reality reborn. The rage

that seems to shape these days will end.

Be content with this.