Flight Suit George
Flight Suit George
The revisionists are out in force in an attempt to rewrite history regarding the rein of George W. Bush as president of the United States. But fortunately, the internet is brutally tenacious in recording how the vast majority of Americans really feel about this eminently corrupt and incompetent abomination of American governance. So let us set the record straight--not for vengeance, but for posterity:
Oh,
Sweet patriot, square of jaw, and demeanor of great command, you fearlessly stand in defense of America, and the savior of all God's chosen men. Anointed by God as his personal envoy to all men, corrupt and blind, and charged with the swift and brutal destruction of heathens of other kind.
You stand vigilant against all our enemies, both foreign and imagined within; you vigorously guard against all that is evil, and all that you see as sin. You define God's needs and precious values, in the most unambiguous tones, and never once have you erred on behalf of truth, to reveal "God's values" as indeed your own.
You lead our troops in fearless glory, challenging Death to "Bring it on!" Never thrusting your sword on the field of battle, fearlessly leading the charge by phone.
Oh,
Sweet patriot, square of jaw, and demeanor of great command, how selfless your will to guard America . . .
While hating the pillars upon which it stands.
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
Wattree.blogspot.com
Let the Ministry of Truth begin to Rehabilitate the Glorious History of Commander Codpiece.
March 18, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Magnificent, Eric. Poetry within the ironic prose! I simply cannot recommend this highly enough!
March 18, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Recommended.
March 18, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
This blog needs more traffic! Great blog!
March 18, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bravo! Recc'd...
March 18, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eric, it just gets better the more I read it!
Please read Eric's blog! Click recommend!
March 18, 2009 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eric, I hope it's ok with you to borrow some of your first paragraph (not the poem) for a blog tomorrow inviting people to catalog the lies that the revisionists keep telling and retelling. Your wording is just what I'm looking for. It's a follow up on today's blog on "outing the lies" - and I will give you, of course, the attribution. And refer back here as well.
I trust you won't mind. And I assume you'll take it a compliment. Thanks in advance. If you disagree, come and rant and rave at me tomorrow. Or write it here tonight!
March 18, 2009 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I'm just glad that when he finishes writing (or at least outlining in color crayons) his cool book that will be an "authoritarian" voice; we will finally know the truth.
Why will we know this? Because whatever is in this idiotic book, we will know that the opposite is true.
OK. He's been to Canada. I want him to go to Germany. Or Poland. Or France -- he could have some "freedom fries" on his way to the Hague.
March 18, 2009 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's what I thought about w's little trip. That part of Canada is of course right near the US. And maybe some of his big US fans took a trip there, maybe a skiing holiday, but they stopped off for the lecture. Pity? A reunion? That's my fantasy!
March 18, 2009 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Highly recommended with a dirty martini toast to you Mr. Wattree.
March 18, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you so much, TheraP.
You're very right--I am tremendously flattered. And you have my open-ended permission to use anything that I've written, or ever write, as you see fit.
March 18, 2009 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well that's very kind of you, Eric. I appreciate you trust. And I won't abuse it.
And I'm thrilled this is getting the readership it deserves!
March 18, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the blog:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/therap/2009/03/outing-the-lies-lets-make-a-li.php
Thanks again!
So happy to see this on the top of the lists! :-)
March 19, 2009 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
George W. Bush: Cod bless America
March 18, 2009 8:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, ww, you've outdone yourself!!!! I love it! :)
March 18, 2009 8:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, TheraP; I was rather pleased with it myself, as it was succinct, rather than my usual going on and on....
March 18, 2009 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Priceless!
March 19, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
If i might be so bold as to add a coda to your fine work; the following is a kind of show tune or martial "oompa" band song to a theatrical piece I'm working at that is based on the Bush Years. It stands along with your treatise to set the record straight:
The Here We Go Again Rag words and music
by Justice Putnam
Do you hear the war bells ringing? Do you feel the cannons blasting? We must teach or force Them To do things Our way! There is no rhyme or reason For their terrorist treason Their hate for us
Comes from a vacuum
‘Cause we've always done it The Right Way!
Go to sleep you dear citizen Don't mind the man behind the curtain The levers that he is working Don't concern you Anyway! Just know that the very next Nation That is blessed with our invasion Was attacked for a very good reason
They got in Our Way! It is Right for
Us to do this God said that
WE must do this
No matter what the excuse is We're going to
Do It Our Way! Just know that the very next Nation That is blessed with our invasion Was attacked for a very good reason
They got in Our Way! It is Right for
Us to Do this God said that
WE must do this No matter what the excuse is
We're going to
Do It Our Way!
No matter what the excuse is We're going to Do It Our Way! (whispers) No matter what the excuse is
(shouts) We're going to Do It Our Way!
© 2008 by Justice Putnam Fleur de Sel Musique and Mechanisches-Strophe Verlagswesen
March 18, 2009 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
... of course, I don't know why the formatting is all screwed up; but you get the idea...
March 18, 2009 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Justice, you are wonderful.
March 18, 2009 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Justice, I particularly like the Fleur de Sel and the Mechanisches-Strophe Verlagswesen.
The way they trip off the tongue! The French and the German. You're very creative!
March 18, 2009 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Flower of Salt Music and Mechanical Verse Publishing"
I took German in high school and some French in college.
March 18, 2009 10:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I took both in high school and college. :)
March 18, 2009 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, I forgot to copy "musique" - I was so excited about the fleur de sel!
March 18, 2009 10:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was required as a catholic school boy to take latin and greek, which I did through fourth grade; and then I took spanish when we moved from Oregon to California from fifth grade until high school; then four years of German; two years of college french, three years of the Dartmouth Intensive Language Method in Italian during college; then I took a conversational japanese and chinese class during grad school for fun.
March 19, 2009 3:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow! :-)
March 19, 2009 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do not give a damn about formatting. I hereby award you the Dayly Poem Award for the Day, at this TPMC site, given to all of you from all of me.
March 18, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
What about Eric's poem?
Ok, Eric, you've got my poem award today!
March 18, 2009 9:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr Wattree's poem is the Poem of the Day.
March 18, 2009 10:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am getting overruled. Ok. My Knightly Poem of the Day is hereby awarded to Eric, from all of me for this here site at TPMC.
March 18, 2009 10:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank God there still is some democracy!
March 18, 2009 10:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hi Dick,
We really don't have to compete--we're all saying the same thing. And besides, I'm also a musician. While it's nice to do a solo, a solo is meaningless if it doesn't compliment the ensemble. After all, who was Duke without his band, Bird without Diz, Miles without Coltrane, or Keith without The Stones? Stardom is a delusion.
March 19, 2009 1:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh no, you and Justice both have been professional poets in one way or another. But both of you published fine poetry yesterday. And I have fun pointing it out.
I was laughing, because TheraP and others will call me out. Other readers will come to me, somehow, and say--look at this, or look at that.
I come across such great lines, great blogs or great poems in our little Cafe here. And one day, I was taken by some line in a comment that I made a joke like I was in charge of handing out awards even though I had no authority.
It is just my way of pointing out good material at Cafe.
With that and three bucks, you can get a nice coffee at Starbucks.
March 19, 2009 6:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Justice,
Poet or lyricist? I'm intrested in both. I try to be a poet, but I've been a sax player all of my life (jazz, Dexter Gordon mode). We've got to talk.
March 19, 2009 12:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm mostly a poet, but I have also been a singer/ songwriter; mostly folk/ punk, but my mom was a jazz singer in the northwest so it does influence what I do. My son has had some success in hip hop.
Yes, we should talk.
March 19, 2009 2:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, I just had to do this, you guys:
A Stately Old Ship
The stately old vessel limps weakly towards port
as the rolling storm begins.
Veracious vermin gnaw
its rotting hull,
destroying from within.
Colors that once flew proud and strong
in distant and exotic lands,
now flutter shamefully,
tattered and torn,
reflecting the flaws of man.
With cheers of fading greatness,
true patriots are scorned;
demagogues are lifted aloft,
while the ship of state we mourn.
But the old vessel
was made of sturdier stuff
by a different kind of man;
Storms and vermin and rotting hulls
it will easily withstand.
Waiting in port, a fresh new crew
eager to take command;
a new coat of paint, and fresh colors await,
the proud ship of state’s next stand.
March 19, 2009 6:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hope? You mean we still have reason to hope?
March 19, 2009 6:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
God fashioned the ship of the world carefully.
With the infinite skill of an All-Master
Made He the hull and the sails,
Held He the rudder
Ready for adjustment.
Erect stood He, scanning His work proudly.
Then -- at fateful time -- a wrong called,
And God turned, heeding.
Lo, the ship, at this opportunity, slipped slyly,
Making cunning noiseless travel down the ways.
So that, forever rudderless, it went upon the seas
Going ridiculous voyages,
Making quaint progress,
Turning as with serious purpose
Before stupid winds.
And there were many in the sky
Who laughed at this thing.
-- Stephen Crane
God Fashioned the Ship of the World
March 19, 2009 6:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
... and this one is about America... I wrote it a long time ago...
Ruined by Light
by
Justice Putnam
I was hanging in the night
Like some exotic fruit
On some secret tree
I was blowing
Or maybe drifting
In the cool hands
Of air that pressed me
Every leaf consented
To song and dance.
I lived among the poets
And the Atlas
Our sister fell easy
Like an Empire
Of Emotion
Into the encasing
Of our arms
We would rule the road
Often
Two of us
Would think
Of one woman.
I crossed the crying
Land of her hair
Low great sorrow
That was its length
Hollow long day
I know the slaughter
Of her perfect dream.
And the mad Greeks danced
Enflamed rooms
Illiterate
We proclaimed genius
Insanity was our revolution
That turned our anguish
Into kisses.
Knowledge may rule the world
But knowledge of her
And her wild cat expression
Of men wailing
Lost inevitably
I watch the air
Capture the room.
(Ann Arbor, Michigan -- 1980)
© 1982 and 2009 by Justice Putnam
and Mechanisches-Strophe Verlagswesen
March 19, 2009 6:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
That is so beautiful. Poignant and beautiful...
March 19, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink