Month: October 2006

Shanghaied

Towers fell and thousands died
We were scared, and many cried.
“Revenge!” said Bush, and we complied.
“It’s Saddam,” he said, or at least implied
“So let’s git him! He can’t hide!
He has weapons, somewhere inside
That big palace, and he’s supplied
Bad guys with ’em, on the side.”

Of course, now we know that Bush lied.
But we went in with plans untried
To remake Iraq into our desert bride.
And so began our horrible slide
Into the quagmire that was described
By those who saw, clear-eyed,
That war is no frat joyride.

Now, there are some who were once allied
With Bush, and Cheney, and oh-so-snide
Donny Rumsfeld, but now divide.
Bush squeals, “Don’t backslide!
Or listen to the left’s broadside.
We’ll be booted out in a huge landslide!
Everyone’s still scared, and, beside,
I got some tricks I haven’t tried.”

With cockeyed grin and imperial pride,
with sidekick Dick by his side
Bush says: “It’s war! and I’ll decide
Who’s bad or good, and who’ll be tried
Or just knocked about, poked and fried
By electrodes hooked up to his hide,
Or maybe hooded and hogtied.
It’s not torture, just force — applied.”

“What about the law?” the people cried.
“Only I can say,” King George replied,
“what’s true, and what I get to hide.
No secrets for you, though, because we’ve spied
On every call you made, worldwide.
Or at least we tried —
I guess we also listened in stateside.”

Will we try to stem the tide
Of freedoms lost where we reside,
Of laws broken and rights denied?
Or will we take it all in stride?

Will we sit by the ringside
While Bush and Cheney preside
Over a blood-soaked march astride
A hungry war machine untied?

Or will we finally take pride
In the land where our fathers died?
Our founding fathers, who defied
The first King George, and decried
Tyranny and its dark underside.

Who says that we must abide
Rule by those who would misguide,
Lie, cheat and deride
The very laws that provide
The freedoms we preach worldwide.

Clinton lied, and he was tried.
When Bush lied, thousands died.
But when Clinton lied, no one died.
So when exactly will Bush be tried?

Battle of the Blogs, Part 1

I’ve been using Blogger.com for years, but I’ve been unhappy with some shortcomings. Specifically:

  1. No built-in traffic reporting (available through third parties, though.)
  2. Slow response.
  3. Formatting headaches.

Now, add:

4. Unreliable.

Here’s the official word from Blogger.com Status page: Wow! Despite their assurances to the contrary, they are still having problems. I am finally able to log in, via the Blogger.com beta log-in, but once in, everything seems to move at a crawl.