Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Celebrity Culture Presents: "The Clintons: Banana Republicans"

"Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few." ---Alexander Pope. Prologue: This election season has brought Americans a fairy tale in the form of a nostalgia mixed with a name and cronyism under the aspect of "experience" and "two for one". Looking deeper a person who has the ability to think easily sees the phony celeb culture swindle leading some into supporting a celebreality version of a Banana Republic. Where the years 1992-2000 were a Golden Age for the United States and the world. And all because a certain charming man was President. And his wife stood by her man and, by playing victim, became half the politician he was with the same opportunism and ambition--i.e. was easily elected to the Senate by the fine voters of New York and dutifully supported the Republican President in his war, his venture to destroy civil liberties and, if he chooses, his next war with Iran. In the following I will break down the Nostalgia for the Golden Age and paint it as a palpable lie. Secondly I will dissect the media circus which obfuscates the tenuous "experience" of a spouse who speaks as if being a duped spouse is political experience. Third I will also discuss the cronyism--money, friends who are willing to slander opponents, and the sad spectacle of an ex-President shilling for his wife without any class. I. The Fool's Golden Age: "Those times were pretty good"--President Clinton, Iowa, 2008. Even in comparison to today the nineties were not so great. Unemployment was lower, the market was lower, we had a dot-cum bubble and the average working wage was lower versus purchasing power. More people per capita were incarcerated in the US than in any other time and Mr. Clinton felt it necessary to add new measures to the insane 'War on Drugs" by endorsing Mandatory Minimums into sentencing. These measures destroyed so many lives and overcrowded prisons with poor blacks and latinos. People Clinton always states he loves--and the media echoes him as if he was a Political Narcissus. Lest we remember Sistah Souljah and Rodney Ray--The retarded black man Clinton witnessed executed as his last act as Governor of Arkansas on Election eve to show he was tough on crime. His record on Civil Liberties was surprisingly a mirror image of President George W. Bush's. After a major terrorist attack by an American at OKC what does President Clinton do? Why he proposes the American Anti-Terrorist Act. This act was duly passed and began the assault on Civil Liberties which continues to this day. Another wonderful thing President Clinton did was to allow Federal Agents to murder over 30 children at Waco to protect them from a "sexual molestor". Afterwards, of course, he shifted the blame on this event to his Attorney General--Janet Reno. This is a recurring pattern with President Clinton. When he fails, it was or is always someone else's fault. Caught having his cock sucked by an intern in the White House was a Right Wing Conspiracy headed by Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr. He first tried to mobilize his staff to blame Monica Lewinsky as a stalker. But the impeachment scandal was a bagatelle. More Iraqis died during the Clinton years by a ratio of 5 to 1 than under the present administration. The Sanctions and years of carpet bombings(one on the eve of the Impeachment) led to over 2 million Iraqis dying. Mostly women and children from starvation and lack of medical supplies.(No explosions for CNN)Most forget his glib refusal to do anything to help Rwanda by stating that aid "is not in the strategic interests of the United States." A genocide occurred and Clinton again blamed others. Mainly the UN. But when a phoney "genocide" popped up in Kosovo! The Bombs fell! It was a joint NATO mission. We bombed urban areas with Cluster Bombs and bombed caravans of Kosovar Albanians and then when peace came from attrition we declared victory. We helped Al Qaeda backed drug runners, the KLA, win a separatist war and then sat back as Serbians were ethnically cleansed from Kosovo. Now Kosovo is a mess nobody wants to touch. And we all forget the fiasco in Somalia. But times were good! He balanced the budget! No, he didn't. Don't believe the hype. The President along with the Republican Controlled Congress balanced the budget. And we had two crisis where the Government shut down--and President Clinton blamed the Re- publicans. People who voted for and like President Clinton believe the man can do no wrong. Even when he is caught and, childlike, lies outright about what he was caught doing. He is very charming--With no substance. It is amusing his wife is running partly on his "Legacy"--which is?? Megalomania? Doing everything to court voters so far as to do a poll as to see which Dog is most popular with Americans...He was led by his need to be liked and his dick.....Sad. II. The Politics of Distraction: Experience and the Newport Deal The media circus never ends. The name Clinton magically invokes so much. Soap Operatic bad taste. Naked ambition to the point that family members are carted up to state they actually like you. A former President lowers himself to playing bully at polling sites and steps in front of every camera available to talk about who(?), why "me". On campaign stops he introduces his wife by mentioning the words "I" and "me" ninety times in 5 minutes. What a guy. And his spouse runs on experience and is never questioned. Are her eight years as Arkansas First Lady and eight years as the US First Lady "experience"? Sure she was a corporate lawyer for Wal-Mart for seven years. And a Real Estate Lawyer for years. Before that she was a "Goldwater Girl" and worked as an Legal Aid during the Impeachment Hearings for President Nixon. Her experience as Senator of New York has largely been a cipher. She won her election against a no name and utilized money and her name to win as "the victim". As a Senator her voting record is atrocious. She backed Bush's foreign policy fiascos, (which she now criticizes), with more hawkishness than other Republicans. And, even during the campaign, still votes Bush carte blanche to attack Iran. Political opportunism in every move, but not as smooth as her husband. A whiff of nostalgia and Bubba alongside we get the media circus "two for one" deal! Like inner city blacks buying Newport Cigs that'll kill 'em the Clintons offer themselves to minorities as "people who care". The Clintons always and have ever been for themselves and for the people who donate them money. Be it the upper class folks of New England and Silicone Valley--"Liberals" who like to care with words and sentiments but not with tax cuts or any real help--"God forbid they move into our neighborhood!". Yuppies love the Clintons. Their duty free "Liberalism" is like a Gentle Laxative which gives them the rhetoric but none of the pain of helping others or being just or even making sense or not being cronies. III. Banana Republicans: Cronyism, Same Faces Same Smears. The United States is close to becoming a South American Banana Republic. The Clintons show this with their open utilization of a name, shamelessness(Bubba's attack on the media!), corrupt Chinese fundraising(still!) and allowing friends to sacrifice themselves by smearing opponents for future rewards. Senator Bill Kerrey, a man who used to be respectful, dipped so low as to call Barack Obama "Osama" and reiterated Barack's middle name was Hussein many times during a stump speech for Hillary Clinton. Two former Clinton Campaign operatives were fired by smearing Obama with cocaine charges and kidergarten presidential ambitions. Of course, all of these things were not the Clintons' fault! They knew nothing about it! Which brings to light one of two things--either they run a careless campaign or they knew beforehand and only acted after the media backlash. As the media stands by and acts as if the Clintons are innocents betrayed twice in two weeks by campaign workers! The Clintons have never played dirty politics! NEVER! Funny the smearers and supporters are often the same characters who surrounded President Bill Clinton. Same money, same empty promises and the same opportunism. The Clintons really could care less about party planks. They want the office. The money and prestige that comes with it. President Clinton pardoned enemies who illegally raised money for Republicans as long as they promised to donate huge sums to his Library. In their love of money over principle the Clintons are Republicans of the lowest order. Republicans who talk one game and play another. An interesting moment which brought this to light was former President Bill Clinton browbeating actor and director Warren Beatty for lambasting both parties in his great political satire "Bulworth". Clinton didn't like the truth being told and he buttonholed Beatty for having the audacity to tell it. Beatty walked away laughing. If only Americans could walk away from the Soap Operatic Media Circus that is a disgrace to our Nation. A final note. It is funny to see that supporters of Clinton cannot even bring themselves to laugh at humorous jokes about the former President's infidelity. They are no better than Scientologists who can't laugh at Tom Cruise's speech recently released. Like brainwashed cult members they cannot laugh at things even President Bill Clinton, bon vivant he is, would laugh about in private.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Mons Veneris

The line of
your cheek
is a melody
                     only heard
                     by infants
                     who dream it
                     so beautifully
                     they weep
                     upon waking.

I sway
approximating.
The inner ear
loses itself between
dream and dream.
                              Dizziness.
                              My hands 
                              bank on 
                              pliant shores,
                              the small
                              of your back.

Into spines
Gods pipe tunes 
inciting bodies
like stars
to collide 
and burst.



Friday, January 11, 2008

Little Freddie the Angelus

Spiriting paper slips from brothels
to billiard halls of a coal smothered
town...
Freddie's blue, intelligent, eyes stayed
cloudless and discrete.
Men awaited numbers cloaked in smoke.
Their coarse affection
came over him in gestures
--fat, gold crusted, fingers
tousled his black hair
or poked his ribs--
the unspoken love of those
who shared sin.
Sometimes he was allowed to tarry.
Freddie watched, studying the
cruel geometry of loss or gain.
Interminable nights spent
suffering the ineluctable
curse of blood,
brother misery cheated sleep...
breath burned his heart as
three slept in one room.
The door closes behind 
and he welcomes dirty air.
Rough hands pass paper slips
marked with strange codes coldly.
The man smiles enviously
as Freddie sprints unburdened,
spiriting away ashes of night.


Sunday, January 06, 2008

Ton Éclat Fatal et Pur

Smell of perfume
mingled with smoke,
add sweat
and somnolence,
you've attained
the mise en scène

an addicted chanteuse
chokes in a lit corner
where dust never collects

it doesn't merit
terza rima

rivers of vomit capsize
wasted craft,
a discerning God's
tidal edict.

the bass line drones
pharma-nepenthe

we rest in
her reflection

we want malady
on the cusp
of martyrdom

Never sing such darkness.
We redact the dream
and blunt beauty's knife
to dullness.

waves break over shut eyes.
please, don't ask us to think

welcome the fair sun
into sweet slumber,
fetal-ly curled up
on dew licked hills

mother?
did your breath
cut beauty's sharpness
into our lungs?

we cried when
light seized us
from the warmth
of dark water

we can't bear
this brightness.

give us novelties,
divertissements.

dance is a test and
we can't stomach ideals.

Beauty, redeem hearts
born broken.