Bush & Company

Do you have to look like that?

Undeniably, you are

Gorgeous as a movie star;

Hard to keep from gawking at

You, Johnny, and at you, too, Mitt,

And either of you might be it.

We slight your words, we gape instead

And then forget what you just said.

Unrecalled, those things you say,

Because, alas, you look that way!

Pretty poppies, red and white,

Signify the farmers' plight;

See the poppies blowing, blowing,

See the farmers sowing, sowing . . .

As some lack choice, for them there's none,

Inextricably are one---

Al Qaeda and the Taliban

And farmers of Afghanistan.

Will you turn that cell off, Rudy?

It's just another call from Judy,

While gun guys palpitate to hear,

Not a mawkish "Hello, dear,"

But some empathy for their cause

And pledges to redact some laws.

Are you a wimp? I have to say,

You may just blow the NRA.

Decider George made up his mind

That torture must be redefined

And he's prepared to take a stand

Against one more law of the land,

Since all those hapless torturees

Must be brought to their sorry knees

(But torture's something they don't do

And saying they do is just untrue).

It's no mistake that W hates

Those pesky legalized mandates.

As usual, he's sure that the flaw

is not with him, but with the law.

The open borders policy of the Bush administration presages implementation of a sweeping elitist corporate plan---the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) a formal agreement signed by President Bush in 2005 to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada into one enormous entity, building on and expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Slated for placement in 2010, the scheme is being forwarded quietly, unbeknownst to the general citizenry, without public hearings, Congressional oversight or legislation and entails construction of an open-ended 10 to 12-lane superhighway (trucks from Mexico checked only electronically) four football fields wide, stretching from Mexico to Canada, the additional heavy vehicle traffic straining our declining infrastructure. Our traditional "United States of America" is to be renamed "North American Union" (NAU)>

Already, via NAFTA, progenitor of the NAU, our products and our jobs are being exported, while products mainly from Communist China, often inferior, even life threatening, barely inspected due to underfunding and often fraudulently labeled, and cheap, mostly unskilled labor are being imported.

It should be noted that NAFTA is more than a trade deal. In allowing American corporations to betray the American worker by moving their plants south of the border (and overseas) economic victims are made of both America and Mexico.

Mexico is the conduit for illegal entry from other countries, as well, including the entry of possible terrorists. The Bush/Kennedy "Grand Compromise" bill, an attempt to mask the core goal of illegal alien amnesty, was defeated in the Senate on June 28, 2007 and sheriffs and mayors have begun to take over on the local level to counteract the federal government's failure to enforce the 1952 immigration law. New York's Governor Spitzer, who proposed drivers' licenses for illegal aliens to bring them "out of the shadows," which would allow de facto citizenship, paving the way to voter fraud and gun purchase, backed down on November 14, 2007, in the face of overwhelming negative reaction from citizens, government officials and notably county clerks who refused in advance to issue such licenses.

The imprisonment in January, 2007 of border control agents Ramos and Compean for attempting to stop a drug smuggler and as a means of discouraging other border agents from doing their jobs, is an offshoot and a symptom of the NAU project, which will mean a borderless America and free migration.

The history of the ambitious SPP began with the founding of the Trilateral Commission (TC) in 1973, which established a hold on the executive branch in 1976 with the election of President Carter, continuing with Reagan (not an actual member) Bush I, Clinton and Bush II. The TC originated with David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski and over 300 elite members from North American, Western European and Japanese business, banking, industry, government, the military, foundations, mass media, academia and wealthy entrepreneurs. The stated purpose, essentially, was to promote "a new international economic order," wherein treaties and trade agreements would overrule Constitutional law, the president free to regulate trade deals and treaties before Congress could vote on them. In ruling the executive branch, the TC would be able to use the US government to bully policies worldwide.

Whatever the foreseeable ramifications of the TC and the SPP and despite the perhaps well-meaning, naive or shortsighted vision of the earlier presidents involved in the former, it can safely be assumed, because Big Business directs US policy under the current administration, the goal of the SPP is benefit to the corporate, not the greater good, sacrificing in the process our national sovereignty, as well as that of other nations, to the new world order.

Will you turn that cell off, Rudy?
It's just another call from Judy,
While gun guys palpitate to hear
Not another "Hello, dear,"
But some empathy for their cause
And pledges to redact some laws.
Are you a wimp? I have to say,
You just may lose the NRA.

So reasonable, so dignified,

A presence solid and benign,

A brilliant veep, top of the line,

Though, in the end, George must decide.

Dick always stays behind the scenes

(Save when there's some small incident

Like that Texas shooting to-do)

Not stating squarely what he means,

Except perhaps a time or two,

Like telling Leahy what to do;

Also explaining what he meant

Re: two branches of government;

Being part of each, it's plain that he's

Able to shift with utmost ease

Between the two just as he pleases---

Par for the course for eminence grises?

What does Rummy do all day

In his manor by the bay?

There was that time in Washington

When he told Congress there was not

A heinous and egregious plot,

No whitewash and no cover-up---

It all was on the up and up,

The culprit just a friendly gun,

A dreadful accident of war

That felled the corporal, nothing more;

But for the sake of argument,

Suppose those shots to Paddy's head

Were fired because of what he said

About our esteemed government?

Nah, that's much too farfetched a plot

For Rummy and it's soon forgot;

So back to his brick Georgian home

And more of that relaxing sun..

Disarming, Karl's jolly face,

So like a babe's, all smooth and round,

Betraying of malice not a trace;

As well, the means not always found

To run a guilty one aground.

Even when chroniclers of history

Fail to ascribe an infamy,

In some dimension, time or place,

Where bared souls twist in boundless space,

There will be found no hiding-place.

From hounds of hell ye cannot flee,

Once solemn bells have tolled for thee.

Powerful Pat Leahy sternly warns

That one who arrogantly scorns

Both Congress and laws of the land

May wind up on the witness stand.

While from his Texas residence,

The famed maker of presidents

Will energize his GOP

And plot a Bush/Rove legacy.

The smartest guy that ever was

Will go on doing what he does,

While George marks time impatiently

Until his term is up, because

The one thing that he really likes

Is riding his three mountain bikes.

He says he'll give some speeches, though

It's doubtful that he needs the dough.

It's no surprise the president's appointee

Would opt to have the guilty ones go free;

Ahead, there may well be more valeriegateses

To be dismissed by other Judge John Bateses.

Why are they obligated to remove

A case defenders might ultimately prove,

Considering that's one way the truth comes out?

Now isn't that what justice is about?

That Robert Gates is agonized is clear,

While George rocks on with unabashed good cheer.

This war is hell and it's become quite plain---

The secretary fears it's all in vain.

Picture perfect, sure he'll be

The GOP's next nominee.

What if that's because a lot

Of that campaign loot he's got

Comes out of the holy see

As a way to guarantee

That the prize in Washington

Goes to Utah's favorite son?

*****

What if Pooty Putin's soul

Is nothing but a deep dark hole?

Not what W said he saw

In his new buddy's steely eyes;

But Pooty's intent might just depend

On if the premier in the end

Had such a lot of good clean fun

Down East that day out in the sun

On Poppy's three-engine polluter

Up and down Kennebunk's river,

He'll ignore our radar plan

To counter threats out of Iran

And swear he won't point Roosky nukes

At Europe or express rebukes;

But still, our W's gauge of men

Could turn out to be wrong again:

A wily Russian bear is he?

Consider, Vlad was KGB.

How heartless it would have been to leave Scooter behind bars while his exploiters remained free (possibly working up a terrible grudge to explode into a devastating book).

Remarkably, only former New York Times reporter Judy Miller (who never published a story using her information on the Plame security leak) served prison time, 85 days, until she finally revealed her source, Scooter Libby. Another leaker, former Deputy Secretary of State Dick Armitage, apparently inadvertently, leaked to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bob Novak, while Bush chief strategist and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove leaked to both Time Magazine's Matt Cooper and Bob Novak, as well as confirming Plame's identity to the latter.

Scooter---former Cheney chief of staff, national security officer and Bush assistant---was a partner in stealth, a loyal and stalwart surrogate for his bosses---sent to shield Dick Cheney and by extension, George Bush and Karl Rove, from exposure for the scheme to make public the name of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, in revenge for her husband, Joe Wilson"s anti-administration/Iraq war New York Times Op-ed piece. US v.. Libby was about Dick Cheney, yet he was neither indicted nor called to testify as Scooter's trial.

The President failed to follow Justice Department guidelines or consult the department before announcing his decision to placate both his remaining base and the felon Libby, by announcing his commutation of Scooter's 30-month prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice, commutation which, he stressed, leaves intact the $250,000 fine, supervised probation and disbarment. It should be noted that 5 million dollars had been raised by the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust. The President's stated reason for the commutation was that it was "excessive" (apparently, only no prison time would be nonexcessive) contrary to his assertion that he respected his Republican appointees---the prosecutor and the judge---as well as the jury, for their verdicts and findings. Even a token incarceration would have acknowledged that Scooter's crimes, trivialized by some along with the security leak, were serious. Instead, the legal system was undermined and a message sent to all prosecutors and defense attorneys that the Bush rationalizations would be applicable to their future cases, as well. Although constitutionally permitted, in a cowardly and hypocritical act, the President used his powers to favor one of his own by overturning the rule of law, eliminating the prospect of further investigation orf Dick Cheney et.al by the court, although Congress has the power and has begun to use it.

The hasty and shadowy late afternoon announcement on Monday, July 2, following the same-day judge's ruling not to allow Scooter bail time, was done in part, in lieu of a Rose Garden ceremony on a later day, to minimize presidential embarrassment. A probable full pardon to come will be a still stronger fail-safe against publication of that potential explosive tell-all and restore Scooter's right to practice law.

Loyalty among corrupt politicians is a matter of expediency; Washington is known for backstabbing, scandal and manipulation. for conflict of interest, cronyism and as New Republic White House correspondent Ryan Lizza says, "permanent amnesia." The Bush administratn fulfills these expectations in extremis. Their much-mentioned incompetence is less significant than their lack of good will, the will to do what's right and a fanatical neoconservative agenda demanding self-preservation at any cost.

In view of their recent aberrations, for the nation's well-being, an immediate resignation by both president and vice president is in order, but unlikely, egos like theirs outweighing such consideration. How better to follow the example of their seventies predecessor, President Nixon, whose concern with impending impeachment and just maybe, whose conscience and intellect ultimately transcended a lifelong obsession with self and with proving his worth.

Hillary's no angel, don't tell me,

Political to the nth degree,

Shifting her stance without contrition,

A captive of her own ambition,

With motives not always so pure.

This woman is really insecure

And lacks self-confidence, you say?

I think you're reaching for it, Bay!

Is this book it? Will there be more?

Have you begun one on Al Gore?

Despite the words of David Kay,

Dick Cheney still is heard to say

Iraq has secret WMD

And they'll turn up most any day;

Without doubt, there's al Qaeda link,

Yet what the veep neglects to say

Is that there wasn't one before,

But now there is, thanks to his war,

A war he blames George Tenet for,

A war planned months and months before;

Small wonder Tenet wrote a book,

To try and even up the score,

Though having failed to take a stand

Against the ruling powers that be

(Favoring the long chain of command)

And like a suck-up coward, agree.

Embarassing in the extreme

For Bush and Cheney's losing team,

Now Tenet's bombshell's hit the street

To bum out our ruling elite?

Are Bush and company on the hook,

Because of Tenet's self-help book,

Or will they harm and harm some more---

That is, go on just as before?

There's someone else who can't recall

Much of anything at all::

The subject of Albertogate

And his repetitive debate.

That self-demeaning faithful friend---

He'll protect and he'll defend

(Upon whom his fate will depend)

George and The Brain, right to the end.

Just as with politicos,

He could end smelling like a rose;

So those controversies go.

Blessings on thee, quid pro quo.

George Tenet warned, amid protest,

Saddam intel was weak, at best,

While Vice just waved it all away

And when it was put to the test---

No WMD, said David Kay---

The veep just blamed the CIA:

That faulty info must, he said,

Be dumped right down on George's head.

Pity, George had changed his mind

Before he ultimately resigned.

Well, now he's publishing a book---

How sweet revenge for one forsook!

Hopeful Romney hoped to show

The NRA he's not their foe;

But when he got caught in a lie,

He gave it still another try.

It shouldn't be much of a blow---

It's typical politico;

Doesn't everybody know

That most of them are just a ho?

A pardon may be on the way;

It could happen any day,

Or it could be far away,

But Scooter needs it, anyway.

A couple things may have been said:

Like a promise and a threat.

In any instance, there's a debt

That some might think ought to be paid.

Scoot's the one who holds the key

To certain persons staying free.

How will it go? It's simple, bro---

This way or that, most probably.

If Dick and Karl stay off the hook

While Scooter's rotting in the slam,

Just look out for a tell-all book,

If my prediction's worth a damn,

But only if George is unkind

And Scooter's cruelly left behind;

He gave his all for Vice's sake---

What a sacrifice to make---

Just how much should one guy take?

He lied in court, that so-and-so,

He's one of them, I know, I know,

In on it all, but even so. . .

All those expressions used today
By journalist and politician

With such authority one might

Believe they were their own invention

(Though it wasn't their intention)

On ABC, radio and cable,

Reported day and prime time night

About what's currently "on the table."

On the one "side of the aisle,"

Says George, we're "going forward," while

"A firestorm" now on the way

May come at the end of the day."

The president's spawnerd a spate of phrases,

Words and mottos through his phases:

"Stay the course" and "cut and run,"

"War president," too; then "the decider"

Switched to "the decision maker,"

With immigration now "migration."

"Victory" became "success";

Still, nothing's said like "I confess."

A favorite one rimes with invade;

It goes like this: "Mistakes were made."

Will White House brass ever rephrase

And finally call a spade a spade?

You were a much-admired man,

Once your DC career began;

From POW in Nam, you rose:

A presence among politicos.

You spoke your mind, you used your brain,

A man of principle in the vein

Of statesmen who preceded you,

Yet now, you're not one man, but two,

Depending how the winds are blowing,

On what the current polls are showing.

A metamorphosis took place:

You sold your soul to win a race.

In retrospect, what did you gain,

Ex-maverick Senator McCain?

In fact, when all is said and done,

You're fooling hardly anyone.

So won't you tell me, if you can,

From being a much-admired man

Of honor and of truth, in sum:

Exactly what have you become?

1600 troops are leaving,

But you feel it's not retreating

And though Iraq is still a mess,

Cheney said it means success;

But it must have been a blow.

What are they saying, a huis clos?

That you're a turncoat and a wuss?

Oh, I don't think you want to know.

To be in good with Mr. B.

Seemed more important than to be

In good with your own countrymen,

But this is now and that was then.

Although I hate to say it, mate,

It may be just too little too late.

That memo out of Downing Street

Was really what turned up the heat.

Ironic, your own Downing Street!

And what of your friend, Robin Cook,

Who warned the Bush war was bad news?

(Along with several other views

But people love one who's contrite,

Who humbly sobs he's seen the light---

Or he can put it in a book.

Just do it, matey! Then we'll see

If your shift in policy,

If the move to quit the fight,

Can save your place in history

With a decent legacy.

For you, that might turn out all right,

But please don't call it victory!

Scooter Libby took the fall:

About all that he could recall

Was that Tim Russert conversation,

Born in his imagination.

The jury, scrupulous and wise,

Worked through all the other lies;

And though they empathized with him,

Ultimately, went with Tim.

In likelihood, it's Scoot's belief

That he'll be pardoned by the chief

And never serve from one to ten

In some depressing federal pen;

But telling tales out of school

Would have been a lot more cool

Than being nothing but the tool

Of scoundrels---that's just playing the fool.

Now Valerie's told them what she knows,

House Dems should still investigate

To prove the facts of Valeriegate

And bring the matter to a close.

By the raging Rio Grande,

On the brutal borderland

Where Texas borders Mexico)

Two border agents in a spot,

By name Ramos and Compean,

stopped an illegal with some pot:

800 pounds of contraband.

As this wicked smuggler ran,

Panicked, to a waiting van,

Forty miles from El Paso,

Took a slug in the trasero.

Two border agents in a jam,

Although protecting Uncle Sam,

Since they're not allowed to shoot

Or follow felons in pursuit.

Ig admitted it was so,

That he'd shot at Osvaldo;

Must have been only to stop him:

The bullet didn't even drop him.

Now that he's not on the lam,

Osvaldo's suing Uncle Sam;

Said his rights were violated,

Though he clearly perpetrated;

Even got immunity

So that he could testify

Against Jose and Iggy, then

Got caught smuggling again.

Jose and Ig are in the slam,

Even though they took a stand

Against a smuggler when they saw

He was breaking U S law.

(Jose and Ignacio,

By the raging Rio Grande,

On the brutal borderland

Where Texas borders Mexico)

Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos shot a drug smuggler in Texas, 2/17/05, although he knew he could be facing federal prison for assault with a deadly weapon and violation of civil rights.

Ramos, veteran of the U S Naval Reserve and former nominee for Border Patrol Agent of the Year, had responded to a request for backup from agent Jose Compean, who saw a suspicious van near the levee road along the Rio Grande, 40 miles east of El Paso. Illegal alien Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila was behind the wheel of the van containing nearly 800 pounds of marajuana. He stopped the van on the levee and ran toward the river away from Ramos and a third agent. At the other side of the levee, he came face to face with Compean. The other two agents shouted at him to stop, but he continued to the canal. They heard shots, then Ramos saw a bloody Compean on the ground, but pursued the smuggler who suddenly turned and pointed an apparent gun at Ramos, who shot, then saw the smuggler vanish into some brush and soon jump into a waiting van. Seven more agents appeared, two of them supervisors. Compean picked up some shell casings, but Ramos didn't; nor did he follow agency procedure, reporting that he'd fired. Two weeks later, Christopher Sanchez of the Dept. of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General learned that Aldrete-Davila had been shot in the buttock.

The U S government filed charges against Ramos and Compean, giving full immunity to the smuggler for testifying against the agents and paying his medical expenses at an El Paso hospital.

At the trial, Assistant U S Attorney Debra Kanof stated that the agents violated an unarmed smuggler's civil rights (a U S Supreme Court Fourth Amendment ruling) and U S Border Patrol policy by pursuing a fleeing suspect without supervisor approval; that shell casings picked up by Compean amounted to destruction of the crime scene and Ramos' failure to file an incident report was an attempt at a coverup. The guilty verdict resulted in an 11-year sentence for Ramos, 12 for Compean.

The Department of Homeland Security has admitted their telling Congress the two agents planned to "kill Mexicans" was false and it appears that the prosecution was severely flawed. Three jurors have come forward to complain they were pressured into a guilty verdict.

Much confusion and contradiction exist about the facts of this case. The looming question is were the charges brought by U S attorney Johnny Sutton valid.

Republican representatives Dana Rohrabacher and Brian Bilbray (CA) and Ted Poe and John Culberson (TX) have repeatedly tried to contact President Bush and Attorney General Gonzales about the case. Spokesman Tony Snow called their request for a pardon "nonsensical."

Republican representative Duncan Hunter (CA) requested that the Federal Bureau of Prisons segregate the agents from the general prison population for their safety, although they preferred to be available for daily phone contact with their families. Ramos, whose relatives had received death threats, was badly beaten almost immediately in his cell by Latino gang members.

Legislation by Congressman Hunter calling for a Congressional pardon has, as of 2/27, approximately 100 Republicn Congressional signatures.

The ACLU has been totally silent on this issue as have Democrats, although Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) is now calling for an investigation into a case that may well be linked to NAFTA, and the incipient North American Union, slated for placement in 2010.

The National Border Patrol Council has established donation funds with checks payable to the Ramos and Compean Relief Fund:

P O Box 47208

Tampa, FL 33647

and

the Ramos and Compean Legal Defense Fund:

c/o Friends of the Border Patrol

P O Box 2685

Covina, CA 91722

White House comments: (202) 456-1111

Scooter's trial is in full swing;

Facts are flying in a torrent

As witnesses step up and sing

To mitigate their own involvement.

*

The battered name of Valerie Plame

Must ever equate our national shame,

But Pat may vindicate Val's Joe,

Whose firm resolve would not let go.

*

Someone (or someones) schemed to out

That secret agent and no doubt

To wreak revenge and to defame

Were what the plot was all about.

*

This time around will Paddy find it?

(Topics of occasional rime):

Karl and Dickie both behind it,

Scooter fall guy of all time.
*

Vis-a-vis George, can Pat show it:

Did he know, when did he know it?

*

Will the lot share in the blame

For leaking the name of Valerie Plame?

The pardon's off, the trial's on

To find out what really went on:

Since the GOP defeat,

The Dems are in the driver's seat.

Will the court learn who's to blame

For leaking the name of Valerie Plame,

Or else, by dint of perjury,

Will the guilty ones go free?

* * * * *

Alas, poor Jeb, that other son

Who might have made a White House run,

Who might have won it fair and square

And served eight years in Washington

Respectably, while he was there,

Offending hardly anyone;

Who might have done his daddy proud

For being ignored by Maureen Dowd.

* * * * *

Junior Bush and Tony Blair

Astoundingly are still a pair.

Now Tony, you have got to know

We're up against a faceless foe

That fools would try to overthrow.

Although you must know where we're at,

Like your pal, George, you won't let go,

But I know that you're better than that.

* * * * *

May George and Karl and Don and Dick

Pay some day for each dirty trick,

Each act of vengeance and aggression,

Wrongful gain, sin of omission,

Shift of blame, act of deception,

Needless death without contrition;

Subversion of the Constitution

Done with questionable motivation.

Though it took time to begin,

Karma's finally kicking in.

* * * * *

Hamilton and Baker and the rest,

After eight months had done their level best

And George said he would certainly consider

The 70-odd suggestions that they offer,

While still insisting that the war be won,

Refusing to accept that less be done;

But he would absolutely look them over

And maybe use a few, he'd think it over;

But Simpson said it's all of them or none,

Because they were designed to work as one.

Iraq is an irrevocable mess

And yet the eldest son of Forty-One,

Who's still hooked on the power of the gun,

Will likely show he will not acquiesce,

But send a "surge" of troops to prove our might,

"Short term," to win the "war on terror" fight.

The victory that ensues may be a quickie,

A dazzling success for George and Dickie;

But when the battles once again begin,

Who'll be right on the spot to claim a win?

Yes, George and Dick, unless I miss my guess.