Cheney Please Go Away: The Demise of Fear Mongering...

Why won't Dick Cheney please go away?

I have heard enough of his twisted fear mongering to last a lifetime.

Yet night after night on TV there is Cheney -- a nightmare out of our recent past -- defending the indefensible -- torture and his administration's destructive foreign policy. He even has the gall to to brag about his sorry record of protecting our country?!!

Tell that to the victims of 9/11. Remember that was on your watch...D-I-C-K!!!

And Cheney even has the audacity to attack our current president's admirable effort to close the horror that is Gitmo. Even previous and current Defense Secretary Gates recently described Gitmo as a "taint"on America's image around the world.

Al Gore said recently he at least waited two years before attacking Bush's lame policies. Obama hasn't even been in office for six months and Cheney is already attacking him.

Funny the GOP would have called this treason if it was done to bush by Gore right after 9/11 or early in the Bush presidency. Such hypocrites

The fear card is dead, Cheney. Rejected in last two elections . . . and will be again in 2010.

Return to your bunker Cheney. You will not missed. The country has moved on.

Or as one our country's wise founders Ben Franklin said: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

Here are a couple of past poems I wrote about the toxic contradiction that is Dick Cheney.

GP

***

VP OF NOTHING

Mr. Cheney, VP of nothing.
Convinced you’re cloaked and absolved from blame.
Secrecy is your life’s blood and your
ultimate game.
Weren’t prepared for all the heat and pain.
Still you hold on to your tired line
to the bitter end.

CHENEY’S BUNKER

Clinging to
an illusion of
safety
when there’s no safe
place
unless you want to
live in a bunker.

Cheney lives in
a bunker.
He has a bunker mentality.
But who would want to
live in a bunker with Cheney?

In fact, Cheney resembles
an actor who played a man
who tried to hide his family
in a bunker
in a Twilight Zone episode during
the threat of a nuclear attack.

His neighbors broke down
the bunker down in a panic
clinging to an illusion of safety
hence the downfall of a bunker
mentality.

George Pappas
Copyrigh 2009

WHY DID THEY BOMB AMERICA?

A few years ago, a famous poet got into trouble for writing a poem in response to 9/11 asking who bombed America? He seemed to implicate the Israelis and maybe some others.

However, I was more interested in Why they bombed America? What triggered such an attack? Was it really our freedom or way of life as the government claimed?
Or was it more to the point....our foreign policy? Our nasty habit of messing in the affairs of other countries?

Of course, that doesn't excuse or condone the vicious and cruel acts of Martyrs, Inc. Ultimately, al qaeda accomplished nothing but causing more war, bloodshed, hatred and fear.
It is really up the rest of us to expose them for what they really are -- opportunistic thugs not holy warriors.

Seven years later, unfortunately I don't think our leaders have learned anything. And yet they stand on the ashes of those who died on 9/11 and since and make solemn speeches signifying anything but understanding. The GOP reached a recent low point recently when they showed graphic images of the attacks as a political ploy at their convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Still, I wonder why in hopes that we will someday learn from all of this pain, rage and heartbreak.

GP

*****************************************

WHY DID THEY BOMB AMERICA?

It matters less…
Who bombed America?
Who knew?
Who knew to stay away on the that fateful day?
Who laughed while filming it?

Those are all troubling questions to be sure.

But the real important questions
Is
WHY?

It is the only question that truly matters in the end.

Why?

This question is a shot into the heart of our blind notions of security, safety and strength.

Why?
Why do we still kill in the name of religion?
Why do we still justify revenge?
Why do we take such pride and joy in killing?
Why are we so quick to turn to violence as a means to solve our
complicated problems?
Why are we so divided and entrenched in ancient Holy Wars?

Thousands of years of so called civilization
obliterated
with numerous atrocities.

Where is God in our actions?

Who?
The faces
are always the same.

Torn and
twisted
without pity,
without hope.
Feeding on rage.
Choking on hatred

They are us
and we are them.

Why?

Brothers under the skin
but always apart.
Divided by the pettiness
and the cruelty
that has infected our souls.

Why?

The answer mocks us.

What has changed since the Crucifixion?
We still without hesitation kill the holy part in us
in the name of God.

Why?

The silence is deafening.

George Pappas
Copyright 2008

THEIR GREATEST HITS OF FEAR AND LOATHING -- GOP CONVENTION AND SARAH PALIN

Tonight at the GOP Convention I heard more of the same fear, ignorance and lies that have divided this country for the past eight years.

Everyone was impressed with VP candidate Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. However, if you listened closely all you heard was the same fear and hate mongering that has come to represent the Bush Years. Her speech was rife with bile and lies.

Palin couldn't get own record right let alone Barack Obama's. She supported Senator Ted Stevens' "Bridge to Nowhere" before being so called against it. Isn't that what got John Kerry in trouble in 2004 (not to mention Hilary Clinton during the primary campaign) -- his being for the Iraq War before being against it.

Palin characterized Obama's economic plan as intending to raise taxes and expand government. This from the same party that has run our debt to record deficits and decimated our economy, particularly the prospects of the middle class these Republicans profess to care about. What a joke. All their tax cuts favored the rich. It doesn't take an inexperienced governor from Alaska to figure that out. According to some recent reports, Palin also raised taxes as governor in Alaska and left a debt as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

Worst thing about her speech? She offered no new solutions and wrapped her and her party in the flag with such sanctimonous fervor...that it was scary....like a Dick Cheney speech.

In fact, Palin never mentioned Bush at all as if we had forgotten the damage he and his cronies had done these past years.

Can we afford another four years of ignorance, stubborness, and malice exhibited by these fools that currently occupy the White House as our guests. They treat us as unworthy, blind idiots who don't know any better.
They even treat the the other branches of our government with such contempt.

And now the ticket of McCain and Palin want to give us four more years of the same....Will we ever learn as the GOP keeps rolling out their greatest hits of fear and loathing?

I hope so ....here is a poem about the lowlights...of the Bush Years....that won't go away

GP

********************

YOUR GREATEST HITS OF FEAR AND LOATHING

Is there something you're hiding
behind your perfect smile?
As your facade crumbles
so does our self respect.

You're not a comedian
but you are laughable all the same.
No one is laughing
as you roll out your greatest hits

"9/11 changed us forever."
"Freedom from terror."
"We fight them there so we won't
have to fight them here."
"He was a dictator that threatened
our security."
"We're helping the Iraqis escape tyranny."

In the end, all your excuses and declarations
amount to nothing at all except more misery, pain
and shame.

You turned freedom into a punch line of
a cruel and twisted joke.
And the joke is on all of us.

George Pappas
Copyright 2008

BUSH'S FADED LEGACY

Apparently, President Bush is speaking at the Republican Convention on Tuesday night in St. Paul via satellite. Just what does he have say about his faded legacy?

The GOP is probably not happy as they want to distance themselves from Bush as much as possible. Good luck with that. McCain is nearly a carbon copy of Bush when it comes to his policies

As we slowly but surely come to the close to one of the worst presidential administrations in recent memory (it even rivals Nixon which I thought was by far the worst), Bush and his cronies will still try to spin their legacy -- all to no avail. His idiotic war in Iraq, failed economic policies and misguided response to 9/11 will ultimately be his legacy.

Like McCain, Bush doesn't get it. He works for us not corporate interests and rich contributors.

And just think of all of the lives that could have been saved if we had only talked to and not bombed Saddam. Now, McCain wants to demonize Iran in a similar fashion. Here's hoping he won't be in the White House except as a visiting member of congress.

Thankfully Bush will be gone in January...but his failed legacy won't.

GP

******************

FADED LEGACY

No one wants to be forgotten
even after things turn rotten.

Holding on to that familiar misery
becomes second nature.
Clapping for yourself
and your fading dreams
but no one is listening anymore.
Don't know what you do it for.

Thought you could turn your little battles
into a private war
All meaning eludes you
All understanding defies you
Never realized all the damage you've done

Looking to history that won't record
your deeds
with the affection you believe.
Under siege
by your legacy of lies
no matter how you try
you can hide from your failed schemes.

No one can tell you anything.
Stubborn to history's bitter end.
You can only break.
Never will bend,
but some hearts will never mend
no matter how much political capital you spend.

George Pappas
Copyright 2008