This temporary blog has concluded ... (partial) INDEX

JUNE 2004 - PROSE

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rhetorical verse

JULY 2004 -SONGS
AmCan Sham SONG INDEX
INCLUDES "AmCan Sham: The Musical "
(Rewritten lyrics from "Evita")

AUGUST 2004 - SONNETS
AmCan Sham SONNETS INDEX
(154 Shakespearean form sonnets composed in August 2004)

---

MORE INFO?
Google boke

BENEDICTION

ALEXANDER PUSHKIN (1826)
[based on ISAIAH 6]

Weary from hunger of spirit

Through grim waste land I dragged my way,

And a six-winged seraph came to me

At a place where two paths crossed.

With finger-tips as light as sleep

He touched the pupils of my eyes,

And my mantic pupils opened

Like eyes of an eagle scared.

As his fingers touched my ears

They were filled with roar and clang:

And I heard the shuddering of the sky,

And angel's mountain flight,

And sea beasts moving in the deep,

And growth of valley vine.

And he pressed against my mouth,

And out he plucked my sinful tongue,

And all its guile and empty words,

And taking a wise serpent's tongue

He thrust it in my frozen mouth

With his incarnadine right hand.

And with his sword he cleft my breast,

And out he plucked my trembling heart,

And in my gaping breast he placed

A coal alive with flames.

Like a corpse I lay in the waste land,

And I heard God's voice cry out:

"Arise prophet, and see and hear,

Be charged with my will --

And go out over seas and lands

To fire men's hearts with the word."

Society seeks stability,

the artist -- infinity.

ANDREY TARKOVSKY
SCULPTING IN TIME

(FINAL 7 sonnets of 154) THE ARTIST AT THE END OF THE GOAD {smile}

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.148_01} UNTIL YOU WONDER WHY things are

"this way" ...

{ACS.148_02} As long as you show up and go along ...
{ACS.148_03} Until you analyze the games we play
{ACS.148_04} instead of overlook what might be wrong ...

{ACS.148_05} ... You'll have no real idea what freedom means.
{ACS.148_06} If you don't ask "Why this?" what kind of choice
{ACS.148_07} will you have in your life? What kind of scenes
{ACS.148_08} can you choose to be in? What can you voice ...

{ACS.148_09} ... beyond the slogans of the TV ads
{ACS.148_10} and nurs'ry rhymes of childhood that remain
{ACS.148_11} entwined with formulas all college grads
{ACS.148_12} regurgitate, but never can explain.

{ACS.148_13} No, we learn early on to not ask why
{ACS.148_14} unless you want to get the evil eye.

{ACS.149_01} REFLECTING ON "WHAT IS" is only for
{ACS.149_02} those with the time to do it. And who does?
{ACS.149_03} Few ever have the freedom to explore
{ACS.149_04} the undercarriage of the surface buzz.

{ACS.149_05} We'd rather learn how best to grease the wheels
{ACS.149_06} than question if we ought to drive at all.
{ACS.149_07} We'd rather learn how Donald structures deals
{ACS.149_08} than wonder how to come to have the gall ...

{ACS.149_09} ... to bullshit lots of folks with such success.
{ACS.149_10} Just tell us step by step how we can climb
{ACS.149_11} the ladders set in place. We acquiesce
{ACS.149_12} to everything -- just pay us overtime.

{ACS.149_13} Necessity is what most runners face.
{ACS.149_14} They have no time to question why they race.


{ACS.150_01} A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE must speak
{ACS.150_02} for av'rage people. Not for Socrates
{ACS.150_03} or criminals or artists who may sneak
{ACS.150_04} around society. Do as they please.

{ACS.150_05} We may not have the best world that could be
{ACS.150_06} but better than the one we do not know.
{ACS.150_07} We can't afford much curiosity.
{ACS.150_08} The new could bring about

some brand new woe.

{ACS.150_09} The politician's job is not to change
{ACS.150_10} the nature of reality, but keep
{ACS.150_11} our way of life within our comfort range.
{ACS.150_12} That world lies on the surface, not too deep.

{ACS.150_13} The job of president is swim across
{ACS.150_14} what we believe preventing any loss.


{ACS.151_01} AN ARTIST or a prophet or a nut
{ACS.151_02} may shout out from the sidelines diff'rent things
{ACS.151_03} than everybody knows. Each angry "but"
{ACS.151_04} could well be true. And rabbits could be kings ...

{ACS.151_05} ... if aliens from outer space arrive
{ACS.151_06} and laser-beam us all to crispy-thins.
{ACS.151_07} NO, REAL LIFE is the deal with which we strive.
{ACS.151_08} We want security not theory-spins.

{ACS.151_09} How can the loner speak of common ground?
{ACS.151_10} A howler in the wilderness define
{ACS.151_11} reality for us when they're unbound
{ACS.151_12} from our constraints? Unless they are divine.

{ACS.151_13} And we don't think that likely in our day.
{ACS.151_14} We go to church but don't know how to pray.

{ACS.152_01} Well, that's all well and good until things get
{ACS.152_02} too out of balance, then you need a sage --
{ACS.152_03} Someone who says if you are getting wet
{ACS.152_04} then get out of the rain instead of rage ...

{ACS.152_05} ... about the fact your panties are not dry.
{ACS.152_06} Some say, of course, it's you and not the rain --
{ACS.152_07} you must have wet yourself with tears you cry.
{ACS.152_08} No, no there are no clouds. You're just insane.

{ACS.152_09} The artist says that's bullshit -- ev'ry drop
{ACS.152_10} is real, and it is stupid just to stand
{ACS.152_11} out in the rain, when you could make it stop.
{ACS.152_12} And no, this is not some strange wonderland ...

{ACS.152_13} Just notice that it's raining. Go inside,
{ACS.152_14} dry off, and ponder what BOKE's prophesied.


{ACS.153_01} SINCE JANUARY I have cast my gaze
{ACS.153_02} upon this project's possibilities.
{ACS.153_03} Its fundamentals perfectly in phase
{ACS.153_04} with all my int'rests. But it's Cutler's keys ...

{ACS.153_05} ... in the ignition, so what could I do
{ACS.153_06} but watch it drive away and off a cliff?
{ACS.153_07} This was no situation where a coup
{ACS.153_08} could turn the car. Pull out a handkerchief ...

{ACS.153_09} ... and wipe away a tear -- just one -- to grieve
{ACS.153_10} the death of an idea that had charm
{ACS.153_11} enough for lots of people to believe.
{ACS.153_12} I hope that in the end it did no harm.

{ACS.153_13} Just one more sonnet and I'll turn my head
{ACS.153_14} to other projects that are not so dead. {smile}



{ACS.154_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION know
{ACS.154_02} that closing time has come

when beer runs out ...

{ACS.154_03} And when to fresher holes it's time to go.
{ACS.154_04} The smallest bunny doesn't even pout.

{ACS.154_05} A NEW ADVENTURE's always being brewed.
{ACS.154_06} And Bunny feet are fast and long enough
{ACS.154_07} to span whatever pebbled interlude
{ACS.154_08} must be traversed.

Though sometimes it is tough ...

{ACS.154_09} ... to pull big-headed BOKE out of the hole
{ACS.154_10} that they had pulled him into at the start
{ACS.154_11} of their last hare-brained scheme or worthy goal
{ACS.154_12} in which they're sure he ought to play a part.

{ACS.154_13} The Necessary Angel winks at God.
{ACS.154_14} I don't know what that means...

or why He'd nod.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

Those 154

completes 1000 sonnets

between elections.

CICERO, CICERO, WHERE FOR ART THOU ...

The alternative exists, however,

because the Ciceronian and Socratic

conceptions of liberal education

continue to stand in tension,

as they have since antiquity,

like the two foci of an ellipse

whose locus includes the

varying aproaches to

liberal education of

any particular time.

BRUCE A. KIMBALL
ORATORS & PHILOSOPHERS
A History of the Idea of Liberal Education

(7 sonnets) EDUCATION, i.e., There's got to be a pony in here somewhere! {smile}

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.141_01} THE LIBERALLY EDUCATED CAN
{ACS.141_02} NO LONGER function as the guardian
{ACS.141_03} of freedom and democracy. The clan
{ACS.141_04} of "best and brightest" clearly now has run ...

{ACS.141_05} ... completely out of gas this century.
{ACS.141_06} They can protect their priv'lege, but that's it.
{ACS.141_07} They hold no high ground, just use strategy
{ACS.141_08} like all the other players of BULLSHIT.

{ACS.141_09} The Bullshit Game requires a certain field --
{ACS.141_10} a level one that's seeded well and trimmed.
{ACS.141_11} A nation full of people who will yield
{ACS.141_12} to BULLSHIT: Educationally dimmed.

{ACS.141_13} The ones who best exploit this weakness rise.
{ACS.141_14} George Dubya's Gang Of Punks

now trump the wise.

{ACS.142_01} MASS MEDIA transformed the pow'r of speech.
{ACS.142_02} The world of radio and TV's not
{ACS.142_03} the same world as before. How should we teach
{ACS.142_04} our children (and ourselves) to better plot ...

{ACS.142_05} ... a course through all the noise

our culture spreads?

{ACS.142_06} A HIGHER EDUCATION, we believe,
{ACS.142_07} prepares us to succeed -- it fills our heads
{ACS.142_08} with everything success can preconceive.

{ACS.142_09} But we don't see how near a hundred years
{ACS.142_10} of media has changed the very ground
{ACS.142_11} beneath the playing field. The social spheres
{ACS.142_12} are now defined by TV's sight and sound.

{ACS.142_13} OUR EDUCATION HAS NOT CHANGED to fit
{ACS.142_14} the new environment where we now sit.


{ACS.143_01} For eighty generations RHETORIC
{ACS.143_02} was central to what EDUCATION means.
{ACS.143_03} That word's now synonym for what is slick --
{ACS.143_04} "just talk, not action." Even ivy deans ...

{ACS.143_05} .... no longer have a clue why they should need
{ACS.143_06} to think about it, other than a course
{ACS.143_07} (or two) in Freshman writing. Well-degreed
{ACS.143_08} young men and women are to be a source ...

{ACS.143_09} ... of knowledge in a discipline defined
{ACS.143_10} by categories in the catalogue.
{ACS.143_11} Though speaking well most surely has declined,
{ACS.143_12} they think that Rhetoric's just ancient fog.

{ACS.143_13} Well sorry, boys and girls, you've got it wrong.
{ACS.143_14} Your head's been up your ass a bit too long.


{ACS.144_01} FROM TIME TO TIME A WATERSHED

must come --

{ACS.144_02} a shift in social practice to correct
{ACS.144_03} imbalance on some scale. Yes, slip a thumb
{ACS.144_04} on one side that's too light in retrospect.

{ACS.144_05} There are some patterns history repeats
{ACS.144_06} and RHETORIC is somewhat of a loop.
{ACS.144_07} Look back to Cicero then up to Keats
{ACS.144_08} and back to Shakespeare; up to Lincoln

-- snoop ...

{ACS.144_09} ... through time and try to feel what kind of shift
{ACS.144_10} that education needs to make to turn
{ACS.144_11} the media-imbalanced thoughts we sift
{ACS.144_12} into democracy. So we discern ...

{ACS.144_13} ... the balance in the flow of all that noise.
{ACS.144_14} Like gymnasts of the word

give our thoughts poise.

{ACS.145_01} WHY BRING THIS UP when AmCan is the case
{ACS.145_02} we are inspecting? If we don't, we'll fail
{ACS.145_03} to understand how Cutler could disgrace
{ACS.145_04} its possibility -- so badly nail ...

{ACS.145_05} ... the landing (or the take off, either one).
{ACS.145_06} THE FRAMEWORK of our culture has no holes
{ACS.145_07} for all that AmCan promised. What they've done
{ACS.145_08} is execute within the current folds ...

{ACS.145_09} ... a pattern that will not disturb a thing.
{ACS.145_10} What else would you expect, the wise might ask.
{ACS.145_11} A vetted member of that class can't bring
{ACS.145_12} a real transition, or lift up the mask ...

{ACS.145_13} ... on TV, heaven knows, they must sell bull.
{ACS.145_14} It isn't easy to get RJ's pull.


{ACS.146_01} Well, many people thought that he would try.
{ACS.146_02} THE BIG IDEA appealed to them all.
{ACS.146_03} Yes, it's for TV, but we've heard this guy
{ACS.146_04} is someone who has heard a higher call ...

{ACS.146_05} ... than where most folks in Hollywood

take aim.

{ACS.146_06} They had some faith and hope

that he'd transcend

{ACS.146_07} the box. And so, yes, he must take the blame
{ACS.146_08} for all the bullshit. Cutler badly sinned ...

{ACS.146_09} ... and can't admit it, or he'd make it worse.
{ACS.146_10} (That seems to be a trait of Hollywood,
{ACS.146_11} or simply POWER -- truth cannot reverse
{ACS.146_12} the error. Just say bullshit 'till it's good.)

{ACS.146_13} We'd have to've sent ol' RJ back to school
{ACS.146_14} before he could have made our AmCan cool.



{ACS.147_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION ring
{ACS.147_02} the bell at Bunny School and wait for you
{ACS.147_03} to pin your bunny tail on and then sing
{ACS.147_04} a song of your own making as they brew ...

{ACS.147_05} ... some Bunny Beer out back for later use.
{ACS.147_06} You sing a song of pain -- the safety pin
{ACS.147_07} that's holding on your bunny tail is loose --
{ACS.147_08} and when you're done the Bunnies shout

AMEN!

{ACS.147_09} The Necessary Angel can't resist
{ACS.147_10} a snapshot of your suffering to share
{ACS.147_11} with God who'll smile and lightly ball his fist
{ACS.147_12} to push that pin in deeper so you'll spare ...

{ACS.147_13} ... no passion in expressing what you think.
{ACS.147_14} BOKE turns to face the cam'ra ...

Did he wink? {smile}

# # #


HAIKU CODA

The Iraq Mess proves

"the meritocracy" needs

new education.

POWER OUTAGE ... {smile}

[T]he key failure of the New Public ...

is the lack of [two-side public] forums.

Public leaders employ rhetorical

techniques that discourage

two-sided dialogue and do what

they can to avoid challenge

in open forums.

LEON H. MAYHEW
THE NEW PUBLIC

(7 sonnets) What's the Question?

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.134_01} WHAT QUESTION ARE THEY ASKING?

Who will get

{ACS.134_02} two hundred thousand dollars?

That is all.

{ACS.134_03} The answer is Keith Boykin, I would bet.
{ACS.134_04} (Though surely he could somehow

drop the ball.)

{ACS.134_05} How does THE STORY that's most pleasing end?
{ACS.134_06} "America" will choose a gay black man
{ACS.134_07} or two white women with a straight/gay blend
{ACS.134_08} for president. I'd bet the Chrissy-plan ...

{ACS.134_09} ... is team up Witter/Gephardt versus Keith
{ACS.134_10} who'd prob'bly pick Malia for V.P.
{ACS.134_11} Whichever wins, the story lays a wreath
{ACS.134_12} on "in the White House gays will never be."

{ACS.134_13} A STORY that is nice enough to tell.
{ACS.134_14} Yet still, against "the bullshit" we rebel.

{ACS.135_01} WHAT QUESTIONS did they promise to address?
{ACS.135_02} Good question. Since that's not how PR works,
{ACS.135_03} which seeks to leave brain patterns

motionless --

{ACS.135_04} affirm some preexisting nods and smirks.

{ACS.135_05} TRUE QUESTIONS can make people

"think too much."

{ACS.135_06} Though polling questions are designed to keep
{ACS.135_07} all thinking in the normal rabbit hutch,
{ACS.135_08} a true one can make revolution leap ...

{ACS.135_09} ... out of a bunny hole. And who knows what
{ACS.135_10} will happen if those Bunnies all run loose.
{ACS.135_11} You can't assume they'll choose

the standard plot,

{ACS.135_12} but rather a brand new one ... with more juice.

{ACS.135_13} Remember Bunnies don't like politics,
{ACS.135_14} but do enjoy expressing pans and picks.


{ACS.136_01} WHAT QUESTIONS should have AmCan asked?

Let's vote.

{ACS.136_02} Vote on which questions to be asked?

Sounds good.

{ACS.136_03} BEFORE THE TOWN HALL dress, a petticoat
{ACS.136_04} should have been put on first.

Ask where each stood ...

{ACS.136_05} ... on what they thought their purpose was

that day

{ACS.136_06} in coming to that public space. To what?
{ACS.136_07} No, we have never seen one start that way.
{ACS.136_08} About the public mind we don't know squat.

{ACS.136_09} "TOWN HALLS" are now just

venues for "debate"

{ACS.136_10} by "higher folks," while silent people view
{ACS.136_11} the spectacle. And if it's not too late
{ACS.136_12} when they are finished yapping, they'll let you ...

{ACS.136_13} ... line up to spit one question at the stage.
{ACS.136_14} That ritual defines the people's cage.



{ACS.137_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION ask
{ACS.137_02} who asks which questions will be asked and who
{ACS.137_03} would rather go outside where there's a cask
{ACS.137_04} of Bunny Beer and shots of mountain dew?

{ACS.137_05} That's not a bad idea. Propriety
{ACS.137_06} needs loosening if we are too explore
{ACS.137_07} beyond the same ol' same ol'. Be more free
{ACS.137_08} of social fears. Leave them outside the door ...

{ACS.137_09} ... when we come back inside.

Assume the drinks

{ACS.137_10} can take the blame if we say "something wrong."
{ACS.137_11} "Blame Bunny Beer!" we chant,

and each one winks

{ACS.137_12} at every other eye. Now ring the gong.

{ACS.137_13} THIS TOWN HALL MEETING of another kind
{ACS.137_14} does not begin in front but from behind.

{ACS.138_01} "WHO HAS A QUESTION framed

in lim'rick form?"

{ACS.138_02} The Bunnies giggle -- they just made that rule
{ACS.138_03} to make the people think beyond the norm,
{ACS.138_04} outside the lines we kept inside in school.

{ACS.138_05} A bunch of drunken versifying might
{ACS.138_06} not seem the most effective way to start
{ACS.138_07} a Town Hall meeting. And you might be right.
{ACS.138_08} Depends on what "effective" means. The art ...

{ACS.138_09} ... of public conversation has been lost.
{ACS.138_10} And we must find a new way to debate.
{ACS.138_11} The still stones of our rituals are mossed.
{ACS.138_12} The Bunnies, meanwhile,

tattoo Boykin's pate ...

{ACS.138_13} ... with "VOTE FOR BOKE"

while Keith's too drunk to care.

{ACS.138_14} Tomorrow he'll decide to grow some hair.


{ACS.139_01} Some limericks are spoken, then they rank
{ACS.139_02} their interest in which path to pursue.
{ACS.139_03} AN ORATOR who's drunk, her mind is blank,
{ACS.139_04} is suddenly inspired and a few ...

{ACS.139_05} ... brief comments fill the air and lift a thought
{ACS.139_06} unspoken heretofore. Does it make sense?
{ACS.139_07} Then all the thumbslides everybody brought
{ACS.139_08} are slid. Do they applaud or do they wince?...

{ACS.139_09} ... how many and how much we see the score.
{ACS.139_10} Should she continue, or another speak?
{ACS.139_11} Change to a new direction, or hear more?
{ACS.139_12} What happens if all rankings hit the peak ...

{ACS.139_13} ... of common int'rest? Just one thing is clear:
{ACS.139_14} We must experiment ... and drink more beer.


{ACS.140_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION smile
{ACS.140_02} and nudge the empty cask back up the hill.
{ACS.140_03} The people head back home, not single file
{ACS.140_04} but rather as they choose. The Bunnies' still ...

{ACS.140_05} ... is slowly boiling down another batch.
{ACS.140_06} The Necessary Angel flys back up
{ACS.140_07} to Heaven having lent her wings to catch
{ACS.140_08} the best that people said. She'd filled a cup ...

{ACS.140_09} ... with what was said, most beautif'lly and adds
{ACS.140_10} it to the bunny brew. The evening air
{ACS.140_11} is sweetened by the steam. Each Bunny pads
{ACS.140_12} their mattress, goes to sleep without a care.

{ACS.140_13} And BOKE thanks God for bunnies as he prays.
{ACS.140_14} The Angel whispers: "Smile.

Just two more days."

# # #


HAIKU CODA

MEANWHILE in Athens

"the people" were not happy

and the judges budged.

VERY GOOD, JOHNNY ...

The major American

tradition of moderation

rests [more] on a habit of

submission to authority

that weakens autonomy

and democracy alike.

CHRISTOPHER NEWFIELD
THE EMERSON EFFECT

(7 sonnets) on the long-suffering occasion {smile} of American Candidate EPISODE 4

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.127_01} "ARTICULATE and SMOOTH" Keith won again
{ACS.127_02} "Most Presidential" third time in a row.
{ACS.127_03} (What were the ratings for the other men
{ACS.127_04} and women? Once again, we do not know.)

{ACS.127_05} Keith's prize G.O.P. strategist Rich Bond
{ACS.127_06} highlights Keith's "excellence."

Our land's "diverse"

{ACS.127_07} and we need folks like Keith.

Bald head not blonde

{ACS.127_08} "smooth" and "articulate," he can traverse ...

{ACS.127_09} ... a public conversation with no slip
{ACS.127_10} beyond the normal educated view.
{ACS.127_11} Whatever question's raised, won't lose his grip
{ACS.127_12} on "reas'nable." The room concurs: "me, too."

{ACS.127_13} Says Woman-On-The-Street:

"Well, yeah," of course

{ACS.127_14} you're diff'rent colored, but the same old horse.


{ACS.128_01} KEITH SAYS it's time for leaders who "don't look
{ACS.128_02} like everybody else," which means not white.
{ACS.128_03} But ev'rything he says goes by the book
{ACS.128_04} the simularly educated write.

{ACS.128_05} HE SAYS what "educated people" think
{ACS.128_06} is what they ought to say when on the spot.
{ACS.128_07} Unwinding sentences that do not kink
{ACS.128_08} when they slip in your head. Not one mal mot.

{ACS.128_09} SO, IS THAT what "most presidential" meant
{ACS.128_10} to 61 percent in their last play,
{ACS.128_11} and 48 (or) 49 percent
{ACS.128_12} in Keene, New Hampshire; Allentown, P.A.?

{ACS.128_13} He's hung around the White House. No surprise
{ACS.128_14} he's "smooth" as all the other West Wing guys.


{ACS.129_01} IN CONTRAST, as Keith says,

there's Joyce and Mack

{ACS.129_02} who "say a little bit more than they should."
{ACS.129_03} When they get on a roll, they sometimes stack
{ACS.129_04} their phrases in "the other" neighborhood:

{ACS.129_05} A place where the "right educated" leap
{ACS.129_06} to quick conclusions: you are "not their kind."
{ACS.129_07} Just one wrong pile. The price is pretty steep.
{ACS.129_08} The house of all your cards has been red-lined.

{ACS.129_09} Just one misstep and you have been dismissed.
{ACS.129_10} AND NOTHING that you say

can change your state

{ACS.129_11} from negative to positive. You've missed
{ACS.129_12} your opportunity. And so your fate ...

{ACS.129_13} ... is living with the way they have you pegged.
{ACS.129_14} You can't unsay it even if you begged.




{ACS.130_01} REPUBLICANS, of course, don't seem to care
{ACS.130_02} as much as Democrats about a gaff.
{ACS.130_03} If Dubya screws up badly, they just dare
{ACS.130_04} "unpatriotic" "liberals" to laugh.

{ACS.130_05} Their lingo's tribal loyalty, not sense.
{ACS.130_06} Like Hitler, pandering to pride and fear.
{ACS.130_07} Key strategist Karl Rove's intelligence
{ACS.130_08} is simlar to Hitler's. Both sincere ...

{ACS.130_09} ... in their belief that their ideas must win
{ACS.130_10} "at any cost" required. Bullshit and lies
{ACS.130_11} as necessary. Masters of the spin
{ACS.130_12} that fits the minds of many, so they rise.

{ACS.130_13} Could Boykin's lib'ral,

"Well-yeah" speech defeat

{ACS.130_14} the bullshit that Republicans repeat?



{ACS.131_01} NEXT WEEK they'll do what should

have been done first.

{ACS.131_02} Use dial-groups (thumbslides)

to let voters voice

{ACS.131_03} agreement/disagreement, blessed or cursed.
{ACS.131_04} Display clear measurements of ev'ry choice ...

{ACS.131_05} ... of phrase and tone by ev'ry candidate.
{ACS.131_06} They should have used this method

to choose who

{ACS.131_07} was cast -- before they held the first debate.
{ACS.131_08} Before the other things they ran them through.

{ACS.131_09} What did vote totals measure in week one?
{ACS.131_10} Where did most votes come from

weeks two and three?

{ACS.131_11} What things exactly had front-runners done?
{ACS.131_12} SO VERY LITTLE OF THE GAME WE SEE.

{ACS.131_13} IMAGINE IF all candidates had passed
{ACS.131_14} this test of competence before they're cast.


{ACS.132_01} Keith Boykin may be King of this odd bunch
{ACS.132_02} of characters selected by their type
{ACS.132_03} within a matrix based upon a hunch
{ACS.132_04} of RJ Cutler laying down a stripe ...

{ACS.132_05} ... to mark a road that he knew how to drive.
{ACS.132_06} But his map could not reach the place described
{ACS.132_07} in the Am-Can brochure. No one alive
{ACS.132_08} could pull that promise off.

Though I've prescribed ...

{ACS.132_09} ... one main idea that should have

paved the way.

{ACS.132_10} Across the nation, people should have ruled
{ACS.132_11} the casting process. But they had no say.
{ACS.132_12} The Cutler bullshit has nobody fooled.

{ACS.132_13} The cast was cast to fit what they could plan.
{ACS.132_14} That's "just a show."

IT'S NOT THE REAL AM-CAN.

{ACS.133_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION dream
{ACS.133_02} of possibilities that might yet come
{ACS.133_03} if they pulled off some perfect Bunny scheme.
{ACS.133_04} Though fast asleep the smallest beats a drum ...

{ACS.133_05} It echoes off the mountain up to God
{ACS.133_06} who wakes up from a dream

where Bunnies found

{ACS.133_07} "the answer" to "the problem." With one nod
{ACS.133_08} the Necessary Angel bends the sound ...

{ACS.133_09} ... of Little Bunny drumming to transmit
{ACS.133_10} a special coded message down to BOKE
{ACS.133_11} who at this moment's trying hard to fit
{ACS.133_12} one more iambic line and one more joke ...

{ACS.133_13} ... in one more set of sonnets for today.
{ACS.133_14} BOKE smiles at what he's heard.

Alright. Let's play!

# # #


HAIKU CODA

The right dial-group size

is roughly equivalent

to the whole nation.

(7 sonnets) Honey, Where's the damned Vote-By-Remote?

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.120_01} BILL MAHER'S PRODUCER SAID,

"Don't hiss or boo.

{ACS.120_02} Just laugh and clap for what

the guests will say."

{ACS.120_03} They're famous. They can argue.

But not you.

{ACS.120_04} If you yelled BULLSHIT!,

it might ruin their play.

{ACS.120_05} A disapproving audience might shush
{ACS.120_06} the conversation of a talking head.
{ACS.120_07} A hiss or boo their tender ego crush.
{ACS.120_08} No, it's just by Bill Maher they will be led ...

{ACS.120_09} ... around within the confines they control.
{ACS.120_10} Your positive response they surely need
{ACS.120_11} to teach the folks at home to play their role.
{ACS.120_12} You can't yell "no," unless you're pedigreed.

{ACS.120_13} And so it was that Maher

was quite surprised

{ACS.120_14} how much a few words could

make him despised.

{ACS.121_01} AN AFFIRMATION's all that power wants.
{ACS.121_02} You cannot blame the powerful for that.
{ACS.121_03} What's power?

That short question surely haunts

{ACS.121_04} both AmSham and Bush/Kerry as we plait ...

{ACS.121_05} ... the final stretches of this hairy set
{ACS.121_06} of sonnets toward the ribbon at the end.
{ACS.121_07} A pig tail, or "The Pigs Tale?" Those that get
{ACS.121_08} their way by social practice will defend ...

{ACS.121_09} ... unconsciously -- as anyone might do --
{ACS.121_10} their privileges of status they believe
{ACS.121_11} are theirs -- without debate from me and you.
{ACS.121_12} And with that rank, the license to deceive.

{ACS.121_13} BY BULLSHIT is the way they've learned to rule.
{ACS.121_14} And making troubling questions seem uncool.


{ACS.122_01} AS HITLER ROSE TO POWER his Brown Shirts
{ACS.122_02} would beat up anyone who argued back.
{ACS.122_03} The "Bullshit!" shouters learned how bad it hurts
{ACS.122_04} to be kicked in the balls. Soon Hitler's claque ...

{ACS.122_05} ... had taught the German volks to go along.
{ACS.122_06} And since the future Fuhrer's truest skill
{ACS.122_07} was amplifying those thoughts dumb and wrong
{ACS.122_08} already in the minds of public will ...

{ACS.122_09} ... the normal social pressures

pushed their steps

{ACS.122_10} on down the road that "everybody" walks
{ACS.122_11} too easily. The evil one accepts
{ACS.122_12} as friendly dog then bares its fangs

and stalks ...

{ACS.122_13} ... the quiet landscape which we praise as good.
{ACS.122_14} Naysaying silenced by a Nazi hood.


{ACS.123_01} WE "SHOULD WATCH WHAT WE SAY,"

the White House flak

{ACS.123_02} responded to the Bill Maher episode.
{ACS.123_03} They hate us for our freedom ??? What a sack
{ACS.123_04} of bullshit -- one more time I must explode.

{ACS.123_05} This Nazi/White House link will surely sour
{ACS.123_06} a lot of dispositions. But it's not
{ACS.123_07} the top dog who creates his top dog pow'r,
{ACS.123_08} but those who sniff their butts.

That's where the rot ...

{ACS.123_09} ... lies in a nation claiming that it's free.
{ACS.123_10} The German people did not go insane --
{ACS.123_11} they went along. They had democracy.
{ACS.123_12} But what good's that if you won't

use your brain?

{ACS.123_13} A nation that can't stand

"That's bullshit!" speech

{ACS.123_14} may soon find all real freedom's out of reach.


{ACS.124_01} IT'S HUMAN NATURE not to rock the boat.
{ACS.124_02} It's hard to interrupt when rows and rows
{ACS.124_03} of people think the same way: "This will float!"
{ACS.124_04} BUT MAYBE you're the only one who knows ...

{ACS.124_05} ... the reason it will sink -- and so you shout
{ACS.124_06} a warning in strong words to make it clear:
{ACS.124_07} "Hey folks, we'd better take another route."
{ACS.124_08} But first you'll figure what you have to fear:

{ACS.124_09} What is the cost of your voice all alone?
{ACS.124_10} OR ARE THERE OTHERS who would also stand
{ACS.124_11} IF THEY KNEW your mind's also in this zone?
{ACS.124_12} Are you a beach, or just a grain of sand?

{ACS.124_13} The power hoarders hope you never seek
{ACS.124_14} an answer to that question -- want you meek.


{ACS.125_01} TO SHARE PERCEPTIONS without all the noise
{ACS.125_02} of interrupting everyone to hear
{ACS.125_03} a long objection -- rowdy or with poise.
{ACS.125_04} A calculation of: Am I a peer ...

{ACS.125_05} ... of thousands, or of millions? THERE'S A PATH
{ACS.125_06} I claim is worth pursuing. Now we can.
{ACS.125_07} And no, I can't project the aftermath
{ACS.125_08} of this addition. But the frying pan ...

{ACS.125_09} ... we're sitting in could surely use a knob.
{ACS.125_10} TO VOTE BY A REMOTE is what I wish.
{ACS.125_11} The promise that the AmCan Sham did lob
{ACS.125_12} into the pond with bullshit. Let us fish ...

{ACS.125_13} ... that one idea out and fry it up.
{ACS.125_14} Have you not said this all before? Well, yup. {smile}


{ACS.126_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION would
{ACS.126_02} be happy to hop in to change this verse
{ACS.126_03} from tedious to something really good.
{ACS.126_04} BUT they are wise enough to make it worse. {grin}

{ACS.126_05} The Necessary Angel can't believe
{ACS.126_06} The Bunnies really did what they just did.
{ACS.126_07} She flaps her wings and asks you all to leave
{ACS.126_08} before you see the Bunny's pyramid ...

{ACS.126_09} ... that she hopes very much is choc'late cake.
{ACS.126_10} The Bunnies will not tell. And BOKE won't taste
{ACS.126_11} the ediface but thinks that it will make
{ACS.126_12} a perfect ending for these lines we've raced ...

{ACS.126_13} ... across a stretch of ground

that has been crossed

{ACS.126_14} one damned too many times.

Let's all get sauced!

# # #


HAIKU CODA

What good are sonnets

if you don't drag in Hitler

and Bunny ... something. {smile}

GOOD JOB ...

The job of sociology

is to see that the choices

are genuinely free ...

ZYGMUNT BAUMAN
LIQUID MODERNITY

ONCE UPON A TIME ...

Athenian democracy is remarkable

because it was the real thing.

JOSIAH OBER
THE ATHENIAN REVOLUTION

(7 sonnets) RED, BLUE, and WHITE ... um, BLACK {smile}

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.113_01} IF REDS AND BLUES EAT BULLSHIT,

who remains

{ACS.113_02} for you to speak to? How about TEAM WHITE --
{ACS.113_03} or BLACK, as I prefer. This team disdains
{ACS.113_04} the choices offered. Rather fly a kite ...

{ACS.113_05} ... than vote. How large is our team?

Red plus Blue.

{ACS.113_06} Yes, Black team's twice as big as Blue or Red.
{ACS.113_07} And Black is very much the smarter hue --
{ACS.113_08} we will not vote for those who have misled.

{ACS.113_09} If someday bullshit stops, perhaps we will.
{ACS.113_10} But now we won't pretend that voting counts.
{ACS.113_11} We won't legitimate the game until
{ACS.113_12} you give us choices who will each renounce ...

{ACS.113_13} ... all bullshit and run news-heads off the stage.
{ACS.113_14} Have real debate where you face

cheers and rage.

{ACS.114_01} WHILE WE THE BLACK TEAM

sit BUSH/KERRY out

{ACS.114_02} and thereby tell the world they're not all bad
{ACS.114_03} (by our act of refusal leave some doubt
{ACS.114_04} America is not completely mad), ...

{ACS.114_05} ... LET'S use our added leisure to review
{ACS.114_06} some hist'ry of democracy and see
{ACS.114_07} if we can figure out what we might do
{ACS.114_08} to let our nation be all it can be.

{ACS.114_09} Sports cam'ras are in Athens -- let them lead
{ACS.114_10} us to the same location. Set the range:
{ACS.114_11} from 5 0 8 to 3 2 2 is keyed
{ACS.114_12} into a BC keypad. By some strange ...

{ACS.114_13} ... anomaly our sight now spans those years
{ACS.114_14} when "demokratia" the world first hears.


{ACS.115_01} WE'VE ALL BEEN TOLD that

we don't have to think

{ACS.115_02} too long about the ancient Athens form
{ACS.115_03} of government. Yes slavery does stink,
{ACS.115_04} but don't let one big truth sink in the storm ...

{ACS.115_05} ... of our-time criticism. They had real
{ACS.115_06} democracy. The thing that "can't be done"
{ACS.115_07} we're told and told and told. But here's the deal:
{ACS.115_08} They had democracy. They made it run.

{ACS.115_09} REAL PEOPLE POWER balanced out elite
{ACS.115_10} authority. And bullshit couldn't win
{ACS.115_11} with no mass media repeat-repeat
{ACS.115_12} of noise all would believe. Though only men, ...

{ACS.115_13} ... the gathering of minds was face to face.
{ACS.115_14} Misleaders shouted down at any place.


{ACS.116_01} Yes, slavery was there, but look beyond
{ACS.116_02} that ugly feature to what we can learn.
{ACS.116_03} The pow'r to interactively respond.
{ACS.116_04} Not sitting silently if they should burn ...

{ACS.116_05} ... with outrage or approval. Hard to fool.
{ACS.116_06} Of course it happened, but no journalist
{ACS.116_07} was filtering the moment making cool
{ACS.116_08} or lukewarm, what is hot. Transmitting gist ...

{ACS.116_09} ... that's processed out the words

that might offend

{ACS.116_10} the sponsors -- letting bullshit take control.
{ACS.116_11} No TV mediation -- you attend
{ACS.116_12} to what is said, not what the latest poll ...

{ACS.116_13} ... has pigeonholed the meaning of it all
{ACS.116_14} into today. No, you must make the call.

{ACS.117_01} NO ONE IN ATHENS VOTED WHO HAD NOT
{ACS.117_02} HEARD FOR THEMSELVES

the arguments firsthand.

{ACS.117_03} The orators were few -- were on the spot
{ACS.117_04} to speak truth in that moment --

not what's canned.

{ACS.117_05} No teleprompter reading and no lies.
{ACS.117_06} How could they make good judgements

if the speech

{ACS.117_07} they heard was not the truth? The city dies
{ACS.117_08} if false advice prevails. Truth must impeach.

{ACS.117_09} Yes, it was understood "frank speech" was key
{ACS.117_10} for judgement of the people to be right.
{ACS.117_11} They knew that simple popularity
{ACS.117_12} was not enough -- they needed clearest sight ...

{ACS.117_13} ... especially when voting for a war.
{ACS.117_14} A time demanding frankness even more.


{ACS.118_01} FADE OUT on ancient Athens. FADE BACK IN
{ACS.118_02} TO SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE

where we've found

{ACS.118_03} a way to take the best that Athens men
{ACS.118_04} discovered, build technology around ...

{ACS.118_05} ... what worked. Adjusting as we mix our soul
{ACS.118_06} and our imagination to create
{ACS.118_07} more perfect union. Which is still the goal
{ACS.118_08} of this land RED/BLUE/WHITE/BLACK.

Let's debate ...

{ACS.118_09} ... within an old/new context that transcends
{ACS.118_10} the limits of the boxes we've been trapped
{ACS.118_11} in for too long. The TV cam'ra lens
{ACS.118_12} constrains our vision. Only when it's capped ...

{ACS.118_13} ... with something that allows the other side
{ACS.118_14} to flow back through it, can it be our guide.


{ACS.119_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION hopped
{ACS.119_02} into the future onto a TV
{ACS.119_03} and found it dusty. With their tails they mopped
{ACS.119_04} a clean space to sit down and looked at me.

{ACS.119_05} The Necessary Angel floated by
{ACS.119_06} to disapprove all jokes with rabbit ears.
{ACS.119_07} The writer looked up stiffling one more sigh,
{ACS.119_08} marked out a line and left to buy some beers ...

{ACS.119_09} ... for BOKE who needs some energy to fuel
{ACS.119_10} a few more days of sonnets -- five or six.
{ACS.119_11} On TV Elvis singing "Don't Be Cruel"
{ACS.119_12} distracts The Bunnies from dispensing licks ...

{ACS.119_13} ... to BOKE's remote control that's sticky from
{ACS.119_14} some choc'late ice cream on his sliding thumb.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

There's too many things

we've been programmed to dismiss

with one damning word.

NOTHING TO FEAR BUT ... no imagination

We put no stock in trying to generate

the will among our citizens to use their

imaginations and human skills in

ways that might improve the

quality of a normal life.


We seem unable to counterbalance

the overwhelming sense of rage,

hate, envy and fear that prevails

in our public life.


Since most elections and political

careers are determined by manipulating

the short-term reactions of the public,

little long-range thinking or

courageous articulation

of alternatives is heard ...

LEON BOTSTEIN
JEFFERSON'S CHILDREN
Education and the Promise of American Culture

(8 sonnets) without a title ... but with a picture {smile}

from BOKE's American Candidate VIDEO

RHETORICAL VERSE /
EIGHT (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.105_01} I WOULD NOT WEAR MY FLAG SHIRT

on my trips

{ACS.105_02} outside the U.S.A. -- it would now mark
{ACS.105_03} me "target." Thanks to Dubya's bullshit-lips
{ACS.105_04} the picture of our nation's now too dark.

{ACS.105_05} Ask red-state bullshit-eaters who deny
{ACS.105_06} that anything is wrong if they would wear
{ACS.105_07} my flag shirt 'round the world.

I don't mean fly

{ACS.105_08} a safety-zone-to-safety-zone affair ...

{ACS.105_09} But really walk about in place to place.
{ACS.105_10} How long before you think

you'd lose your head?

{ACS.105_11} Before that, could you take each scowling face
{ACS.105_12} of men and women who wish you were dead?

{ACS.105_13} Yes you had better hide in your red state
{ACS.105_14} when you vote for a land that's good to hate.

{ACS.106_01} NO, blue-state bullshit-eaters won't redeem
{ACS.106_02} America by voting for a man
{ACS.106_03} who had the medals to block Dubya's scheme
{ACS.106_04} if he was not a coward. But his plan ...

{ACS.106_05} ... to get elected president required
{ACS.106_06} he go along with Bush insanity
{ACS.106_07} which cannot be undone. No, we are mired.
{ACS.106_08} Iraq: "We broke it ... fix it." Edwards' plea.

{ACS.106_09} But neither of those numbskulls

has the skill

{ACS.106_10} to "fix it" -- these blue cowards were afraid
{ACS.106_11} to stand up to the Prince of Bullshit's will
{ACS.106_12} which all the moron media OK'd.

{ACS.106_13} And bullshit-eating citizens agreed
{ACS.106_14} to follow where the bullshit-spreaders lead.


{ACS.107_01} "TWIN TOWERS FALLING" is the only show
{ACS.107_02} on television ev'ryone has seen
{ACS.107_03} a hundred times (at least). From high to low
{ACS.107_04} we watched -- consumed

the jet fuel kerosene ...

{ACS.107_05} ... into our nation's soul. Already primed
{ACS.107_06} by having let George Dubya Bush defile
{ACS.107_07} democracy. The crashes were well timed
{ACS.107_08} to turn America into a pile ...

{ACS.107_09} ... of dust -- in terms of what our nation means.
{ACS.107_10} Just read the polls outside the U.S.A.
{ACS.107_11} in (all but Murdoch's) papers, magazines.
{ACS.107_12} Yes, listen to what others have to say ...

{ACS.107_13} ... about a nation that has gone to hell.
{ACS.107_14} My gorgeous flag shirt now has bullshit smell.


{ACS.108_01} HOW MANY DECADES will it take before
{ACS.108_02} I can wear my flag shirt again with pride?
{ACS.108_03} How far past year 2000 when Al Gore
{ACS.108_04} incompetently let us tip and slide ...

{ACS.108_05} ... with help from moron media, of course,
{ACS.108_06} and treasonous Republicans who yelled
{ACS.108_07} (much angrier than Dean with stronger force),
{ACS.108_08} who did not stop until their bullshit gelled ...

{ACS.108_09} ... into reality BECAUSE NO ONE
{ACS.108_10} WHO SHOULD HAVE STOPPED IT

had the skill to turn

{ACS.108_11} the light on when the bullshit blocked the sun.
{ACS.108_12} The New York Times told Gore to "Lose a Turn."

{ACS.108_13} They figured, "How much damage

could Bush do?"

{ACS.108_14} Just let it slide. Let Dubya have his coup.

{ACS.109_01} DEMOCRACY's a bullshit word for "us."
{ACS.109_02} All educated people know you can't
{ACS.109_03} have real Democracy. Why make a fuss
{ACS.109_04} about vote totals. "We know" it's just cant.

{ACS.109_05} DIRECT DEMOCRACY could never work.
{ACS.109_06} REPUBLIC is the form our nation takes.
{ACS.109_07} It doesn't pay too much to clear the murk
{ACS.109_08} on matters where most must

admire the fakes ...

{ACS.109_09} ... in our society. "The real" too rare
{ACS.109_10} to wait for in the games that we must keep
{ACS.109_11} in motion -- "even if it is not fair."
{ACS.109_12} Perhaps if we had faith. Can't take that leap.

{ACS.109_13} If we could have IMAGINED half this mess
{ACS.109_14} we would have stopped the bullshit, we confess.


{ACS.110_01} I WONDER IF they could? Press folks

were schooled

{ACS.110_02} as badly as the rest of us endured.
{ACS.110_03} The ivy league may have the nation fooled,
{ACS.110_04} but all their PhDs could not have cured ...

{ACS.110_05} ... the fundamental problem at the heart
{ACS.110_06} of why I cannot wear my flag shirt now.
{ACS.110_07} How our red/blue toned nation fell apart.
{ACS.110_08} An overstatement? Yes. That I'll allow.

{ACS.110_09} My walls are filled by books by college profs.
{ACS.110_10} And some of them

from Princeton, Harvard, Yale.

{ACS.110_11} But what "the best" get right,

the press corp scoffs

{ACS.110_12} or cannot understand. AT least they fail ...

{ACS.110_13} ... to show it if they do. You'll never hear
{ACS.110_14} about the best ideas. Just more fear.


{ACS.111_01} BARD COLLEGE PRESIDENT in his bow tie
{ACS.111_02} and rough tweed jacket

stares out from his book

{ACS.111_03} on education. Round-rimmed eagle-eyed,
{ACS.111_04} arms folded and legs crossed.

His thought I took ...

{ACS.111_05} ... on "fear" as inspiration for this bunch
{ACS.111_06} of Friday morning sonnets 'round two-thirds
{ACS.111_07} along the way to last. These seven crunch
{ACS.111_08} along through frozen solid AmCan ... curds.

{ACS.111_09} I almost wrote "turds" there, but angels frown
{ACS.111_10} if I exceed my quota of "profane" --
{ACS.111_11} especially for phrases colored brown.
{ACS.111_12} But when your last ball's headed

down the lane ...

{ACS.111_13} ... and you're not near 300, you might sling
{ACS.111_14} that last frame 'cross the ocean to Beijing. {smile}


{ACS.112_01} P.S. OK, there was a point I meant
{ACS.112_02} to get to, but got tired and sorta sighed.
{ACS.112_03} It isn't hopeless that our nation's rent.
{ACS.112_04} There's many good ideas that can guide ...

{ACS.112_05} ... us from the cliched darkness of our time
{ACS.112_06} that I sometimes give up on for awhile.
{ACS.112_07} But even then, I still crank out this rhyme
{ACS.112_08} as I reread the fragments that I file ...

{ACS.112_09} ... from books that I have spent a life to find.
{ACS.112_10} Those books are full of questions no one asks
{ACS.112_11} on television. Maybe why we're blind
{ACS.112_12} to possibilities our culture masks ...

{ACS.112_13} ... unthoughtedly. "They know not

what they do,"

{ACS.112_14} said Jesus. And of course I add: we, too.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

There's so much good sense

to be found hidden in books

but who has the time? {smile}

FREEDOM?

And what sort of freedom is it

that discourages imagination ...

ZYGMUNT BAUMAN
IN SEARCH OF POLITICS

(7 sonnets) Without IMAGINATION ... "FREEDOM" is Bullshit

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ACS.098_01} "THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM,"

shouts the Prince

{ACS.098_02} of Bullshit -- knowing everyone agrees
{ACS.098_03} that FREEDOM's good, and no one is so dense
{ACS.098_04} they'd argue we don't have it all we please.

{ACS.098_05} WELL, call me Rock, or Stone,

or Concrete Block;

{ACS.098_06} but if George Dubya says it, it's pure crap.
{ACS.098_07} Yes, "freedom" must be bullshit if that flock
{ACS.098_08} of turkeys in the White House wings will flap ...

{ACS.098_09} ... that signal marking their attempt to fly.
{ACS.098_10} BUT BULLSHIT DOES NOT FLY in this domain,
{ACS.098_11} no more than turkeys sail into the sky.
{ACS.098_12} Birds dumb enough to drown themselves

with rain.

{ACS.098_13} Enough name-calling, now it's time to show
{ACS.098_14} those shouts of "freedom" are malapropos.

{ACS.099_01} WHAT'S "FREEDOM" MEAN if we seem to believe
{ACS.099_02} there's very little we could ever change.
{ACS.099_03} And futile, anyway, we'd just deceive
{ACS.099_04} ourselves, since all the good's

within the range ...

{ACS.099_05} ... of "how we do it now." Since we've the best
{ACS.099_06} design of how to live than anyone
{ACS.099_07} in all the world. We know that we are blessed.
{ACS.099_08} Our system beats the rest beneath the sun.

{ACS.099_09} NO WE CANNOT IMAGINE how our lives
{ACS.099_10} could be much diff'rent, other than more wealth.
{ACS.099_11} More money means more freedom.

That thought drives

{ACS.099_12} the limit of our "choices." (Pray for health.)

{ACS.099_13} WITHOUT IMAGINATION freedom's void
{ACS.099_14} of meaning, other than how we're employed.


{ACS.100_01} SUPPOSE that you're IN ALLENTOWN to speak
{ACS.100_02} on THE ECONOMY. The stage is set
{ACS.100_03} in an abandoned factory -- the leak
{ACS.100_04} of jobs to other nations what you get ...

{ACS.100_05} ... if blah blah blah. (Just fill in what you will.)
{ACS.100_06} BUT WHAT IF you declined to speak of "JOBS"?
{ACS.100_07} How quickly you'd be branded imbecile
{ACS.100_08} by all from Six-Pack Suzies to Joe Snobs.

{ACS.100_09} "ECONOMY" means "JOBS." We all know that.
{ACS.100_10} The freedom's in what job that you will take.
{ACS.100_11} You are responsible to find a hat
{ACS.100_12} that you can wear. Your future is at stake.

{ACS.100_13} The president has nothing she can do
{ACS.100_14} about that fact. It's really up to you.


{ACS.101_01} The president might have a bit of say
{ACS.101_02} about who will get rich dispensing slots
{ACS.101_03} that you might fill, but there is not much play
{ACS.101_04} in concepts that can never change their spots.

{ACS.101_05} On Showtime's "Dead Like Me" the cast is dead,
{ACS.101_06} but that just means they have two jobs

not one.

{ACS.101_07} A falling toilet smashed our hero's head --
{ACS.101_08} she now works 9 to 5, and when she's done ...

{ACS.101_09} ... has extra Post-It notes to execute.
{ACS.101_10} And after high school Buffy had to flip
{ACS.101_11} some burgers when not slaying

(her strong suit).

{ACS.101_12} A presidential candidate can't slip ...

{ACS.101_13} ... in other options. THE ECONOMY
{ACS.101_14} means JOBS JOBS JOBS.

What else is there to see?

{ACS.102_01} THE PEOPLE AREN'T ALLOWED to ever think
{ACS.102_02} of anything beyond the next device
{ACS.102_03} that they can purchase if their jobs don't stink
{ACS.102_04} "so bad" they can't afford the product's price.

{ACS.102_05} THEIR EDUCATION must prepare their minds
{ACS.102_06} to stay on track and not derail the train
{ACS.102_07} of "how things work."

Although there's many kinds

{ACS.102_08} of cogs to be, we must pre-fry your brain ...

{ACS.102_09} BURN OUT IMAGINATION when you're young.
{ACS.102_10} The playful minds of children must be stripped
{ACS.102_11} of trouble-making circuits -- still their tongue.
{ACS.102_12} Prescriptions if they cannot sit tight-lipped.

{ACS.102_13} AUTHORITY's installed. That's more the goal
{ACS.102_14} than knowledge. By the end they'll fit

some role.

{ACS.103_01} SUCH CHILDREN GROWN can spell right

freedom's name

{ACS.103_02} and will believe in it so strong they'll fight
{ACS.103_03} whatever wars they're told to in the game
{ACS.103_04} of bullshit-spreaders on the left and right.

{ACS.103_05} "Well, he's the president -- his will be done,"
{ACS.103_06} THE MIDDLE EDUCATED will explain,
{ACS.103_07} if asked, why they are sending off their son
{ACS.103_08} to give his life for freedom -- to contain ...

{ACS.103_09} ... the enemies of "freedom" which they're sure
{ACS.103_10} beyond a doubt we have -- our truest gift.
{ACS.103_11} No matter if you're rich or you are poor.
{ACS.103_12} The air that gives the eagles wings their lift.

{ACS.103_13} But though the eagle flies, the children won't.
{ACS.103_14} IMAGINATION's labeled, "Kids, Please Don't."


{ACS.104_01} DISMISSING ALL IDEAS if they don't fit
{ACS.104_02} "the way things are" means no alternative
{ACS.104_03} can be examined. Added to our kit
{ACS.104_04} of possibilities for how we live.

{ACS.104_05} Except for smaller cellphones, safer cars
{ACS.104_06} Americans are not prepared to wish
{ACS.104_07} for changes. Maybe television stars
{ACS.104_08} will fade away as we watch Amish fish ...

{ACS.104_09} ... the streams of culture out in Hollywood.
{ACS.104_10} When we are through with them, a G.E.D.
{ACS.104_11} will seem a normal thing these Amish should
{ACS.104_12} achieve. And then to college for degree.

{ACS.104_13} We'll free them from their cultural constraints
{ACS.104_14} so they can buy the ones that TV paints.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

To fix what's wrong with

"American Candidate"

start with nurs'ry school. {serious smile}

A GAP IN REALITY ...

[B]efore the productive work

of the imagination can begin

we must be outside the familiar.


Africano's subtle gesture

"defamiliarized" in a moment.

In an instant. Pop! He created a gap

in which the imagination could do its work.

The scene deployed itself differently,

offering itself openly to the imagination.

CURTIS WHITE
THE MIDDLE MIND
Why Americans Don't Think For Themselves

(7 sonnets) Unless ye become like little children ... or BUNNIES! {smile}

[IMAGINATION ...]

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.091_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION hop
{ACS.091_02} into the frame to dig a hole -- a gap
{ACS.091_03} in all our preconceptions. Put a stop
{ACS.091_04} to same ol' same ol' -- ev'ry mindless trap ...

{ACS.091_05} ... society has caught us in so far.
{ACS.091_06} Yes, by the time we're grownups, it's too late.
{ACS.091_07} The marketeers can peg us by what car
{ACS.091_08} we drive. The wheels have turned

and locked our fate.

{ACS.091_09} BUT BUNNIES have the power to roll back
{ACS.091_10} the years and leave us childlike -- open to
{ACS.091_11} IMAGINATION unconstrained -- untrack
{ACS.091_12} the well-trod pathways, planting grass anew.

{ACS.091_13} The Bunnies of the Revolution seed
{ACS.091_14} spots where it looks like everybody's peed.

{ACS.092_01} THE NECESSARY ANGEL flys above
{ACS.092_02} this story to protect the bunnies from
{ACS.092_03} concocted lines that sleepy writers love
{ACS.092_04} but in the morning understand are dumb.

{ACS.092_05} Like those a few lines back that she'll let pass
{ACS.092_06} "this time," but she makes clear

"those are the last."

{ACS.092_07} The writer smiles and promises more class.
{ACS.092_08} MEANWHILE: The Bunnies have

installed the mast ...

{ACS.092_09} ... on their time-travel sailboat and don't care
{ACS.092_10} if silly words fall from the writer's pen
{ACS.092_11} as long as he does not make bunnies wear
{ACS.092_12} a thong or stove-pipe hat, 'cause it's a sin ...

{ACS.092_13} ... to make a bunny put on clothes at all
{ACS.092_14} (except for shirts-and-skins in basketball).


{ACS.093_01} If you are wondering how AmCan fits
{ACS.093_02} within this Bunny tale... Hell, I don't know.
{ACS.093_03} But trust The Bunnies, they have sharper wits
{ACS.093_04} than you and I about the overthrow ...

{ACS.093_05} ... of same ol' same ol' -- And I have to say
{ACS.093_06} without them I think AmCan's been talked out.
{ACS.093_07} The Bunnies have been known to save the day
{ACS.093_08} by digging up a whole new other route.

{ACS.093_09} And do not ask me how they learned to sail.
{ACS.093_10} It never pays to argue with the course
{ACS.093_11} The Bunnies take -- or some gigantic whale
{ACS.093_12} The Bunnies trained will swallow you and force ...

{ACS.093_13} ... you to spend time escaping from that fish.
{ACS.093_14} But not before you've grown a tail to swish.


{ACS.094_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION land
{ACS.094_02} their sailboat on New Island -- ring a bell
{ACS.094_03} to summon you to Bunny School. The sand
{ACS.094_04} is warm between your toes.

Your toenails smell ...

{ACS.094_05} ... like carrots, cause The Bunnies

think that's cool.

{ACS.094_06} THE NECESSARY ANGEL lifts her brows
{ACS.094_07} but smiles -- she knows the writer's just a tool
{ACS.094_08} of God and Bunnies and of purple cows, ...

{ACS.094_09} ... but that's another story set on Mars
{ACS.094_10} for some time in the future, so return
{ACS.094_11} your smell-like-carrot feet back from the stars
{ACS.094_12} to New Isle Bunny School where all you learn ...

{ACS.094_13} ... is to write sonnets 'till you fin'lly see
{ACS.094_14} that nothing is the way it has to be.

{ACS.095_01} THE BUNNIES KNOW THAT, without

writing verse,

{ACS.095_02} but since we are not born with bunny ears
{ACS.095_03} that only hear the truth, we bear the curse
{ACS.095_04} of falling for all bullshit that one hears.

{ACS.095_05} THE BUNNIES run across the sand to wipe
{ACS.095_06} all traces of the steps you took to reach
{ACS.095_07} The Bunny School -- erase each stereotype
{ACS.095_08} of same ol' same ol' so that you can teach ...

{ACS.095_09} ... yourself to think again.

The blackboard's clean.

{ACS.095_10} "What is a president?" somebody scrawls.
{ACS.095_11} You hear a whisper:

"What does that word mean?"

{ACS.095_12} "A 'president'"? "No 'is'," Bill Clinton drawls.

{ACS.095_13} THE ANGEL stamps her feet. The writer winks.
{ACS.095_14} He has to go where'er the rhyming links.


{ACS.096_01} George Stephanopoulos says "I forgot."
{ACS.096_02} James Carville sticks his pinky in his belt:
{ACS.096_03} "Aw hell, this country boy will take a shot."
{ACS.096_04} But nothing in his life has ever felt ...

{ACS.096_05} ... as strange as having his tongue just sit still.
{ACS.096_06} While RJ's camera captures his blank looks,
{ACS.096_07} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION kill
{ACS.096_08} the lights on this quiet scene.

As pudding cooks ...

{ACS.096_09} ... in their bright kitchen on a TV stage.
{ACS.096_10} Iron Chef is racing them to match their sweet
{ACS.096_11} concoction with his own as they all wage
{ACS.096_12} a culinary battle to defeat ...

{ACS.096_13} ... attention deficit of folks at home
{ACS.096_14} who we'll soon teleport to ancient Rome.


{ACS.097_01} BY NOW, you know that Cicero's confused
{ACS.097_02} why you are on his terrace with no clue
{ACS.097_03} of who you are or how you may have cruised
{ACS.097_04} through time or what you'd like for him to do.

{ACS.097_05} There's bunnies on the sundial playing tag
{ACS.097_06} with shadows in slow motion -- you now feel
{ACS.097_07} this has to be a dream. How could you wag
{ACS.097_08} your tail like that? Oh what a tasty meal ...

{ACS.097_09} ... the pudding makes when served

out on the deck

{ACS.097_10} of some Aegean sailboat passing by.
{ACS.097_11} A broken-blog technician says, "Oh heck!
{ACS.097_12} What did you do to make our system die?"

{ACS.097_13} I answer, "seven sonnets must get done."
{ACS.097_14} Then ask him, "what's a president?" for fun.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

Imagination

is partly the discipline

to not stop playing.

LET'S LOOK ... {smile}

Some social constructions have lasted as long as human history;


Others collapse if you look at them funny.

BENNETT M. BERGER
AN ESSAY ON CULTURE

(7 sonnets) With Regards To [what purports to be] Candidate JIM STROCK's Summation on the American Candidate message board [where it can't be Googled]

Thanks and Thoughts at Close of "Campaign" [APPARENTLY POSTED BY CANDIDATE] "Jim Strock" 8/16/04 / 1:03 PM Rather than respond separately to the many kind emails and various message board entries, I would like to send a general message. It has been a privilege to take part in American Candidate. My already strong faith in the American people has been bolstered from the experience. The willingness of busy people to put aside a few moments and assist “candidates” taking part in simulated political exercises was amazing—all the more when one considers the low participation rate in actual elections. It has also been a tremendous honor to get to know so many people who have responded, especially via email, to the issues I have raised. This is all the more extraordinary, because those issues often did not see the light of day in the episodes themselves. I hope to remain in touch with many of you and work together in the future. My regret about American Candidate thus far is that it has emphasized the “reality show” entertainment aspects—choosing incidents amid huge amounts of filming to fill out preconceived “characters”. Fundamentally, that sets too great a store on the preconceived notions of the producers, and too little on what actually occurs beyond the boundaries of those preconceptions. While to an extent that can be a frustration to any participant, it is highly problematic for those who represent views that the producers do not share or fully comprehend (one of the things I have witnessed in this process is how ideologues of both sides of today’s political divide not only believe with all their being that their way is the correct way—they assume in absolute good faith that those who do not share their views or frame issues in their chosen manner are ill-informed, ill-intentioned ! or unable to divine their own best interests absent intervention.). There were numerous significant incidents in my “campaign” that in other hands could have constituted a very different — and perhaps more interesting--picture. I regret that the producers did not present them. Based on what I have heard from numerous people, many viewers would rather have seen, for example, much more from the regrettably heavily-edited debates and other public forums, in the place of much of the interpersonal situations which were also heavily edited and provided contexts intended to be entertaining, evocative, provocative, etc. [ED. EMPHASIS ADDED] With hindsight, having the initial exercises so heavily influenced by outside interest groups was a fateful step, even more significant than their liberal locales. Having candidates who appear in some ways different than traditional candidates—but who represent existing interest groups just as real-life office-seekers do—was a massive concession to the status quo. It meant that issues are framed the same as in actual politics, just with different emphasis (PETA, e.g., gets far more attention than its actual numbers would confer) or literally in sync with ongoing campaigns (moveon.org). Yet it is in the reframing of the issues—and the raising of issues that are not being dealt with in today’s politics—that real change will emerge. That truly could be “revolt by remote.” Perhaps it requires the artist’s imagination as well as the filmmaker’s craft. But then, that would have been a different show. American Candidate is a first attempt, a work in progress that, like the candidates ourselves, will hopefully continue to learn and improve as it goes forward. I credit everyone taking part in this enterprise, taking the risks of pioneers breaking new ground. I look forward to! future episodes from the relaxed vantage point of viewer! Looking beyond, I am energized to take what I have experienced and continue my longstanding work to reform the political system, from inside and out, to help create leadership which reflects and thereby better serves the unique and heroic character of the American people at this important time of testing for our generation.

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.084_01} AS GOOGLE'S IPO "dutch auction" ends
{ACS.084_02} (which claimed "the process"

they'd democratize

{ACS.084_03} though some contend that Google

just pretends),

{ACS.084_04} IT'S TIME TO BRING TO LIGHT

a sad surprise ...

{ACS.084_05} ... for all who've posted speech

on Showtime's board:

{ACS.084_06} YOUR WORDS DO NOT EXIST in Google-land.
{ACS.084_07} Search engine bots are banned.

All sweat you've poured

{ACS.084_08} into composing messages is canned:

{ACS.084_09} Sealed off from common discourse.

None will find

{ACS.084_10} the word's you've written there

if they should search

{ACS.084_11} by Google-Yahoo!-MSN combined.
{ACS.084_12} They're private window-dressing.

Can't besmirch ...

{ACS.084_13} ... the Showtime brand if someone ever looks
{ACS.084_14} for phrases you have uttered in its nooks.

{ACS.085_01} That's why I've pulled Jim Strock's words

from that void

{ACS.085_02} of nonexistence into Googled light.
{ACS.085_03} The strategies of silencing deployed
{ACS.085_04} by corporations is worth time to fight ...

{ACS.085_05} ... at least by making clear that they exist.
{ACS.085_06} The problem is democracy sounds good
{ACS.085_07} and shutting people up can make them pissed.
{ACS.085_08} And corporations sure much rather would ...

{ACS.085_09} ... like not to look like they won't let you speak.
{ACS.085_10} But neither do they want your speech to hurt
{ACS.085_11} their brand. One strategy, don't let it leak
{ACS.085_12} out of a sealed container -- let it spurt ...

{ACS.085_13} ... into the global conversation flow.
{ACS.085_14} The best of both worlds if you never know.


{ACS.086_01} PERHAPS IT'S FITTING that a show not watched
{ACS.086_02} has message boards the world will never see.
{ACS.086_03} Yes, reading from all other nation's scotched.
{ACS.086_04} NO ONE in Mexico or Italy ...

{ACS.086_05} ... or China or Japan could read Struck's speech
{ACS.086_06} UNTIL I moved it here. (See that white box).
{ACS.086_07} Both Google-bots and Arabs out of reach
{ACS.086_08} of what Jim said.

The Showtime network blocks ...

{ACS.086_09} ... all public conversation from escape
{ACS.086_10} if it's been spoken in the Showtime mall.
{ACS.086_11} Illusion of free speech, but no red tape:
{ACS.086_12} Just hide whatever's said behind a wall.

{ACS.086_13} I've mixed the blocking problem.

There are two.

{ACS.086_14} The Google-blocks the one

that's worse to chew.

{ACS.087_01} NOW MOVING ON to Strock's insightful lines
{ACS.087_02} (now open to the world because they're here).
{ACS.087_03} In well-wrought rhetoric, Jim Struck defines
{ACS.087_04} the AmCan case (as well as us, I fear).

{ACS.087_05} He summarizes well the errors made
{ACS.087_06} by Cutler -- who maintained the status quo
{ACS.087_07} by following the tracks already laid
{ACS.087_08} in framing up this television show.

{ACS.087_09} Jim Strock is quite effective in his move.
{ACS.087_10} Carves gracious context for his harshest plays:
{ACS.087_11} The failure of imagination groove
{ACS.087_12} is cut within a matrix of high praise.

{ACS.087_13} He's thankful for this opportunity.
{ACS.087_14} But that won't silence him. Not one degree.

{ACS.088_01} I HAVE NO QUIBBLES with what Strock reports.
{ACS.088_02} THERE IS NO BULLSHIT that needs

canc'lling out.

{ACS.088_03} No lazy journalist who oft resorts
{ACS.088_04} to repetition of a PR shout.

{ACS.088_05} Strock knows at firsthand what we do not see
{ACS.088_06} when Amcan's edited to fit the form
{ACS.088_07} of preconception-locked reality.
{ACS.088_08} He's speaking from a point inside the storm.

{ACS.088_09} AND based upon our reading he's correct.
{ACS.088_10} The writers of this blog confirm his facts
{ACS.088_11} and his opinions have our full respect
{ACS.088_12} regarding AmCan. (Not his other tracts.

{ACS.088_13} We think Republicans will burn in hell.
{ACS.088_14} But in this case, Strock has no sulphur smell.)


{ACS.089_01} DID STROCK use our reporting to construct
{ACS.089_02} his own "self-serving" statement? If he did
{ACS.089_03} it's only 'cause we have completely mucked
{ACS.089_04} through all the facts and made an honest bid ...

{ACS.089_05} ... to tell the truest tale of this we can.
{ACS.089_06} What is our motive? "Sour grapes" because
{ACS.089_07} BOKE was not chosen as a better man
{ACS.089_08} than those selected to play for applause?

{ACS.089_09} Believe me I'd have never played along
{ACS.089_10} with this game as designed. I would have yelled
{ACS.089_11} until they did it right. They did it wrong.
{ACS.089_12} The bottom line is that I am compelled ...

{ACS.089_13} ... to go against the grain,

if there's some chance

{ACS.089_14} to cut a better path with truthful rants.


{ACS.090_01} NOW, since the world's tuned out,

what can be won?

{ACS.090_02} What battle can be fought

that's worth the time?

{ACS.090_03} And isn't it too late -- the starting gun
{ACS.090_04} was fired in the wrong place.

What good will rhyme ...

{ACS.090_05} ... or any rhetoric constructed yield?
{ACS.090_06} SOMETIMES IT'S WORTH IT

just to guard the truth.

{ACS.090_07} Iraq's a mess 'cause we let power wield
{ACS.090_08} uncountered bullshit. It's bad if our youth ...

{ACS.090_09} ... see bullshit win the day. They'll learn to let
{ACS.090_10} the feeling of the truth just slip away
{ACS.090_11} if everyone's too scared to place a bet
{ACS.090_12} that honesty just won't get in the way.

{ACS.090_13} That no one can stand up to all the crap
{ACS.090_14} when "everyone" is hanging by its strap.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

I'm grateful that Jim

summarized our argument

so we don't have to. {smile}

MEANWHILE IN ATHENS, PART II ...

THE ORATOR who reproved the demos

claimed for himself the remarkable privilege

of setting his individual opinion and vision

of the state in opposition to the ideas and

current habits of the masses.

Any one Athenian who deliberately

set himself apart from and in opposition

to the demos was taking a great risk.

But castigating the people and

opposing their will were central

and expected parts of the

political orators function.

JOSIAH OBER
MASS AND ELITE IN DEMOCRATIC ATHENS
Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People

(10 staggeringly pedestrian sonnets) On the Occasion of AMERICAN CANDIDATE -- episode 3

RHETORICAL VERSE /
TEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ACS.074_01} WHICH ONE'S "MOST PRESIDENTIAL"

has been asked

{ACS.074_02} in polls that do not carry any weight
{ACS.074_03} in how the game plays out. Results are masked
{ACS.074_04} except the one who wins. Keith Boykin's rate ...

{ACS.074_05} ... of victory is 2 for 2. Keith's won
{ACS.074_06} near half the audience when they watch all
{ACS.074_07} the candidates and judge who's best to run.
{ACS.074_08} How do the others rate? They cast a pall ...

{ACS.074_09} ... on how the others rate along this scale.
{ACS.074_10} Remember that this number does not count
{ACS.074_11} in calculating who shall win or fail.
{ACS.074_12} A number that would seem the paramount ...

{ACS.074_13} ... determinant of who will win the game.
{ACS.074_14} Real measures will not alter Cutler's frame.

{ACS.075_01} WHAT DOES "MOST PRESIDENTIAL" MEAN?

Let's hold

{ACS.075_02} that thought for later.

NOW, CONSIDER VOTES.

{ACS.075_03} When counted, just what story

has been told?

{ACS.075_04} Most surely not about folks with remotes ...

{ACS.075_05} ... who watch and judge then signal

what they think

{ACS.075_06} about the people they see on the screen.
{ACS.075_07} VOTE TOTALS do not rise nor do they sink
{ACS.075_08} by what we're witnessing. But what's unseen.

{ACS.075_09} Like, how Bruce Friedrich ended up on top.
{ACS.075_10} (He was the joke-butt on the radio
{ACS.075_11} for right-wing talk folks. Nor did many stop
{ACS.075_12} to google-eye his manager's breast glow.)

{ACS.075_13} The votes that matter come from "outer space."
{ACS.075_14} Outside the framing of this simu-race.


{ACS.076_01} NO QUESTIONS WILL BE RAISED

about the choice

{ACS.076_02} of process or the meaning of results.
{ACS.076_03} No clear analysis of how that Joyce
{ACS.076_04} speaks without notes and clearly catapults ...

{ACS.076_05} ... her message and her heart into the crowd --
{ACS.076_06} and yet it's blank-eyed Keith's cold legal style
{ACS.076_07} (when he's not reading rhymes)

that has them wowed.

{ACS.076_08} Are all the others beaten by a mile ...

{ACS.076_09} ... on that "most presidential" scale?

And why?

{ACS.076_10} Why don't they tell us what the others score?
{ACS.076_11} Might telling those make "who wins" seem a lie?
{ACS.076_12} Reveal the votes as just constructed lore.

{ACS.076_13} A measure that tells nothing that we need
{ACS.076_14} to understand a presidential lead.


{ACS.077_01} WHO IS "MOST PRESIDENTIAL" ... of this bunch
{ACS.077_02} of castaways -- transported from the real
{ACS.077_03} into reality? When numbers crunch
{ACS.077_04} from stem to stern what will this cast reveal?

{ACS.077_05} Is Gilligan or Skipper, Maryanne
{ACS.077_06} or Ginger, more the one we think is right
{ACS.077_07} to lead the free world? From peas in this can
{ACS.077_08} which one would we elect to fly a kite ...

{ACS.077_09} ... to get us off the island where we're stuck?
{ACS.077_10} That's not what presidential is, you say?
{ACS.077_11} Fine, change the channel, F/X, "Nip" or "Tuck"?
{ACS.077_12} Which plastic surgeon

would you choose to play ...

{ACS.077_13} ... our president. The husband, or the cad
{ACS.077_14} (who turns out is the husband's son's real dad)?

{ACS.078_01} "MOST PRESIDENTIAL" ...

Kerry or George Bush?

{ACS.078_02} Among the Democrats, the press said John.
{ACS.078_03} One scream from Dean and they all gave a push
{ACS.078_04} to knock him off the boat. His pokemon ...

{ACS.078_05} ... deck missing all the magic that he'd need.
{ACS.078_06} Lost all his "presidential" with one yell.
{ACS.078_07} Or so the story goes, the one we heed.
{ACS.078_08} The story of the real that's gone to hell.

{ACS.078_09} AND in one unseen corner AmCan scrolls
{ACS.078_10} its way toward "presidential," Cutler's way.
{ACS.078_11} DID JOYCE'S "Chinese story" summon trolls
{ACS.078_12} to carry her beneath the bridge to pay ...

{ACS.078_13} ... for one misjudgement of the public mind?
{ACS.078_14} Is Bush immune to problems of that kind?


{ACS.079_01} HAS BOYKIN's Harvard Law degree constrained
{ACS.079_02} his mind within a box that keeps him safe
{ACS.079_03} from yelling something wrong?

And has it drained

{ACS.079_04} the possibility of words that chafe ...

{ACS.079_05} ... when he's not reading

from his pre-fab script?

{ACS.079_06} A rhyme or two does not mean something new.
{ACS.079_07} A White House passage may just mean

he's stripped

{ACS.079_08} his personality to "I'm like you."

{ACS.079_09} I'm like the white elite, just gay and black.
{ACS.079_10} I will not rock the boat, but I'll help you
{ACS.079_11} look open-minded. I will watch your back
{ACS.079_12} if we are on the same team. I'm good crew.

{ACS.079_13} My Harvard Law degree means there's no slips.
{ACS.079_14} No fresh ideas will ever pass my lips.


{ACS.080_01} MS. WITTER will be sure to not offend.
{ACS.080_02} Her expertise is parroting what flies
{ACS.080_03} and maybe just a little at the end
{ACS.080_04} inject progressive touches in disguise.

{ACS.080_05} Her research will make sure she mentions facts
{ACS.080_06} (like that Camaro), that will make a bond
{ACS.080_07} in record time, to help her "goals" relax.
{ACS.080_08} She acts as necessary, you'll be fond ...

{ACS.080_09} ... of her unless you somehow strike her wrong.
{ACS.080_10} Then she will gladly peck you in the eye.
{ACS.080_11} Bob Vanech's now that Woody in her song
{ACS.080_12} "that will not go away." Poor Bob, goodbye.

{ACS.080_13} Yes, that's from last week,

but the show replayed

{ACS.080_14} that scene again. Poor Bob was re-filleted.


{ACS.081_01} MALIA seems to think that Dr. King
{ACS.081_02} would praise her choice of clothes,

her choice to wear

{ACS.081_03} what suits her style, including, what's that thing,
{ACS.081_04} she's flaunting in her tongue, and her loose hair.

{ACS.081_05} Malia, don't you know the marchers wore
{ACS.081_06} their Sunday best as they took to the street?
{ACS.081_07} Not facing smiling boys, but dogs that tore
{ACS.081_08} their flesh, and water streams

that tried to beat ...

{ACS.081_09} ... their dignity and strength and dreams away.
{ACS.081_10} I like your joy and style, but president
{ACS.081_11} is "Sunday best" I think ... at least, today.
{ACS.081_12} And now is when you're running.

Be Clark Kent ...

{ACS.081_13} ... and cover up that hip-girl choice for this.
{ACS.081_14} You want to win their vote, not rate a kiss.

{ACS.082_01} WAS JIM STROCK "PRESIDENTIAL"?

Somewhat so.

{ACS.082_02} He's Kerry-esque. He's tall. And dull.

But smooth.

{ACS.082_03} A bit too self-effacing. You must know
{ACS.082_04} to not admit your ignorance, but soothe ...

{ACS.082_05} ... the voters into trusting you know all.
{ACS.082_06} Yes, everything. An answer, not too long.
{ACS.082_07} They need to feel that you are ten feet tall
{ACS.082_08} and know enough to fix all that goes wrong.

{ACS.082_09} Bob Vanech needs to learn some things

from you.

{ACS.082_10} And vice versa. You need force of will.
{ACS.082_11} But let me praise that you know what to do
{ACS.082_12} when called to speak. You have some of

that skill ...

{ACS.082_13} ... the "readers" on the cast so sadly lack.
{ACS.082_14} When speakers speak, they flow.

They don't unpack.

{ACS.083_01} I'm rambling 'bout "the characters" because
{ACS.083_02} that's mostly all there is to be discussed.
{ACS.083_03} Who wins the money won't get much applause.
{ACS.083_04} The game was mis-designed. A total bust ...

{ACS.083_05} ... in terms of what was promised.

(And still claimed.)

{ACS.083_06} BUT "WHAT IS PRESIDENTIAL" still remains
{ACS.083_07} a hard, hard problem. Anyone who framed
{ACS.083_08} that house in some commercial space --

took pains ...

{ACS.083_09} ... to do it right -- would still most likely fail.
{ACS.083_10} Democracy and media, old-school
{ACS.083_11} don't really mix. Though platitudes we wail
{ACS.083_12} especially when they want ev'ry fool ...

{ACS.083_13} ... to buy the same ol' soap suds

when they vote.

{ACS.083_14} My role is pop the bubbles. Build a boat.

# # #

HAIKU CODA

Sometimes you're surprised

when you watch something closely.

And sometimes you're not.

I didn't see Calvin Trillin riding on an elephant {wink} ... HOWEVER

Rhetoric may, today, be

just the medicine that's needed

by an unhealthy polity ...

MARK LAWRENCE McPHAIL
ZEN IN THE ART OF RHETORIC
An Inquiry Into Coherence

(7 sonnets) MEANWHILE IN ATHENS ... {smile}

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.067_01} BY DISCIPLINE AND CHANCE

did Michael Phelps

{ACS.067_02} become the fastest swimmer on the earth.
{ACS.067_03} Three sisters swam before. That surely helps.
{ACS.067_04} His body-part lengths. Double joints by birth.

{ACS.067_05} A keen-eyed coach spied early he had skill
{ACS.067_06} beyond the normal range, and joined his heart
{ACS.067_07} to Phelps' endeavor. All their hours fill
{ACS.067_08} with strategy and practice toward the art ...

{ACS.067_09} ... of moving through the water faster than
{ACS.067_10} all others who have chosen this path's way
{ACS.067_11} to contest one pure competence. Each man
{ACS.067_12} before the world, their talent to display.

{ACS.067_13} The diff'rence in the winning times is small.
{ACS.067_14} Four seconds slower, you won't place at all.

{ACS.068_01} THERE'S NO ONE LOOKING FOR

a child who speaks

{ACS.068_02} beyond the normal power for their age.
{ACS.068_03} No trav'ling coaches offering critiques
{ACS.068_04} and visions of a future's golden wage ..

{ACS.068_05} ... advising child and parent if they choose
{ACS.068_06} a life of preparation, they could win
{ACS.068_07} world adulation both in cash and news.
{ACS.068_08} Perfection is required, but it's a sin ...

{ACS.068_09} ... to let a talent of that level waste.
{ACS.068_10} PERHAPS there's fifty million dollars for
{ACS.068_11} Phelps' polished skill -- a pleasant aftertaste
{ACS.068_12} beyond the glory, 'cause he choose this door.

{ACS.068_13} You cannot open doors you cannot see.
{ACS.068_14} You cannot open locks that have no key.


{ACS.069_01} IMAGINE IF some document'ry guy
{ACS.069_02} decided to film high school life, but said
{ACS.069_03} "I do not want to simply verify
{ACS.069_04} the way things are, but add new things instead.

{ACS.069_05} I WANT TO ADD a forum that could shift
{ACS.069_06} the game of high school, and by that the lives
{ACS.069_07} of future generations." Catch my drift?
{ACS.069_08} CREATE NEW SOCIAL STRUCTURE

that revives ...

{ACS.069_09} ... the honor and the power of each voice.
{ACS.069_10} Gymnasium allowing strength to shine.
{ACS.069_11} Designed to let the students make a choice
{ACS.069_12} that matters. And "the bullshit" undermine ...

{ACS.069_13} ... infecting youthful holding pens so long.
{ACS.069_14} A way to "un-ding" freedom.

Bring the "dong." {smile}

{ACS.070_01} THE AmCan SHAM'S A SHAM

because there's not

{ACS.070_02} a framework in the world where it could be
{ACS.070_03} a fitting culmination of a lot
{ACS.070_04} already gone before. Now, don't you see?

{ACS.070_05} They had to start from scratch and try to find
{ACS.070_06} "olympic medalists" when no one's trained
{ACS.070_07} to take the field. No wonder they were blind
{ACS.070_08} men on a search for elephants who feigned ...

{ACS.070_09} ... they knew what they were grabbing for.

WATCH OUT!

{ACS.070_10} You should not grab an elephant right there!
{ACS.070_11} No, Cutler, that is not a rigid snout.
{ACS.070_12} I hope you brought shampoo

to wash your hair. {grin}

{ACS.070_13} (Hey, this is Showtime -- we need some profane
{ACS.070_14} excitement. Or our interest might wain.)

{ACS.071_01} FROM PHELPS in the Olympics to high school
{ACS.071_02} past jungles filled with elephants we drive
{ACS.071_03} through this night's verse-safari's

swimming pool

{ACS.071_04} of pieces of the puzzle take a dive ...

{ACS.071_05} ... and do not bang your head.

Try the deep end.

{ACS.071_06} The theories that you need to hold your breath
{ACS.071_07} as long as Phelps' 400, and to bend
{ACS.071_08} your common reference points

to point of death ...

{ACS.071_09} ... allowing Resurrection. Jesus Christ
{ACS.071_10} could tell you that's the order that's required.
{ACS.071_11} The safety of the known so highly priced
{ACS.071_12} demanding that you always be attired ...

{ACS.071_13} ... in same ol' same ol' --

strip that off and swim

{ACS.071_14} where freedom dangles a new paradigm.


{ACS.072_01} NOW NAKED, WE ARRIVE upon a scene
{ACS.072_02} IN ANCIENT GREECE as we begin to run
{ACS.072_03} a marathon. Our muscles firm. Our lean
{ACS.072_04} hard bodies. And hand-painted on each bun ...

{ACS.072_05} ... a Showtime advertisement reads "So Gay!"
{ACS.072_06} The present population's quite confused
{ACS.072_07} by this anachronism on this day
{ACS.072_08} in seven seven six B.C. Amused? ...

{ACS.072_09} I hope so. We've been running low on fun
{ACS.072_10} and naked provocation. Don't you think?
{ACS.072_11} So as our weenies dangle on our run,
{ACS.072_12} enjoy this momentary ancient kink ...

{ACS.072_13} ... to lighten up the wait until tonight
{ACS.072_14} when AmCan number 3 will come to light.


{ACS.073_01} NO, CALVIN TRILLIN cannot write like this.
{ACS.073_02} His pen-is much too old to pull this off. {smile}
{ACS.073_03} He cannot write nude sonnets. Cannot kiss
{ACS.073_04} beyond six couplets.

Touch your toes and cough ...

{ACS.073_05} ... and be inducted to our martial corps.
{ACS.073_06} Gymnasium of rhetoric's our place
{ACS.073_07} to exercise -- create our own damn door
{ACS.073_08} the world has not provided. The disgrace ...

{ACS.073_09} ... our nation (and poor AmCan) has secured
{ACS.073_10} may yet be overwritten by our work.
{ACS.073_11} The glory that's in Athens may have lured
{ACS.073_12} some water skimmers. Elsewhere, others lurk ...

{ACS.073_13} ... in disciplined seclusion to transform
{ACS.073_14} cold bullshit of the world to pure and warm.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

A swimmer can't swim

without water to swim in.

The same goes for speech.

Well, duh! (Yawn)

Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!

REFERENCE MISLAID {smile}

(4 sonnets) ON THE RADIO / Good Lord, Montel, Don't Outright Lie

8/13/04 NPR's TONY COX interviews Montel Williams and AmCan candidates Malia Lazu and Keith Boykin

American Candidate VIEWERS REALITY AUGUST 1 (PREMIERE) - 128,000 AUGUST 8 (episode #2) -  42,000 MONTEL SAYS (8/13/04 NPR): "On Showtime though the viewership is about 1 to 2 million people each episode" BULLSHIT shifting into LIE (Implies "American Candidate" is in this range. I'll cut him some slack and assume he meant to say "per hour" rather than "each episode." Otherwise the whole sentence would be a LIE. ) "and the viewers for this show seems to be going up each episode." LIE (No, Montel, the word "seems" doesn't shift it to BULLSHIT)

RHETORICAL VERSE /
FOUR (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.063_01} ON FRIDAY 13, Montel Williams said
{ACS.063_02} on NPR that AmCan's ratings grew
{ACS.063_03}[from premiere to the second show]. His head
{ACS.063_04} should get a new "I LIE, BIG TIME" tattoo.

{ACS.063_05} More watched? No, two-thirds quit.

That's not a bluff.

{ACS.063_06} There's BULLSHIT, then there's stupid

bald-faced LIES.

{ACS.063_07} It's one thing to transmit selective puff
{ACS.063_08} of one fact or another to disguise ...

{ACS.063_09} ... some half-truths as the truth.

But there you were

{ACS.063_10} just flat out lying through the telephone.
{ACS.063_11} As if it doesn't matter. Sorry cur!
{ACS.063_12} The nation's had enough. Who could condone ...

{ACS.063_13} ... your lying to promote this Showtime dog.
{ACS.063_14} The nation does not need more verbal smog.

{ACS.064_01} MALIA SAYS that our "young people care
{ACS.064_02} 'bout politics," it's just "they don't believe
{ACS.064_03} [much] in our current system." TELL ME, FAIR
{ACS.064_04} MALIA, what the hell would it achieve ...

{ACS.064_05} ... if everyone participates in that?
{ACS.064_06} Legitimate the system. Prove its fine.
{ACS.064_07} Let all the fat cats keep on getting fat
{ACS.064_08} as a new generation sits to dine ...

{ACS.064_09} ... on their left-overs. Nothing needs to change.
{ACS.064_10} If young folks don't believe,

then let that show.

{ACS.064_11} Deny that voting matters. Prearrange
{ACS.064_12} non-polling places. Then say you will go ...

{ACS.064_13} ... speak out against the bullshit: Do not vote.
{ACS.064_14} REFUSAL is a better antidote.


{ACS.065_01} KEITH BOYKIN SAYS

"you don't see many blacks

{ACS.065_02} [campaign] to be the president." Implies
{ACS.065_03} that's why his play-toy run is good. Two smacks
{ACS.065_04} upside his silly head. His tones surmise ...

{ACS.065_05} ... Al Sharpton doesn't count. Or Moseley Braun.
{ACS.065_06} So, it's important forty thousand watch
{ACS.065_07} Keith Boykin have a chance

to make them yawn?

{ACS.065_08} His vacant stare will lift the bar a notch ...

{ACS.065_09} ... for candidates of color. (Praise the Lord
{ACS.065_10} and pass the AmCan bullshit, we can't wait
{ACS.065_11} to see this Clinton crony's ox well gored.)
{ACS.065_12} His tide will raise all blacks: this candidate.

{ACS.065_13} I needed one more sonnet, sorry, Keith.
{ACS.065_14} It's Montel's lie that garnered you these teeth.


{ACS.066_01} THE LIGHTNING'S CRASHING and

the thunder rolls.

{ACS.066_02} The Lord's unhappy with this sloppy rant.
{ACS.066_03} "Yes, Montel lied. Malia's voter goals
{ACS.066_04} perpetuate the system. But, BOKE, can't ...

{ACS.066_05} ... you write some better words

than these, tonight?"

{ACS.066_06} I'm tired, Lord, all the bullshit's worn me down.
{ACS.066_07} No matter where I turn, there's more to fight.
{ACS.066_08} I need more energy to even frown ...

{ACS.066_09} ... at some effective level of contempt.
{ACS.066_10} I'm writing with my eyes shut as the rain
{ACS.066_11} is washing down the world, its rhythms tempt
{ACS.066_12} me to put down my pen, shut down my brain.

{ACS.066_13} The Lord says, "BOKE, OK, tonight you rest.
{ACS.066_14} But don't forget you speak at my behest."
{smile}

# # #


HAIKU CODA

I hope there's no more

outright lying by Montel

to waste my time on.

If they knew what we were thinking ...

Bruce Blevin noted in 1924 that most political orators,

if aware of "the ribald comments addressed to the

stoical loud-speaker" of the home receiver,

would seek other jobs. "The comments of

the family range from Bill's, 'Is that so?'

down to Howard's irreverent 'Aw, shut your face

you poor hunk of cheese.' "

---

HERBERT HOOVER: "We need a method

by which a speaker over the radio may

sense the feelings of his audience.

A speaker before a public audience

knows what hisses and applause mean;

he cuts his speech short or adjusts himself to it."

SOURCE: JOHN DURHAM PETERS
SPEAKING INTO THE AIR
A History Of The Idea Of Communication

(7 sonnets) REVOLT-BY-REMOTE ... for Real

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ACS.056_01} WE PICTURE THEM as they watched radio --
{ACS.056_02} the rev'rent list'ners 'fore mid-century.
{ACS.056_03} The president in fireside studio
{ACS.056_04} who's chatting with each humble family.

{ACS.056_05} BUT WHAT WE DO NOT SEE IS in some lair
{ACS.056_06} of apple-pie refusers someone's yell:
{ACS.056_07} "That's BULLSHIT, Franklin!

Take this rotten pear

{ACS.056_08} and ram it up your ass, and go to hell."

{ACS.056_09} You know it's true. There's always folks like that.
{ACS.056_10} How many? We don't know.

Sometimes it's most.

{ACS.056_11} A BROADCAST'S BLIND to smiles

and anger spat.

{ACS.056_12} The speaker can't tell if we're pleased

or grossed.

{ACS.056_13} But once they'd trained an audience on cue,
{ACS.056_14} the audience at home learned what to do.

{ACS.057_01} A LITTLE BOY SEES lots of people lined
{ACS.057_02} up for a film and begs his mom to go.
{ACS.057_03} Though Bridget Jones' Di'ry's not designed
{ACS.057_04} to please a boy. The boy does surely know ...

{ACS.057_05} ... that all those people cannot be far wrong.
{ACS.057_06} That many people in the same line means
{ACS.057_07} he ought to join that line. The pull's so strong
{ACS.057_08} his mother takes him, though

"she don't know beans" ...

{ACS.057_09} ... about it -- 'cause, well,

"look at all those folks."

{ACS.057_10} I DIDN'T YELL, "Hey you, that film's no joy.
{ACS.057_11} Will you please tell this kid, before he smokes
{ACS.057_12} his time in there, that you've

just read some ploy ...

{ACS.057_13} ... by Briget Jones' publicist who fooled
{ACS.057_14} you to go stand in line -- by bullshit ruled."


{ACS.058_01} OF COURSE, I would not yell that.

They'd yell back

{ACS.058_02} and maybe someone bigger might come punch
{ACS.058_03} me in the nose for social grace I lack.
{ACS.058_04} So, even though I'm right, I had a hunch ...

{ACS.058_05} ... that silence will not cause too great a loss
{ACS.058_06} of anything in this case, so I walk
{ACS.058_07} away from that occasion while I toss
{ACS.058_08} those words into the void, instead of talk.

{ACS.058_09} THE SOCIAL PRESSURE outweighs truth

that day.

{ACS.058_10} But if those folks had been in line to die
{ACS.058_11} (and didn't know it) then I think my say
{ACS.058_12} would have been said,

'cause I'm that kind of guy.

{ACS.058_13} Two sonnets on that story was too much.
{ACS.058_14} THE SOCIAL LOGIC barely did we touch.


{ACS.059_01} THE SOCIAL POWER OF THE TV's next
{ACS.059_02} in this night's line of flight through lines of verse
{ACS.059_03} connecting fragments and insightful text
{ACS.059_04} into a pattern that may patch what's worse ...

{ACS.059_05} ... into what's better in some vital sense.
{ACS.059_06} THE FIFTY YEARS OF TELEVISION's changed
{ACS.059_07} the way that our society consents
{ACS.059_08} to how the deck chairs are now rearranged ...

{ACS.059_09} ... on U.S.S. Titanic's public mind.
{ACS.059_10} The education that should stop the leak
{ACS.059_11} is out of date, created for the kind
{ACS.059_12} of print-based analyticals too weak ...

{ACS.059_13} ...to plug the bullshit that now weighs us down.
{ACS.059_14} MORE RHETORIC's required, or we will drown.

{ACS.060_01} WHEN ORATOR'S TRIED RADIO they knew
{ACS.060_02} the audience was missing. No sweet face
{ACS.060_03} or puzzled eyes or scowling. No signs you
{ACS.060_04} were winning their approval or disgrace.

{ACS.060_05} BACK THEN that bothered them,

BUT THEN they learned

{ACS.060_06} to just pretend all hearers all agreed
{ACS.060_07} you were a genius. Famous folks aren't spurned
{ACS.060_08} by "ordinary" people that they lead ...

{ACS.060_09} ...for anything they say. They're always right.
{ACS.060_10} Now perfect, they no longer need to hear
{ACS.060_11} how people are responding out of sight
{ACS.060_12} and out of mind. They never need to fear ...

{ACS.060_13} ... a hiss or boo or "BULLSHIT!" They are god
{ACS.060_14} of perfect speech. The people'd surely nod.


{ACS.061_01} "REVOLT BY [the] REMOTE," the slogan says.
{ACS.061_02} A puff of marketing I wish was true.
{ACS.061_03} If my remote had ways to let the Prez
{ACS.061_04} know what I thought of him,

I might sit through ...

{ACS.061_05} ... a speech of his dumb bullshit, just to vote
{ACS.061_06} at ev'ry moment of his bag of crap.
{ACS.061_07} And not just him, but all folks who devote
{ACS.061_08} their time to hear as they hold in their lap ...

{ACS.061_09} ... the power to give feedback line by line
{ACS.061_10} who'll vote while seeing how the nation leans.
{ACS.061_11} How many "folks like them." How many "swine."
{ACS.061_12} A public measure of what power beams ...

{ACS.061_13} ... into your house. At last we'll have a score
{ACS.061_14} of what they're saying. "Shut up" or "Say more."


{ACS.062_01} WE WON'T BE LOOKING for one average/sum
{ACS.062_02} of all our cheers and jeers, but sev'ral counts --
{ACS.062_03} these floating sets of slide-graphs will become
{ACS.062_04} the common ground

that every speaker mounts ...

{ACS.062_05} ... that everybody sees. It's hard to spin
{ACS.062_06} the bullshit afterwards if all have seen
{ACS.062_07} the picture of opinion -- lose or win
{ACS.062_08} in colors red to yellow, blue to green.

{ACS.062_09} A THUMBSLIDE on the clicker in your hand
{ACS.062_10} spring-loaded to the center to return
{ACS.062_11} to "no opinion" if the words are bland.
{ACS.062_12} Slide up for "I agree." Down: "You should burn."

{ACS.062_13} Yes, Cutler's bullshit slogan paves the road
{ACS.062_14} for BOKE's transcendent future episode.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

The slogan is right ...

But the show's not about that.

That's my slogan, boys. {smile}

IN ART ...

In art we make another world,

freeing the social regime we are in

from some of its dumb facticity

and sober authority.

ROBERTO MANGABEIRA UNGER
DEMOCRACY REALIZED

(7 sonnets) American Candidate - The [semi-cliched] Science Fiction Version (of REDEMPTION?)

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN(software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.049_01} LET'S MAKE SOME SCIENCE FICTION.

Let's pretend

{ACS.049_02} huge flying saucers suddenly appear
{ACS.049_03} around the world and through our TVs send
{ACS.049_04} a message that will fill each heart with fear.

{ACS.049_05} "YOUR PLANET SEEMS QUITE STUPID.

PROVE IT'S NOT

{ACS.049_06} OR WE ARE GOING TO TURN OUR LASERS ON
{ACS.049_07} AND RAISE EARTH'S TEMPERATURE

TO VERY HOT.

{ACS.049_08} TEN WEEKS FROM NOW,

L.A. MAY FRY AT DAWN.

{ACS.049_09} WE'LL TAKE A VOTE IF YOU'LL ALL

LIVE OR DIE

{ACS.049_10} DEPENDING ON WHAT SOMEONE YOU SELECT
{ACS.049_11} WILL SAY IN YOUR DEFENSE.

THEY MUST NOT LIE.

{ACS.049_12} WHO YOU THINK HAS THE SKILL

TO BEST DEFLECT ...

{ACS.049_13} ... OUR LASERS WITH THEIR WORDS

AND SAVE YOUR SKINS.

{ACS.049_14} OR WE WILL EAT THEM.

WE LOVE CRISPY THINS."

{ACS.050_01} I doubt that we would want to trust our fate
{ACS.050_02} to Bush or Kerry's skill to make our case.
{ACS.050_03} Ten weeks from now. The Live-Or-Fry DEBATE
{ACS.050_04} determining if Earth they will erase.

{ACS.050_05} NO, not those two.

WHO would we choose instead?

{ACS.050_06} HOW would we pick the one to save us all?
{ACS.050_07} A CONTEST to compare them head to head?
{ACS.050_08} Which person with word skill most on the ball?

{ACS.050_09} HEY, WAIT A MINUTE, Cutler's got a show
{ACS.050_10} on Showtime that he claims will choose someone
{ACS.050_11} with voting at the end to let them know
{ACS.050_12} the people's choice --

all others they've outdone.

{ACS.050_13} Will Cutler's game produce someone you'd trust
{ACS.050_14} to save us from becoming pizza crust?


{ACS.051_01} Now, trust me, I can tell you they won't do.
{ACS.051_02} None of the AmCan 10 was chosen for
{ACS.051_03} their skill in RHETORIC. None of that crew
{ACS.051_04} was tested on that scale to pass the door ...

{ACS.051_05} ... into the AmCan game that's playing out
{ACS.051_06} before a nation that could not care less.
{ACS.051_07} 'Fore Cutler's PR cronies start to shout,
{ACS.051_08} "How do you know?"

I'll swear that it's no guess.

{ACS.051_09} They picked Bob Vanech -- that is proof enough.
{ACS.051_10} And Chrissy Gephardt who looked like a deer
{ACS.051_11} caught in the headlights of Parks pro-life stuff.
{ACS.051_12} And none of them, REAL ORATORS, my dear.

{ACS.051_13} Whoever wins the AmCan game won't be
{ACS.051_14} someone to save the earth. Someone like me.


{ACS.052_01} NOW, WHETHER I would save it, I don't know.
{ACS.052_02} I'd have to think about it for awhile.
{ACS.052_03} I always tell the truth. I'd never snow
{ACS.052_04} the aliens with bullshit and a smile.

{ACS.052_05} Perhaps there is no case that can be made
{ACS.052_06} to justify the saving of the earth
{ACS.052_07} from this apocalyptic laser raid
{ACS.052_08} by aliens with fried-skin added girth.

{ACS.052_09} BUT IF there's such a case, I'd make it best.
{ACS.052_10} I'll brag a line or two, but then we'll move
{ACS.052_11} on to how to select -- construct a test
{ACS.052_12} of competence. A game you'd trust to prove ...

{ACS.052_13} ... who best could make the case

to save your life

{ACS.052_14} on principles as sharp as Occam's knife.

{ACS.053_01} IMAGINE MEETUPS in each far-flung town.
{ACS.053_02} A hundred people gathered to decide
{ACS.053_03} which of those hundred everyone would crown
{ACS.053_04} by voting to select to take the side ...

{ACS.053_05} ... of earth against destruction. Who best told
{ACS.053_06} the story of why earth should not be burned.
{ACS.053_07} They're guaranteed to vote for skill, not old-
{ACS.053_08} school ties or friends or family. Some spurned ...

{ACS.053_09} ... before that local contest, might prevail
{ACS.053_10} if it was clear no one was better at
{ACS.053_11} constructing arguments that all would hail
{ACS.053_12} as "better." Life at stake --

they might well pat ...

{ACS.053_13} ... a homeless woman on the back and say:
{ACS.053_14} "Dear gal, you stink,

but you might save the day."

{ACS.054_01} A HUNDRED CITY WINNERS do the same
{ACS.054_02} as many levels as it takes to find
{ACS.054_03} those judged "the best" to play the final game
{ACS.054_04} on TV where the most skilled will have climbed ...

{ACS.054_05} ... into the ring to let "the people" choose
{ACS.054_06} who they believe is best to win it all
{ACS.054_07} "The one" who'll speak for them and will not lose
{ACS.054_08} and let the earth be fried to crispy ball.

{ACS.054_09} There'd be no guarantee that they could win
{ACS.054_10} the alien's agreement, but no one
{ACS.054_11} would worry that some arbitrary men
{ACS.054_12} like Bush or Kerry --

'cause they were some son ...

{ACS.054_13} ... of priv'lege -- held their fate without belief
{ACS.054_14} they were the best to save us all from grief.


{ACS.055_01} WOULD BOKE be THE LAST ORATOR in this
{ACS.055_02} selection of the best by truest vote --
{ACS.055_03} untainted by corruption, luck, or kiss
{ACS.055_04} of any arbitrary asymptote ...

{ACS.055_05} ... of social paths occluding in the past?
{ACS.055_06} That much, he would not brag, but I assure
{ACS.055_07} you he would in all cases beat the cast
{ACS.055_08} of AmCan -- whose selection was not pure.

{ACS.055_09} And Bush and Kerry? Definitely so.
{ACS.055_10} I'm sure ten thousand could -- if they had been
{ACS.055_11} positioned to contest them throw by throw
{ACS.055_12} and hope by hope in words. The awful sin ...

{ACS.055_13} ... of Cutler is he promised us the chance
{ACS.055_14} to bypass all the crap. See who can dance.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

But just what Martians

would think is persuasive

is up for debate. {serious smile}

Hmmm... What could one possibly say to that? {smile}

The American media

couldn't possibly see it this way

without jeopardizing the confidence game

which it administers.

---

The authority to manage this shared understanding

is what politics is about at its basic level.

CURTIS WHITE
THE MIDDLE MIND:
Why Americans Don't Think for Themselves

(7 sonnets) A Transient Failure of Optimism

[INTERMISSION OF THE REAL]

A/K/A a simulated enema -- sometimes you just have to get this crap out {smile}

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.042_01} "ELECTIONS ARE NO TIME TO EDUCATE"
{ACS.042_02} (said someone, though I can't remember who).
{ACS.042_03} The only issue candidates debate
{ACS.042_04} is which is closer to "the average true."

{ACS.042_05} TO EDUCATE would mean

that minds would change,

{ACS.042_06} but voters are not sitting in your class.
{ACS.042_07} A teacher can say things

which first sound strange,

{ACS.042_08} then make you understand -- or whip you ass.

{ACS.042_09} But voters wield the paddle in this case.
{ACS.042_10} If you say something they don't understand,
{ACS.042_11} or something they don't like -- Out of the race
{ACS.042_12} your sorry ass will go. Strike up the band ...

{ACS.042_13} ... and play a tune they know

the dance steps for.

{ACS.042_14} Can't teach a new one. (Ouch, my ass is sore.)

{ACS.043_01} GOOD TEACHERS sometimes raise

the question "why?"

{ACS.043_02} Why this or that is done a certain way?
{ACS.043_03} But expert politicians never try
{ACS.043_04} to cause someone to question a cliche.

{ACS.043_05} To educate a grownup means OFFEND
{ACS.043_06} the habits of their mind, and there's no time
{ACS.043_07} for explanations long enough to mend
{ACS.043_08} the damage. Turn their anger to sublime ...

{ACS.043_09} ... enlightenment. Convert their view to yours.
{ACS.043_10} Too bad there's not a two-by-four that long.
{ACS.043_11} A good clang on the noggin sometimes cures
{ACS.043_12} a lot of foolishness. (I love that "BONG!")

{ACS.043_13} Yeah, ring the nation's noggins with a stick.
{ACS.043_14} The only way to change their minds right quick.


{ACS.044_01} Perhaps you see why we are bored to death
{ACS.044_02} by politicians who have little choice
{ACS.044_03} (they think) then use their money, ev'ry breath
{ACS.044_04} to transmit platitudes. They cannot voice ...

{ACS.044_05} ... what many folks would want

to hear them say.

{ACS.044_06} The danger if they don't quite say it right
{ACS.044_07} and someone is offended, that today
{ACS.044_08} would vote for you,

but then you picked a fight ...

{ACS.044_09} ... with something they believe,

but you can't bap

{ACS.044_10} them on the head and teach them to believe
{ACS.044_11} that you are right instead of all that crap
{ACS.044_12} that Satan transmits daily to deceive.

{ACS.044_13} God says that two-by-four joke's run its course.
{ACS.044_14} It's better words, not wood,

that must have force.

{ACS.045_01} "But, God," I say, "the nation's too far gone
{ACS.045_02} for any words to resurrect its soul
{ACS.045_03} If half the nation, even now, is drawn
{ACS.045_04} to vote for Bush, how could it be the goal ...

{ACS.045_05} ... of anyone to want to lead this pile
{ACS.045_06} of bullshiteaters who want more to eat?
{ACS.045_07} To not offend them would take far more guile
{ACS.045_08} than anyone with honor would repeat.

{ACS.045_09} Repeating bullshit is the devil's work
{ACS.045_10} He's making sure the baseline is so low
{ACS.045_11} no one could lift us from it. Clean and jerk
{ACS.045_12} us back up to the benchmark that we know ...

{ACS.045_13} ... the USA should set for all the world.
{ACS.045_14} Can that much weight in bullshit still be curled."


{ACS.046_01} THE BOUND'RIES of "the real" are Kerry's box
{ACS.046_02} (I won't be checking when November comes).
{ACS.046_03} The blue-team pragmatists who know that Fox
{ACS.046_04} shows "lying liars" sucking on their thumbs ...

{ACS.046_05} ... don't have the umph

to balance out this mess.

{ACS.046_06} Incompetent to speak, they compromised
{ACS.046_07} the nation into hell. There won't be less
{ACS.046_08} troops in Iraq if Kerry is baptized ...

{ACS.046_09} ... as president -- he said that he'll send more.
{ACS.046_10} To do what, Mr. Kerry? You don't know.
{ACS.046_11} You're twid'ling swing-state votes

to barely score

{ACS.046_12} a victory against an evil foe.

{ACS.046_13} THE MEDIA has boxed us to this choice.
{ACS.046_14} Then yell that we should vote, or lose our voice.


{ACS.047_01} MY CHOICE is NO. Not either. Fuck them both.
{ACS.047_02} FUCK YOU, the God-damned media who framed
{ACS.047_03} this bullshit as democracy. My oath --
{ACS.047_04} in all its vulgar glory -- is I've blamed ...

{ACS.047_05} ... this horror movie on each ivy twit
{ACS.047_06} who lacks the education that they claim
{ACS.047_07} to merit the authority to shit
{ACS.047_08} their worthless "definitions" in the name ...

{ACS.047_09} ... of institutions which have let us down.
{ACS.047_10} THE MERITOCRACY's incompetence
{ACS.047_11} let Dubya Bush's BULLSHIT wear the crown.
{ACS.047_12} THEIR EDUCATION stretched that shit to sense.

{ACS.047_13} The senior thesis (Harvard, Princeton, Yale?)
{ACS.047_14} is talking with your head stuck up your tail.


{ACS.048_01} WHEN I'WA WRITERS WORKSHOP started out
{ACS.048_02} the purpose was to learn to write in verse.
{ACS.048_03} Now silly prose is all those f*ckers shout
{ACS.048_04} about. And all the fruitcakes there immerse ...

{ACS.048_05} ... themselves in stringing sentences along
{ACS.048_06} the same ol' modern paths that lead to what?
{ACS.048_07} Quit writing stories, "kids," and write a song
{ACS.048_08} of something that shows

what your soul has got.

{ACS.048_09} I'm picking on your workshop just to fill
{ACS.048_10} this final quatrain up, and you are there
{ACS.048_11} embedded in our culture revved to kill
{ACS.048_12} all anger with bombs falling through the air ...

{ACS.048_13} ... and nothing that your graduates will write
{ACS.048_14} will help the situation -- Not one mite.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

It would delight me

for Republicans to quote

anything I say. {smile}

An idealized theory (semi-debatable) of what RHETORIC is ... and I like it {smile}

Rhetoric involves

the transformation of one audience

into another.

STEVEN MAILLOUX
"Articulation and Understanding: The Pragmatic Intimacy Between Rhetoric and Hermeneutics"

(7 sonnets) A SIMULATION of what BOKE might have said ON TERRORISM at the rally in Keene

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ PRELUDE }

{ACS.035_01} A SPEECH DEPENDS on what all faces say
{ACS.035_02} in ev'ry moment. There's no faces here:
{ACS.035_03} a sonnet simulation of the way
{ACS.035_04} my mind links FRAGMENTS when

there's paper near.

{ACS.035_05} A LIVE SPEECH SITUATION you prepare
{ACS.035_06} for hours or days or weeks the sum of years
{ACS.035_07} of reading and selecting what you care
{ACS.035_08} most pow'rfully about -- sometimes to tears.

{ACS.035_09} It won't be 'till you walk onto the stage
{ACS.035_10} the final locking of your starting line
{ACS.035_11} will roll onto your tongue, unlock the cage
{ACS.035_12} that all this moment's tension will refine ...

{ACS.035_13} ... and you set sail in waves beyond your own.
{ACS.035_14} I'd never give a speech that's set in stone.

{ "THE SPEECH" / ON TERRORISM }

{ACS.036_01} "IN TIME OF WAR!" A time of war? BULLSHIT!
{ACS.036_02} What "war"? There is no "war." What do I mean?
{ACS.036_03} When THE one SUPERPOWER wants to sit
{ACS.036_04} on anything, it can. IMAGINE KEENE:

{ACS.036_05} Suppose that Dubya wanted Keene erased.
{ACS.036_06} (He'd heard there was a motorcycle ban.)
{ACS.036_07} So one night drinking 'till he was shit-faced
{ACS.036_08} he called in strikes.

"Drop all the bombs you can ...

{ACS.036_09} ... on Keene for forty days." Is that a war?
{ACS.036_10} Keene could do nothing but let Dubya kill
{ACS.036_11} as many as he wants. He'd heard Al Gore
{ACS.036_12} was plotting to go nuclear with Bill.

{ACS.036_13} He'd heard you folks were armed

with carpet knives.

{ACS.036_14} Preemptive bombing Keene would

save some lives.

{ACS.037_01} Is that "a time of war"? Or is that "nuts"?
{ACS.037_02} A superpower's technologic might
{ACS.037_03} unleashed on anywhere to kick some butts.
{ACS.037_04} To call it "war" means we turn out the light ...

{ACS.037_05} ... and do not count the people that are slain.
{ACS.037_06} IN WAR. A TIME OF WAR. That's just the job
{ACS.037_07} description of the word. The bombs you rain
{ACS.037_08} unhampered by each scream and mother's sob.

{ACS.037_09} A SUPERPOWER has no right to use
{ACS.037_10} THE WORD called "war."

It does not fit the facts

{ACS.037_11} of choosing to fight battles you can't lose.
{ACS.037_12} THE MEDIA repeat it 'cause they're lax.

{ACS.037_13} To call it "war on terror" is a lie
{ACS.037_14} that makes it fine for innocents to die.


{ACS.038_01} AN ACT OF TERRORISM is A CRIME.
{ACS.038_02} Police are not allowed to bomb a school
{ACS.038_03} to get the bad guy. Good cops would do time --
{ACS.038_04} as Bush and ev'ry bullshit-spouting fool ...

{ACS.038_05} ... in his administration ought to do.
{ACS.038_06} And ev'ry worthless, coward Democrat
{ACS.038_07} especially "war heros" who in lieu
{ACS.038_08} of standing up to them, all simply sat ...

{ACS.038_09} ... down on the job, afraid that folks would think
{ACS.038_10} "in time of war" ...

You see what bad words cause?

{ACS.038_11} When bullshit rules the nation, we all stink.
{ACS.038_12} No longer honored people and their laws ...

{ACS.038_13} ... but rather an asylum, armed with nukes.
{ACS.038_14} A bully who tells babies raise your dukes.


{ACS.039_01} The strongest nation in the world seems weak
{ACS.039_02} when it is screaming "Oh, we're so afraid."
{ACS.039_03} With Christians who don't seem to ever peek
{ACS.039_04} into Christ's words --

blaspheming as they wade ...

{ACS.039_05} ... into the bullshit of preemptive strikes
{ACS.039_06} to keep their frightened souls

from heaven's gate.

{ACS.039_07} Where do they think that Jesus said he likes
{ACS.039_08} his children to kill those consumed with hate?

{ACS.039_09} A Christian president should shut their mouth
{ACS.039_10} about their faith,

or they will smear Christ's name

{ACS.039_11} with bullshit. If events are heading south
{ACS.039_12} a superpower sometimes acts the same ...

{ACS.039_13} ... as terrorism on the largest scale.
{ACS.039_14} But only if all other measures fail.


{ACS.040_01} AS PRESIDENT, I PROMISE to destroy
{ACS.040_02} whatever needs destroyed. My faith in Christ
{ACS.040_03} will not constrain my choice. I will deploy
{ACS.040_04} all forces necessary. Not enticed ...

{ACS.040_05} ... by anger or by fear or my own peace
{ACS.040_06} of mind regarding what's beyond this life.
{ACS.040_07} I will suggest that Bible-thumpers cease
{ACS.040_08} their disempowering of Christ. His Wife ...

{ACS.040_09} ... The Church should not turn Jesus' name

to shit

{ACS.040_10} with votes for violence. They'll go to hell
{ACS.040_11} for that, so I'll suggest that they should quit.
{ACS.040_12} The words of Jesus is what they should sell.

{ACS.040_13} Beyond that, I'll set Jesus' name aside
{ACS.040_14} while I am president. Our power ride.



{ACS.041_01} THE CRIMES OF TERRORISM must be stopped.
{ACS.041_02} POLICING CRIME is not a brand new thing.
{ACS.041_03} THE CRIME OF 9/11 surely hopped
{ACS.041_04} the level of how much bad crime can bring.

{ACS.041_05} BUT using silly words won't make us strong.
{ACS.041_06} We are not safer if we scream of "war."
{ACS.041_07} That word will license any mess --

what's wrong

{ACS.041_08} with our sad situation is the door ...

{ACS.041_09} ... we walked through that says anything we try
{ACS.041_10} is justified. That's why the right words count.
{ACS.041_11} I'm good at choosing words. I am the guy
{ACS.041_12} who knows the price of each one

that I mount ...

{ACS.041_13} ... in public view for all the world to see.
{ACS.041_14} If you want the right words said, vote for me.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

I would never read

a speech composed of sonnets.

But I might sing it {smile}

A Strange Note {smile}

In a time of oversupply, the task of communication

is to make the elementals strange

JOHN DURHAM PETERS
SPEAKING INTO THE AIR:
A History of The Idea of Communication

(7 Sonnets) On "American Candidate" - Episode #2

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.028_01} WHO HECKLED BOB? I'll leave that in the air
{ACS.028_02} 'till later. Not to hint Bob should have stayed,
{ACS.028_03} but rather to toss up the theme: "What's fair?"
{ACS.028_04} What's "simulated" in this game they played?

{ACS.028_05} LET'S MOVE ON quickly to the rally speech.
{ACS.028_06} Two hours to prepare to face the crowd --
{ACS.028_07} specifically, "to write." What did they teach?
{ACS.028_08} In what way was the winner well endowed?

{ACS.028_09} KEITH BOYKIN made them cheer.

He rhymed his theme!

{ACS.028_10} Yes, forty-nine percent would vote his song
{ACS.028_11} the best -- and though it's not

"I Have A Dream,"

{ACS.028_12} his rhyming, written rhetoric was strong.

{ACS.028_13} Do note, when Dr. King spoke, he let time --
{ACS.028_14} the moment of the speaking --

pick which rhyme.

{ACS.029_01} LIKE HILLARY, Ms. Witter can't speak well.
{ACS.029_02} She's great in one-on-one -- she can connect.
{ACS.029_03} But on the platform, timing goes to hell.
{ACS.029_04} Her gestures, off the beat, I recollect ...

{ACS.029_05} ... much better than Joe Trippi,

who seemed prepped

{ACS.029_06} to praise Ms. Witter "to make things

seem right."

{ACS.029_07} (I know I'm rousing dogs that might have slept
{ACS.029_08} on through this point. Some "issues"

bring to light.)

{ACS.029_09} THE FRAGMENTS of four-minute "speech"

we see

{ACS.029_10} contain three speakers -- six folks

read their lines.

{ACS.029_11} Ms. Riley, Mack, and Vanech let words be
{ACS.029_12} a vehicle which cruised amidst the signs ...

{ACS.029_13} ... presented by "the people" as they heard.
{ACS.029_14} Those who can't speak

think risk like that absurd.

{ACS.030_01} WHICH BRINGS US BACK to Vanech

who was "killed"

{ACS.030_02} on cam'ra by "a heckler." Very strange
{ACS.030_03} behavior from a crowd completely filled
{ACS.030_04} with people who took time to rearrange ...

{ACS.030_05} ... their schedule to pretend to care about
{ACS.030_06} democracy on cam'ra. Would they lack
{ACS.030_07} the patient grace to hear each speaker out
{ACS.030_08} four minutes without launching an attack?

{ACS.030_09} That sounds like a producer with a frame
{ACS.030_10} for "how the story goes." The way they see
{ACS.030_11} what's happening within their little game.
{ACS.030_12} A vision with which I quite disagree.

{ACS.030_13} Bob's speech might have gone better

than you think

{ACS.030_14} if AmCan had not stuck in their own kink.


{ACS.031_01} IN ANY CASE, the speeches didn't count,
{ACS.031_02} except to clamp Joe Trippi on the legs
{ACS.031_03} of Boykin -- who ignores him as they mount
{ACS.031_04} their strategy their way. As Trippi begs ...

{ACS.031_05} ... to do what he says so that he won't look
{ACS.031_06} as useless as he is in Cutler's show.
{ACS.031_07} Keith won't repeat the lines in Trippi's book.
{ACS.031_08} "You're arrogant," says Trippi as they go ...

{ACS.031_09} ... on their own way, especi'lly at the start.
{ACS.031_10} While Keith types email and his partner phones,
{ACS.031_11} Joe Trippi tries to lead their rolling cart
{ACS.031_12} outside. "No coffee breaks," Joe Trippi moans.

{ACS.031_13} Yes, Keith and partner know what they must do.
{ACS.031_14} Ignore Joe Trippi, while they e-mail you.


{ACS.032_01} WHILE WITTER TELEPORTS

her network loose ...

{ACS.032_02} And Friedrich's PETA lists release their net ...
{ACS.032_03} Foot-soldier candidates work hard to goose
{ACS.032_04} some strangers on the street.

Ask each they met ...

{ACS.032_05} ... to dial a number on their cellphone pad.
{ACS.032_06} While candidates with laptops would prevail
{ACS.032_07} -- including Keith with Trippi hopping mad --
{ACS.032_08} the story of the day is "Bob Will Fail."

{ACS.032_09} LAST WEEK they "proved"

a Gephardt gal could flop.

{ACS.032_10} This week the story will be those with wealth
{ACS.032_11} will not have an advantage. Grab a mop.
{ACS.032_12} The game will prove itself in perfect health.

{ACS.032_13} Poor Bob will make a mess as best he can.
{ACS.032_14} The Loser of the Week, yes, Bob's our man.


{ACS.033_01} BEFORE HE GOES, Bob will make Lisa spit
{ACS.033_02} out my own fav'rite word, and illustrate
{ACS.033_03} the meaning beautif'lly. She says BULLSHIT
{ACS.033_04} regarding Bob's vague noise which I don't rate ..

{ACS.033_05} ... as bullshit -- only useless, filler crap.
{ACS.033_06} No, Lisa spouts the bullshit -- on Bob leans:
{ACS.033_07} "You got it wrong" her "party" did not lap
{ACS.033_08} the others on their run. By this she means ...

{ACS.033_09} ... her network's not a "party" --

they just choose

{ACS.033_10} the "values" that she has --

the ones they share.

{ACS.033_11} A packaged set of values she embues
{ACS.033_12} with "not-a-party." Poor Bob pulls his hair.

{ACS.033_13} He's sloppy with his words,

that's poor Bob's sin.

{ACS.033_14} While PR expert Lisa's "got that spin."


{ACS.034_01} DID BOB DESERVE to lose? Of course, he did.
{ACS.034_02} BUT WHY did they pick Bob to play at all?
{ACS.034_03} Ten slots to fill with story chips to bid
{ACS.034_04} the game along. Some picks to eas'ly fall ...

{ACS.034_05} ... to prove a point? Perhaps to make a case?
{ACS.034_06} Or maybe just to plan "the way it goes."
{ACS.034_07} A game without surprise to save the face
{ACS.034_08} of game designers who'd step on their toes ...

{ACS.034_09} ... if anything surprising came their way.
{ACS.034_10} The game of politics is power's field.
{ACS.034_11} And nothing on TV can change the play
{ACS.034_12} of forces in the networks well concealed ...

{ACS.034_13} ... within plain sight. This sonnet must conclude
{ACS.034_14} this night of work on Boke and Cutler's feud. {smile}

# # #


HAIKU CODA

Bob will be surprised

that I cut him some strange slack.

He's still "my" villain. {smile}

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ... the first Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard

The Golden Age of American Oratory had already begun

when John Quincy Adams described rhetorical skill

as a form of power in his 1805 inaugural address as the

first Boylston Chair of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard ...

Adams observed the preeminent importance that training in

oratory had for the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome

and described its revived importance in the new

republic, where eloquence might once again bestow power.

ADAMS: Under governments purely republican, where every citizen has a deep interest in the affairs of the nation, and, in some form of public assembly or other, has the means and opportunity of delivering his opinions, and of communicating his sentiments by speech; where government itself has no arms but those of persuasion; where prejudice has not acquired an uncontrolled ascendency, and faction is yet confined within the barriers of peace; the voice of eloquence will not be heard in vain.

SOURCE:
SANDRA M. GUSTAFSON
ELOQUENCE IS POWER
Oratory & Performance in Early America

(3 sonnets) The Harvard Boylston Chair Of RHETORIC and ORATORY Ought To Be What It Was Endowed To Be (THEN ...

THEN we wouldn't be in Iraq ... and "American Candidate" would be good) {serious smile}

A/K/A Teach Your Children Well ...
Not To Eat Bullshit

RHETORICAL VERSE /
THREE (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.025_01} The Harvard Boylston Chair in Rhetoric
{ACS.025_02} and Oratory's now a pigeon hole
{ACS.025_03} for "flighty poets" whose words do not stick
{ACS.025_04} when tossed against "the real."

Can't make the goal ...

{ACS.025_05} ... where its endowment grantor hung the net.
{ACS.025_06} Although I place these words in sonnets' shape,
{ACS.025_07} make no mistake, it's RHETORIC I let
{ACS.025_08} run down this page, not poetry I drape.

{ACS.025_09} At Harvard they no longer understand
{ACS.025_10} the meaning of the word that is the key.
{ACS.025_11} And though I'm sure that's not

what Harvard planned

{ACS.025_12} that surely does explain what came to be.

{ACS.025_13} A land where BULLSHIT forms

all common ground.

{ACS.025_14} "The People" swallow it without a sound.

 
{ACS.026_01} No wonder Cutler picked the ten he did
{ACS.026_02} without consideration of a skill
{ACS.026_03} his Harvard education from him hid.
{ACS.026_04} How could you climb when you don't see the hill?

{ACS.026_05} Now ev'ry Harvard grad would scream

"He's nuts."

{ACS.026_06} But I've been in "big rooms" a thousand times
{ACS.026_07} and heard well-resuméd fall on their butts.
{ACS.026_08} I'm not complaining Harvard-heads

lack rhymes ...

{ACS.026_09} ... but rather pure incompetence to speak.
{ACS.026_10} Which doesn't much surprise you in a room
{ACS.026_11} filled wall-to-wall with those who can't critique --
{ACS.026_12} who cannot tell a piffle from a boom.

{ACS.026_13} How could they know what good is,

they've not heard

{ACS.026_14} a speaker -- merely readers, word-for-word.


{ACS.027_01} I'd like to think the rich man who endowed
{ACS.027_02} the Harvard Boylston Chair foresaw them steal
{ACS.027_03} the presidency, someday. This land bowed.
{ACS.027_04} "The tyranny of bullshit" our fate seal.

{ACS.027_05} BUT THEN, he said, "We won't let

that day come.

{ACS.027_06} Let's make an institution to remind
{ACS.027_07} the nation of the sticks for Freedom's drum --
{ACS.027_08} the Rhetoric and Oratory kind."

{ACS.027_09} Now Harvard, being Harvard, nearly lost
{ACS.027_10} the money, but then jumped to fill the chair
{ACS.027_11} and asked John Quincy Adams to accost
{ACS.027_12} the students with some lectures to prepare ...

{ACS.027_13} ... America to lead the world by light
{ACS.027_14} of its ideas rather than just fight.

# # #

HAIKU CODA

"Rhetorically

Incompetent Babies" is

not an idle taunt.

9 more [s]crappy LIMERICKS in response to another rhetorically incompetent Harvard-mafia-nitwit journalist's commentary on American Candidate {smile}

JENNIFER 8. LEE (NEW YORK TIMES) "I Am a Political Consultant, and I Play one on TV" (says a clueless journalist/critic who thinks consultants are cool, apparently)


[1] Here's Jennifer 8. -- Harvard moron
(another one? yes) -- sure to pour on
more fuel on my fire.
What stupid folks hire
articulate dumbasses? War on! {smile}

[2] Jen thinks Cutler's experts make good sense.
But what good was Trippi? Just ex-pens-
ive waster of time.
A thief of each dime
that Dean sucked up. (Is Ms. 8 that dense?)

[3] "Consultants" repeat the same game, dear,
that's played with the same plays as last year.
They cannot create.
Like journalists, mate
the teeth that they see with an old gear.

[4] Repeaters of bullshit, J. No-brain,
link non sequiturs like a wet stain
that's not on their bed
but runs through their head
when gushing for class-mate crap, in-ane.

[5] Each self-serving quote you gave page space
is making their PR folks say grace
for blessing this shit.
Jen, numbered nitwit,
just burnishing RJ's besmudged face.

[6] Who told you "The War Room" had value?
Another nit-wit with the same view
across Harvard Lawn
where lights never dawn
except in the form of de-ja vu?

[7] Yes, Carville and George are now famous.
But Cutler's film did not new-frame us.
No insights at all.
Like Clintons, et al.
No health care secured. They just gamed us.

[8] Hel-lo, Ms. 8, ivy-class air head.
I'm sure all your friends liked what you said.
Articulate snot.
Rhetorical? NOT!
Iraq shows "how well" your kind has led.

[9] Incompetence? Yes, I'm accusing
the power-class ivy-schooled. ... Crusing
to whip their high butts --
Rhetorical cuts.
Their claims of "what's real," I'm refusing.

Yeah, pretty shitty limericks. But crappy writing at the New York Times doesn't deserve better than that, now does it? {grin}

Interdependence not community ...

Interdependence not community

is a more reliable way of understanding

how American public life works

and what its possibilities are.

DAVID W. BROWN
When Strangers Cooperate

(3 sonnets) CONTEXT / Hyper-SOCIAL Hollywood REALITY

RHETORICAL VERSE /
THREE (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.022_01} "BEST HISSY FIT," "Best Spit Swap" -- MTV
{ACS.022_02} announced these categories to be won
{ACS.022_03} in its award show for REALITY.
{ACS.022_04} How could I be a hard-case on this FUN?

{ACS.022_05} Just fun. Good silly fun. It's not Iraq.
{ACS.022_06} Not war and peace. Not politics. Not death.
{ACS.022_07} Just pissed-off cursing and some

lip-tongue smack.

{ACS.022_08} I do not know who won, don't hold your breath.

{ACS.022_09} I clicked the channel -- who the hell would care
{ACS.022_10} who won "Best Hissy Fit?" It's fun to say,
{ACS.022_11} but if you seek the answer -- "no there there."
{ACS.022_12} As meaningful as Paris in the hay.

{ACS.022_13} Producers choosing things to kill some time.
{ACS.022_14} Reality TV is not a crime.


{ACS.023_01} Those "Amish in the City" got high praise
{ACS.023_02} from television critics (who like Mose).
{ACS.023_03} But ("Holy Moses") shall we count the ways
{ACS.023_04} non-Amish can bitch 'bout

who left their clothes ...

{ACS.023_05} .. or dirty plates, or tissue some place "wrong."
{ACS.023_06} Is casting bitches with no grace or wit
{ACS.023_07} and placing them in mansions in a thong
{ACS.023_08} the only thing they know to make a hit?

{ACS.023_09} A HYPER-SOCIAL situation forced
{ACS.023_10} into existence by young TV folks
{ACS.023_11} whose casting choices partially out-sourced
{ACS.023_12} to psychs and lawyers who're not

trained to coax ...

{ACS.023_13} ... imagination onto TV screens.
{ACS.023_14} That's why we get the same ol' social scenes.


{ACS.024_01} The folks who clog the cogs of Hollywood
{ACS.024_02} are socialized so well that they are blind
{ACS.024_03} to other options. Nothing's wrong; it's good
{ACS.024_04} if ev'ryone's unconsciously unkind.

{ACS.024_05} Exclusion. Casting out. The cool contempt
{ACS.024_06} of "inners" is so normal. It's the style
{ACS.024_07} of those who will succeed --

who are not whimped

{ACS.024_08} by insight to be welcoming. To smile ...

{ACS.024_09} ... when faced with "different from

the way things are."

{ACS.024_10} When Artist/Writers rule prime time, their eyes
{ACS.024_11} shoot master strokes sometimes --

far under par

{ACS.024_12} or bogey beautif'lly into what's wise.

{ACS.024_13} Reality TV can't reach that high
{ACS.024_14} until we see its "socialism" die.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

Cutler's "Candidate"

has a social disease, too.

But without the spit. {smile}

Did The Blob from Outer Space Eat (the possibilities of) American Candidate? {smile}

It's like a science fiction fantasy:

[Hannah] Arendt writes about the social

as if an evil monster from outer space ...

had fallen upon us intent on debilitating,

absorbing, and ultimately destroying us ...

HANNAH FENICHEL PITKIN
THE ATTACK OF THE BLOB:
Hannah Arendt's Concept of The Social

(3 sonnets) How Wicked Bob Vanech SOCIAL-IZED POLITICS (at Meetup)

RHETORICAL VERSE /
THREE (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ACS.019_01} FOR REASONS that will soon be clear, it's time
{ACS.019_02} to look back -- turn to April, day 19 --
{ACS.019_03} and understand the nature of the crime
{ACS.019_04} Bob Vanech's kind commits. Let's set the scene:

{ACS.019_05} A TABLE is required. Not public street.
{ACS.019_06} A SOCIAL space to bond. Not to debate.
{ACS.019_07} A circle where supposedly minds meet --
{ACS.019_08} constrained by social grace. Each candidate ...

{ACS.019_09} ... abiding by unspoken rules beneath
{ACS.019_10} the fabric of the context unproclaimed.
{ACS.019_11} Agreed to without thought, they lay a wreathe
{ACS.019_12} on possibilities as yet unnamed.

{ACS.019_13} Eliminate all conflict with the lie
{ACS.019_14} of common int'rest most will not defy.


{ACS.020_01} "IF ANY ONE OF US IS PICKED, LET'S ALL
{ACS.020_02} AGREE TO HELP THEM WIN THE GAME,

SHALL WE?"

{ACS.020_03} SAYS BOB, who has already got his call.
{ACS.020_04} THE TABLE ANSWERS "YES!" -- except for me.

{ACS.020_05} The table socialized the game away.
{ACS.020_06} Bob's table. That's "the move" he'll always make.
{ACS.020_07} And those who don't know better how to play
{ACS.020_08} the power game will always buy the fake ...

{ACS.020_09} ... comm'raderie that takes away all moves
{ACS.020_10} that are not on the menu of the host --
{ACS.020_11} who only serves what ev'ryone approves.
{ACS.020_12} To missing guest democracy they'd toast ...

{ACS.020_13} ... except that no one noticed there's no place
{ACS.020_14} set for democracy in social space.


{ACS.021_01} DEMOCRACY's for strangers, not for friends.
{ACS.021_02} For it to work, you vote for what is right --
{ACS.021_03} not just because somebody's elbow bends
{ACS.021_04} beside yours at the bar on Friday night.

{ACS.021_05} DEMOCRACY's not fam'ly or a gang
{ACS.021_06} and not a bus'ness deal you lubricate
{ACS.021_07} with social gaming like Bob Vanech brang
{ACS.021_08} to Meetup -- undermining all debate.

{ACS.021_09} In Hollywood THE SOCIAL GAME prevails.
{ACS.021_10} If you're not AT THE TABLE, you don't play.
{ACS.021_11} The reason that so much bad TV sails
{ACS.021_12} right through a green light is

Bob's BULLSHIT way.

{ACS.021_13} Yes, social gaming got Bob on TV.
{ACS.021_14} But that's the wrong game...

as I think you'll see.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

"The political"

is diff'rent from "the social."

The diff'rence matters.

A Ciceronian Note regarding Rhetorical Revival

. . . Cicero's rhetorical treatises

were aimed in part at reviving

rhetoric's social and political function.

JANET M. ATWELL
Rhetoric Reclaimed

(3 sonnets) WHAT IF MEETUP MATTERED? What American Candidate Could Have Been [VERSION 2]

RHETORICAL VERSE /
THREE (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.016_01} THE PEOPLE WHO APPLIED seemed not to see
{ACS.016_02} the point of MEETUP -- other than to shill
{ACS.016_03} for Showtime. Too bad. Meetups were THE KEY
{ACS.016_04} to demonstrating if you have the skill ...

{ACS.016_05} ... a president should have. Which is prevail
{ACS.016_06} in public definition of your case --
{ACS.016_07} your issues and yourself. To tell the tale
{ACS.016_08} persuading people they can trust your face ...

{ACS.016_09} ... to represent them in their comfort zone.
{ACS.016_10} Relieve them of the worry "no one cares."
{ACS.016_11} Make clear a vote for you's a seed that's sown
{ACS.016_12} in fertile ground to yield hard wheat not tares.

{ACS.016_13} Can you define reality with speech
{ACS.016_14} that wins most hearts and minds

within its reach?

{ACS.017_01} IN MARCH when AmCan's site went live,

they said

{ACS.017_02} to come to MEETUP and have "live debate."
{ACS.017_03} That seemed to sail right over ev'ry head.
{ACS.017_04} BUT THINK if that had been the starting gate.

{ACS.017_05} IMAGINE IF each applicant had talked
{ACS.017_06} to people in their town and got them pumped
{ACS.017_07} to come to Meetup.

Yes, some might have balked,

{ACS.017_08} but surely future presidents aren't stumped ...`

{ACS.017_09} ... by a requirement to get fifty folks
{ACS.017_10} to judge if someone should be on TV.
{ACS.017_11} TO VOTE. Pick out true leaders from the jokes.
{ACS.017_12} Give them the pow'r to make REALITY.

{ACS.017_13} Tell them, it's them, not Hollywood who'll pick
{ACS.017_14} a voice that speaks for them,

not makes them sick.

{ACS.018_01} NOW, when you've gathered them,

you must leave town.

{ACS.018_02} Go to another Meetup zone to speak.
{ACS.018_03} Some strangers who don't know you

place the crown

{ACS.018_04} on who impressed them most. A pure critique ...

{ACS.018_05} ... not tainted by THE SOCIAL GAME back home.
{ACS.018_06} Your momma and your buddies won't be there
{ACS.018_07} to vote for you no matter how you roam
{ACS.018_08} around the issues. Strangers will be fair.

{ACS.018_09} Each fifty-person Meetup sends its choice
{ACS.018_10} to speak before 500 who've been picked
{ACS.018_11} to represent the nation. Give a voice
{ACS.018_12} proportional to ev'ry nerve that's nicked.

{ACS.018_13} There's details to work out, but that's the frame
{ACS.018_14} in which you start to paint the AmCan game.

# # #


HAIKU CODA

Did four hundred folks

who were given a web page

earn the right to vote?

A Prophetic Note about PROPHETS {smile}

. . . Others may be satisfied by improvement,

the prophets insist upon redemption.

ABRAHAM HESCHEL quoted by JAMES DARSEY
in The Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America

(6 sonnets) WHAT AMERICAN CANDIDATE COULD HAVE BEEN [VERSION 1]

VIEWERSHIP:USA TODAY / American Candidate episode #1 / 128,000 viewers (yes, thousand) 84% falloff from preceding movie "Legally Blonde 2"

RHETORICAL VERSE /
SIX (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU


{ACS.010_01} PERHAPS THE POINT is "everybody knows"
{ACS.010_02} this exercise is pointless. Why tune in
{ACS.010_03} between the real election's sweaty toes
{ACS.010_04} to see some unknown runners try to win ...

{ACS.010_05} ... a race that does not sound

more fun to watch

{ACS.010_06} than all the spinach-eating since last year.
{ACS.010_07} Ten Democrats did not much scratch the crotch
{ACS.010_08} of our attention. It would take free beer ...

{ACS.010_09} ... and naked-hottie candidates to lure
{ACS.010_10} us to this game. What 'er the hell it is.
{ACS.010_11} Yeah, what the hell is this we should endure
{ACS.010_12} with no commercials to go do our biz?

{ACS.010_13} No, watching Showtime, you can't take a piss.
{ACS.010_14} Before we suffer, tell us what'll we miss?


{ACS.011_01} LET'S NOT start from what Cutler chose to do.
{ACS.011_02} INSTEAD, LET US IMAGINE what might be.
{ACS.011_03} Yeah, yeah, I know. "IMAGINATION?" You?
{ACS.011_04} Yeah, you. Go grab a six-pack. Then let's see.

{ACS.011_05} With three beers in our belly, close your eyes.
{ACS.011_06} Now belch and tell me what's a president?
{ACS.011_07} I think you're right. Another six-pack lies
{ACS.011_08} in our near future. Then we'll make a dent ...

{ACS.011_09} ... in this profoundly stupid waste of time.
{ACS.011_10} Just kidding. No, the obvi'us place to start.
{ACS.011_11} What is a president? What hill they climb?
{ACS.011_12} What skill do they possess ... beyond to fart ...

{ACS.011_13} ... and lay the blame on someone else,

of course.

{ACS.011_14} If they are riders, tell me, what's their horse?



{ACS.012_01} OR HORSES. Maybe sev'ral they must ride
{ACS.012_02} in sequence, without (too much) falling off.
{ACS.012_03} A bareback relay race in which you slide
{ACS.012_04} batons to your own hands. I hear that cough ...

{ACS.012_05} ... that says you don't know

what the hell I mean.

{ACS.012_06} You're handing off to you -- just further on.
{ACS.012_07} Though some folks have fore-hands to intervene
{ACS.012_08} and make their legs a shorter stretch of lawn.

{ACS.012_09} THE KEY is that the presidential race
{ACS.012_10} is decades in the running ... That takes wind.
{ACS.012_11} Some of your own. Some totally by grace.
{ACS.012_12} By way of laws beyond what we amend.

{ACS.012_13} Is there a ten-week game to simulate
{ACS.012_14} the running of your destiny, your fate?



{ACS.013._01} While you lay dreaming

(bored by this to sleep) {smile}

{ACS.013._02} imagine that there is a game like that.
{ACS.013._03} What does the board look like?

Who takes the leap

{ACS.013._04} into the op'ning move. Who gets a hat ...

{ACS.013._05} ... to toss into the public square to play?
{ACS.013._06} Who chooses who can play

and what's the game?

{ACS.013._07} Who chooses if those choices are OK?
{ACS.013._08} Those questions conjure up a diff'rent dame ...

{ACS.013._09} ... than who you thought you're dancing

'round the room

{ACS.013._10} while dreaming of the game of president.
{ACS.013._11} She's asking "why ask why" --

her sweet perfume

{ACS.013._12} reminds you that you've got to pay the rent ...

{ACS.013._13} ... just disregard the eyes behind the screen
{ACS.013._14} who call the tunes you dance,

and what they mean.

{ACS.014_01} WAKE UP. Yes, you. It's time to tell the score.
{ACS.014_02} The dream you had will tell you all you need
{ACS.014_03} to figure out all things to know and more.
{ACS.014_04} The Game. What is the game of "how to lead" ...

{ACS.014_05} ... the horses to the water, and then drink?
{ACS.014_06} (Yes, disregard the proverb that we learned.)
{ACS.014_07} The game we see on Showtime sure does stink;
{ACS.014_08} The game that put it there ... to be discerned ...

{ACS.014_09} ... is nothing about horses, or the well.
{ACS.014_10} THE POWER GAME determines what you see
{ACS.014_11} on TV and in life. What flows propel
{ACS.014_12} boats down the stream that's called REALITY.

{ACS.014_13} The score that Showtime earns depends on you.
{ACS.014_14} Will you believe the BULLSHIT of the few?



{ACS.015_01} I guess we won't, regarding Cutler's lines.
{ACS.015_02} Some mighty puny numbers lent their eyes
{ACS.015_03} to his first episode. Though Chrissy's wines
{ACS.015_04} got heavy praise by some

who are deemed wise ...

{ACS.015_05} ... by those who choose those

who won't rock the boat.

{ACS.015_06} In that aside is all you need to know
{ACS.015_07} about the way things are. Why that your vote
{ACS.015_08} is nothing but a way for you to show ...

{ACS.015_09} ... you're buying that ol' BULLSHIT

that they spread.

{ACS.015_10} Yes, Rock the Vote, you bullshit-eating youth.
{ACS.015_11} And ev'ry Democrat who's now been led
{ACS.015_12} to cast their vote for Kerry. Not for truth.

{ACS.015_13} There's no way that a TV game can be
{ACS.015_14} more than more bullshit. Scuse me, got to pee.


# # #


HAIKU CODA

A long way to go

to say there's nothing to say,

but that won't stop us! {smile}

A Rhetorical Note on RHETORIC {smile}

TACITUS:

The art which is the subject of our discourse

[RHETORIC] is not a quiet and peaceful art,

or one that finds satisfaction in moral worth and good behavior;

no, really great and famous oratory is a foster-child of licence,

which foolish men call liberty, an associate of sedition,

a goad for the unbridled populace. It owes no allegiance to any.

Devoid of reverence, it is insulting, off-hand, and overbearing ...

QUOTED IN: Rhetoric Reclaimed by Janet M. Atwill

(3 Sonnets) WHAT YOU DIDN'T SEE ... in American Candidate EPISODE #1

RHETORICAL VERSE /
THREE (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ACS.007_01} YOU SEE NO CLUE how Park Gillespie filled
{ACS.007_02} his rally room, and thereby had control
{ACS.007_03} of casting out Ms. Gephardt, who had chilled
{ACS.007_04} her chances by the choice to make her goal . . .

{ACS.007_05} . . . a harder one to make -- to make it fair.
{ACS.007_06} You cannot doubt she could have made a call
{ACS.007_07} and got a thousand people to repair
{ACS.007_08} to some large venue. No she took the fall . . .

{ACS.007_09} . . . from safe front-runner status,

that her name

{ACS.007_10} included with its perquisites. "The why"
{ACS.007_11} she should not have been chosen for this game.
{ACS.007_12} A game that by design presents a lie.

{ACS.007_13} A lie that hides how Park Gillespie won
{ACS.007_14} front-runner status: How "Park's game" is done.


{ACS.008_01} THE "HIDDEN NETWORKS" do not make the cut.
{ACS.008_02} THE PETAns and PRO-LIFERs can't be seen
{ACS.008_03} in Cutler's edit of the Prez-road rut --
{ACS.008_04} his presidential candidates' routine.

{ACS.008_05} WE SEE that Park says grace before they eat.
{ACS.008_06} BUT we don't hear the prayer-chain phones

in gear

{ACS.008_07} that yield his same-faith-worshippers --

which beat

{ACS.008_08} in passion ev'ry PETA, lib, and queer.

{ACS.008_09} Gillespie's Jesus-manglers on fire
{ACS.008_10} to save the lives of fetuses unborn --
{ACS.008_11} while cheering Dubya's monstrous fun'ral pire
{ACS.008_12} from shock and awe.

With flag their cross adorn ...

{ACS.008_13} . . . blaspheming ev'rything that Jesus said.
{ACS.008_14} Believe they're God's select, but Satan-led.

{ACS.009_01} Gillespie's hell-bound faithful, you don't see.
{ACS.009_02} You only hear the number floating by --
{ACS.009_03} "four hundred seven" who think they've the key
{ACS.009_04} to whip those evil lib'rals 'fore they fry.

{ACS.009_05} Though they're confused about

who's go'ng to roast

{ACS.009_06} in hell some day, for now their gospel plan's
{ACS.009_07} when "Candidate" is done, that they will boast
{ACS.009_08} a Pro-Life Christian has a lot more fans . . .

{ACS.009_09} . . . than any of those heathern Showtime subs.
{ACS.009_10} Those gays and lib'rals watching filthy trash.
{ACS.009_11} No, Pro-Life Christians who don't dance in clubs
{ACS.009_12} nor watch "The L Word" will be sure to crash . . .

{ACS.009_13} . . . the voting booth and give ol' Park

the dough.

{ACS.009_14} And twenty-minutes for a Pro-Life show.

# # #

HAIKU CODA

You think this is harsh?

Blaspheming Christians will find

hell is forever.

7-Limerick Sequence/NO, VIRGINIA, BEING "GREAT LOOKING" DOES NOT FIX WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICAN CANDIDATE, DUH! DID THEY TEACH YOU THAT AT HARVARD?

JOURNALIST/CRITIC: VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN (NEW YORK TIMES) "If Nominated, Will Serve" EXCERPT: Because in spite of the claim that this reality series will pit everyday Janes and Joes against one another in a mock presidential race, the candidates assembled here are ... standard-issue American superachievers. And that's kind of too bad. The heartwarming idea of "American Candidate" is somewhat diminished by its esteemed pool of contestants. These candidates are no more eccentric than Dennis J. Kucinich and no more amateurish than Ross Perot. And we've seen those reality shows already. What's right with "American Candidate," however, is more than enough to fix what's wrong with it. Simply put, the show is great looking. In the best part of Sunday's episode ... they repair to a bar in New Hampshire. Nothing is made explicit, but Chrissy Gephardt demonstrates a little unpredictability around the subject of red wine. ... Close-ups of her glass appear at various times. What is being hinted at?

HUMITAS RESPONDS (in 7 limericks):

[1] The New York Times says ... Chrissy's wine glass
makes up for all problems. What dumb*ss ...
... would write crap like that?
From where my ass sat ...
... I just saw a dumb F-ing wine glass. {smile}

[2] Virginia, the critic with Harvard
lit. PhD, thinks Cutler's trump card
-- outweighing all flaws --
is "great looking." 'Cause ...
... Well, you'll have to ask Ivy Retard.

[3] Perhaps they re-edited that seg ...
or Heffernan gulped down a full keg
before she sat down
in her lace nightgown
to write. (Might turn sweet, if I glimpse leg.) {smile}

[4] It's strange, since she started out wisely
announcing the problems quite size-ly.
Rhetorical trick:
list problems first, quick.
Dismissing them all ... (What a nice knee!)

[5] I'm sorry, Virginia, but Santa
is not in your cards, but Mylanta
might help you endure
my medical cure
for bullshit-beguiled, wine-y rant-a. {grin}

[6] "American Candidate" screwed up.
You know what they did was a foul cup
of clueless caste haste;
No one who has taste.
would tune in again for the next sup.

[7] You're cutting some slack for a "class"-mate.
That's what "your type" does. Now my "class-hate"
is showing, I guess.
At least I'll confess ...
Will you do the same? Yes, dear, we'll wait.

{an exquisitely perceptive trailer-trash smile}

ONE New York Times Op-Ed worth reading more than once {smile}

HERBERT: "All the Pretty Words" and REALITY

(3 sonnets) regarding a 20-MINUTE ADDRESS to the nation

RHETORICAL VERSE /
THREE (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ACS.004_01} IN "CLOCKWORK ORANGE" the hero/villain's bound {ACS.004_02} into a chair before a TV screen {ACS.004_03} with his eye-lids pulled open -- sight and sound {ACS.004_04} unstoppable. This violent libertine . . . {ACS.004_05} . . . with no choice but endure the signal sent. {ACS.004_06} IMAGINE, if you will, a world of eyes {ACS.004_07} pried open just like that, and each ear bent {ACS.004_08} toward ev'ry TV tuned to ONE so wise . . . {ACS.004_09} . . . it was assured their wisdom would inspire {ACS.004_10} a better heart in ev'ry soul alive {ACS.004_11} and thereby turn to light our darkest dire {ACS.004_12} forebodings, and make all men slap high-five. {ACS.004_13} REALITY -- IMAGINE you could talk {ACS.004_14} for twenty minutes ... to those free to walk. {ACS.005_01} WHAT KIND OF PRIZE IS THAT? I'll ask of all {ACS.005_02} who have the leisure to invest their time {ACS.005_03} in questions such as that. A rather tall {ACS.005_04} surmising, yes? Perhaps not worth a dime, . . . {ACS.005_05} . . . BUT ONE of Cutler's "candidates" will find {ACS.005_06} that opportunity when nine weeks pass {ACS.005_07} and they will face that challenge -- pockets lined, {ACS.005_08} anointed with faux title -- to say mass. {ACS.005_09} A congregation of some unknown size; {ACS.005_10} though upper-bounded by subscriptions bought {ACS.005_11} to Showtime. Then subtract those who surmise {ACS.005_12} this entertainment is not what they've sought . . . {ACS.005_13} . . . amidst the noisy channels near the end {ACS.005_14} of this election. (Or, think Cutler sinned.) {ACS.006_01} THEN, unlike when Al Sharpton truly spoke {ACS.006_02} unteleprompted to a cheering crowd, {ACS.006_03} "the winner" will read safely, not provoke {ACS.006_04} the danger of ideas turned up loud . . . {ACS.006_05} . . . in interaction with the moment's field. {ACS.006_06} There will be no surprises. In the wings {ACS.006_07} the editors will cut. The mic repealed {ACS.006_08} if "unexpected" happens. If thought sings . . . {ACS.006_09} . . . a song not run through legal grinders first. {ACS.006_10} Two hundred grand's an easy bill to pay. {ACS.006_11} But some surprising speech can be the worst {ACS.006_12} thing to befall a corporation's day. {ACS.006_13} A twenty-minute teleprompter read {ACS.006_14} is not much of a prize. No way to lead. # # #

HAIKU CODA

Why do we now call

reading from a script a "speech"?

Bad education.

A BRIEF SUNDAY READING (in the realm of rhetorical verse) -- Ralph Waldo Emerson's idea of "The Poet"

EMERSON: (from) "The Poet"

... [H]e is the only teller of news ...

He is a beholder of ideas and an utterer

of the necessary and causal. For we do

not speak now of men of poetical talents,

or of industry and skill of metre, but of

the true poet.


... For it is not metres,

but a metre-making argument

that makes a poem....

AND, it is "The Risk of Reading" (many) BOOKS ... [New York Times Magazine 8/1/04] Especially note the passage on Walt Whitman

---

ALSO NOTE: (LIGHTER ANGRY VERSE) re Calvin Trillin -- "Political Crime Drives Him To Rhyme" [New York Times 7/31/04]

---

A FAILURE OF "IMAGINATION"? [9/11 COMMISSION REPORT]

"In a letter Thursday to Representative Porter J. Goss of Florida, the Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, the panel's ranking Democrat, Representative Jane Harman of California, said the intelligence committee's hearings in August lacked focus and did not address "the actual recommendations of the 9/11 commission."

"You propose vague topics such as 'the requirement for imagination and creativity' '' in intelligence, she wrote. "These topics bear little resemblance to the urgent recommendations made by the 9/11 commission. The 9/11 commissioners, the families of the victims and the rest of the country want Congress to consider and vote on real legislation."

RHETORICAL QUESTION: What does imagination and creativity mean? (The congresswoman apparently doesn't think they have a functional / operational / practical / useful meaning. Perhaps we shall find reason to see that she is wrong ... via the strange sideroad of the AmCan Sham and IMAGINATIVE JOURNALISM.)

(3 sonnets) Sonnetizing the AmCan Sham CASE (PREAMBLE)

Artist vs Journalist (Round 1)
RHETORICAL VERSE /
THREE (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU

{ACS.001_01} THAT NIGHT IN '99 when Beatty spoke
{ACS.001_02} (when Courtney Love said

something in my ear)

{ACS.001_03} three-hundred global journalism folk
{ACS.001_04} came running to record.

Some could not hear . . .

{ACS.001_05} . . . what Warren said regarding "If he'd run?"
{ACS.001_06} A METAPHOR about "drum majorette"
{ACS.001_07} derailed their logic track. When speech was done
{ACS.001_08} they did not have what they had come to get.

{ACS.001_09} A WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF (I will not name)
{ACS.001_10} sat two feet from the stage, but could not tell
{ACS.001_11} if Beatty said he'd run -- translate his fame
{ACS.001_12} from Hollywood to Washington pell mell.

{ACS.001_13} BUT IT WAS CLEAR TO ME he said, "No go."
{ACS.001_14} THE BUREAU CHIEF'S REPORT read,

"We don't know."

{ACS.002_01} PERHAPS it helped that Courtney Love's

loud breath

{ACS.002_02} had primed my eardrum for that metaphor
{ACS.002_03} about the "majorette." Cold logic's death
{ACS.002_04} brought on by Courtney's lips --

not stiff Al Gore . . .

{ACS.002_05} . . . or Bush flat-footed phrases all week long
{ACS.002_06} the bureau chief endured and numbed his soul
{ACS.002_07} (and other body parts unnamed). The wrong
{ACS.002_08} conclusion that he reached --

misjudged the goal- . . .

{ACS.002_09} . . . post wide enough to make you wonder why
{ACS.002_10} they'd sent him on the field. Not "on-the-ball" --
{ACS.002_11} this ivy-educated, well-classed guy
{ACS.002_12} who snubbed me

when the wrong first name I call . . .

{ACS.002_13} . . . out to him as I stride to shake his hand.
{ACS.002_14} Sometimes forget those wussy twits.

They're bland. {smile}

{ACS.003_01} WELL ANYWAY, the point of this parade
{ACS.003_02} of words bound in constraints

of Shakespeare's form

{ACS.003_03} is even if two people are arrayed
{ACS.003_04} before the same speech scene,

one may be warm . . .

{ACS.003_05} . . . the other cold as ice, when asked to write
{ACS.003_06} the facts of what they saw before their eyes
{ACS.003_07} in one location on the same long night
{ACS.003_08} when truth came marching clearly in disguise . . .

{ACS.003_09} . . . The artist with his ear brushed by hot lips
{ACS.003_10} hears what the cold-eyed journalist does not.
{ACS.003_11} Though I could never tell what Courtney quips,
{ACS.003_12} what Warren Beatty said, I clearly got.

{ACS.003_13} And, by the way, that speech

was meant for me.

{ACS.003_14} BOKE IS "drum majorette" . . . with poetry.
# # #

HAIKU CODA

By the time we're done

perhaps you'll see that our eyes

have the best vision. {smile}

ASIDE: An Historical (?) Note ... in the neighborhood of "CIVILITY" and PUBLIC DISCOURSE

From a 4th of July oration, 1852, in Rochester, NY, in James M. Gregory, ed., Frederick Douglass, the Orator (New York, 1893), pp. 103-06.

Frederick Douglass:

At a time like this, scorching irony, not

convincing argument, is needed. O! had I

the ability, and could reach the nation's ear,

I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of

biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering

sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light

that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle

shower, but thunder. We need the storm,

the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling

of the nation must be quickened; the

conscience of the nation must be roused;

the propriety of the nation must be startled;

the hypocrisy of the nation must be

exposed; and its crimes against God and

man must be proclaimed and denounced.

While we wait for EPISODE #1 (on Sunday) ...

(1) ... you can check for the lastest items in the news flow with the buttons below ...

CLICK FOR Google News SEARCH FOR "american candidate" SHOWTIME

CLICK FOR Yahoo! News SEARCH FOR "american candidate" SHOWTIME

AND ... (2) Since Google will be going public in a week or two ... ponder the "existential epistemology of search engines" {smile} ... and contemplate the big picture of what BOKE is "up to" {grin} (rhetorically) in the context of "American Candidate," Journalism, and ...

Google american candidate showtime

Yahoo american candidate showtime

MSN Search american candidate showtime

MSN Search PREVIEW american candidate showtime

Ask Jeeves american candidate showtime

Gigablast search american candidate showtime

AND (3) wonder where is...
the mysterious Doctor Wunder? {smile}

---

TO REVISIT THIS BLOG's BEGINNINGS (before Veritas stepped into an interdimensional portal, or something ... {smile} ...

ENTRIES BY VERITAS ... from first to last (so far)
(V.01) 6/08/04 [12:11] (V.02) 06/08/04 [12:45] (V.03) 6/08/04 [18:38] (V.04) 6/09/04 [13:31] (V.05) 6/10/04 [13:10] (V.06) 06/11/04 [17:04]	(V.07) 6/13/04 [23:07] (V.08) 06/15/04 [23:13] (V.09) 06/17/04 [15:34] (V.10) 06/19/04 [17:49] (V.11) MUSICAL 06/22/04 [08:33] (V.12) MUSICAL 06/25/04 [17:12]	(V.13) 07/06/04 [7:55] (V.14) 07/07/04 [8:17] (V.15) 07/09/04 [8:17] (V.16) 07/14/04 [5:06]

AND LAST, (if you've missed any songs {grin}), HERE'S AN AmCan Sham SONG INDEX (by the ever-industrious BOKE {smile})

MEANWHILE LAST NIGHT ... on NIGHTLINE ... TED KOPPEL (briefly) discussed BULLSHIT with JON STEWART

This is the most illuminating commentary on journalism you will ever hear on TV so pay attention {smile/ no joke}:

(paraphrased only slighly)

TED KOPPEL (to Jon Stewart): YOU get to say things are B.S. (yada) with humor.... I can't do that.

JON STEWART: ... YOU can do it without the humor ... (yada yada) CREDIBILITY

TED KOPPEL: Out of time. (Shoos Stewart away.)

More links for today (Thursday) ... for later comment

Turned off by 2 presidential choices? Try these 10
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

QUICK COMMENTS (for now): Gets a lot of the framing right, but skips over the implications of method of "elimination" ... and the use of Kaplan quote is a bit "off." (More later.). AND ... journalists continue to "fall for the idea" that political competitors should be sweet and civil to each other. Respect and all that crap. Trust me. That's bullshit. (For example, Candidate Gillespie gives Jesus a bad name. He's a blasphemer of the holy spirit and is therefore going to hell {smile} That is how it is SUPPOSED to be done.)

Provo politician is 'reality' candidate
by Scott D. Pierce DESERT MORNING SUN (Utah)

QUICK COMMENT/HIGHLIGHT (for now): Richard Mack (who was running for governor of Utah until the producers called him) says that the people picked for the show are, well, just finer than fish hair ... "I think the caliber of individual that was on the show is much higher than what you'll see in real life." {smile} Yeah, TV producers can sure pick 'em good... if Mack does say so , himself. {grin}

FULLER COMMENTARY LATER (time permitting)

(FOR FUN) An EXCELLENT TITLE ... and WILD speculation ... by playful BILL FROST of SALT LAKE CITY WEEKLY

HEADLINE: (Excellent)
Fake the Nation:Showtime's American Candidate mocks the vote, reality style.

" ... Chrissy, hand on Lisa’s ass: “I feel your pain—and a Vicky’s Secret thong, if I’m not mistaken. Bold choice"

Well, I guess we can take a break from careful fact-checking on this one. {smile} BUT I WILL SAY that in the brief biographical parentheticals, you're leaving a whole lot unsaid if, for instance, you don't mention that Chrissy Gephardt is the daughter of Dick Gephardt ... BUT this piece is not to be read for the facts, but for the fun. No, let us not forget fun. AMEN.

FACTUAL ERRORS and BULLSHIT (about American Candidate) brought to you by RHONDA STEWART (half-assed journalist) of the Boston Globe

HEADLINE: (OK)
It's Showtime for this eager 'Candidate' (Boston Globe 7/29/04)

If the country is ever ready to elect a black, Puerto Rican, Italian woman with a pierced tongue and hip-hop sensibility as president, it might be Emerson College alum Malia. Lazu

Well, as far as I know, that first sentence sounds like the truth. {smile} (Of course, I'd have to check out that piercing, and hear her rap a little to be sure. {grin}) BUT what about the rest of that piece? Let's take a look ...

JOURNALIST SAYS

REALITY {smile}

FACTUAL ERROR: "Most of the show was filmed during primary season. In the second episode, for example, the group travels to Keene, N.H.,"

American Candidate (pre-final) episodes were filmed from JUNE 7 TO EARLY JULY. That is NOT "primary season" in this reality. {smile} For example, they were in Keene from June 10-13.

FACTUAL ERROR: "When the show airs, voters in the state where the candidates made their appearance can call a toll-free number to choose their favorite. The two who receive the lowest number of votes square off in an elimination debate to see who'll be ousted from the show."

Except for the final (one or two) episodes, all the voting has already been completed. Voting took place in the towns/states where the competition took place... at that time.

BULLSHIT: "More than 20,000 people requested or downloaded applications for the show, and the 10 finalists were chosen from 1,500 people."

And I brushed my teeth, and the earth revolved on its axis, but the sun was not much affected by my brushing, either. {smile} I.E., Read Veritas' posts below.

SLIGHTLY MORE SUBTLE BULLSHIT: Cutler said the show examines the notion people are taught in school that any boy or girl can grow up to be president. "I promise you when John Kerry is sitting around in a quiet moment, he's got a lot of the same insecurities and anxieties these guys have," he said. "There's a point to be made about this, which is people who run for president are human. They're men and women just like you and me. They're not royalty. They're not gods. They're not chosen by gods."

No, they're chosen by television producers {serious smile} ... and other rhetorically incompetent babies. yada yada yada (More later, obviously. {grin})