Topical Limerick a Day » politics

Big Sausage

theauthor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:21:08 +0000

What could be more bizarre than the recent behavior of retiring Representative Eric Massa, charged of sexually harassing an aide at a New Year’s Eve party, resigning (but *not* for *that*), then claiming it was all a set-up because he is the deciding vote on health care reform… then finding a fan in Glenn Beck? What a… sausage. Still, in some cases, he might be right.

A Congressman named Eric Massa,

Lost more than a small bit of class-a:

Turning ethics to dust,

Is healthcare now bust?

Among Dems there’s no bigger kielbasa!

Electoral Insecurity

theauthor — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:05:27 +0000

Yesterday’s limerick dealt with local budgeting in the tiny burg of Los Angeles. Today we take a more “macro” look at budgeting. From TPM:

House Republicans don’t have an official budget yet. But they have what amounts to a first draft. The official budget will be released in March or April and will be authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee in consultation with the other Republicans on the Committee. But Ryan has released a budget he’d like. And it’s actually fairly detailed. And if you read it, which we have, you start to wonder why Democrats aren’t making a bigger deal out of it.

What’s in it? A few interesting things.

First, it calls for big cuts in Social Security benefits for everyone currently under 55 years of age. On top of the cuts it also calls for privatizing Social Security.

It’s already become a near surety,

When we’re talking of Social Security:

GOP wants it cut!

Excuse me, say what?

Hope this leads to their party’s obscurity.

Congressman, Inc.

theauthor — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:42:19 +0000

Sorry I’m a little bit later today. You got two-for-one yesterday… give me a break! By far the most bizarre outcome from last week’s supreme court ruling is that a corporation in Maryland has not only registered to vote, but plans to run for election to congress.

I admit it, I really do think,

That our country’s been pushed to the brink,

And even that hell’s come,

When we’ll soon say welcome,

To our new serving Congressman, Inc.

Republocrat or Demican?

theauthor — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:00:15 +0000

President Obama seems poised, along with half of the Democratic caucus, to learn exactly the wrong lesson from the Massachusetts Senatorial election. Polling consistently shows that the public simply wants politicians that get things DONE. The Democrats won an amazing “change” election in 2008, and then proceeded to govern as if it were business as usual, kowtowing to a beaten minority in hopes of fleeting “bipartisanship,” ignoring the (actual) mandate handed to them, and botching health care reform. A majority of the public STILL wants a public option component, it’s just that Joe Lieberman doesn’t! Now, Obama is set to propose a spending freeze (something he mocked McCain for suggesting during the campaign), just as he decided he liked the idea of taxing “Cadillac” health plans (another McCain idea he once scoffed at). All of this leads me to wonder, who the hell did we elect? Is he just a people-pleasing approval-seeking nerd that craves approval from the mindless jocks? Listen, when you win an historic Presidential election, I gotta tell you, you finally ARE one of the popular kids!

Forgive me for bringing this up again,

But before he signs bills with his fountain pen,

Our prez should remember,

A year past November,

We did not elect him Republican.

Obama’s First Year

theauthor — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:22:31 +0000

Count me as one of those progressives, who, along with Paul Krugman, has begun to doubt Obama’s willingness to actually, you know, LEAD.

I don’t mean to be doubting Thomas,

As the President attempts to balm us,

But the things that we’ve got,

Have shown that we bought…

Change not matching the size of the promise.

“No, We Can’t.”

theauthor — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:51:12 +0000

Obama’s latest poll numbers reflect a growing disenchantment with a man who promised “Hope” and “Change” in his campaign, but who has had to scale back those promises thanks to, IMHO, congressional ineptitude.

Though he still has the skill to enchant,

And charisma and charm I do grant,

But with health reform stalled,

Hefty foreclosures sprawled,

“Yes We Can” has become “No We Can’t.“

Obama and the threat of a Filibuster

theauthor — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:36:50 +0000

I, for one, am sick that the Health Care bill set to pass the senate without a filibuster is such a watered-down piece of crap. One that will force individuals to buy insurance from private companies (the very companies that got us into a health care crisis) without giving those same individuals an affordable choice through a cost-saving public option (or even allowing them to buy into Medicare 10 years early). But I’m most frustrated that this President has so lost the courage of his convictions that he didn’t even try to call Lieberman or Nelson’s bluffs… a better strategy would have been to bring a GREAT bill to the senate floor and force the Republicans and their obstructionist friends to filibuster, showing their true colors. It’s no coincidence that Obama’s poll numbers have fallen in direct correlation to the stripping of this bill. America voted for BIG CHANGE in the 2008 election, and instead we’re getting more of the same feckless, meandering leadership. See my prior post about Joe Lieberman.

Why does the threat of a forthcoming filibuster

Make Obama back down when he coulda mustered

His courage and fought

For legislation un-bought

Instead he’s lost what once was killer-luster.