Murtha Writes to Bush

Murtha Writes to Bush

Short version:
Iraq is not the center of the war on terrorism.
Redeploy, Replace, Reallocate, Reconstitute

CNN is Having Faux Cow over Toles Cartoon

CNN is Having Faux Cow over Toles Cartoon


CNN is such a weasel-network. They are feigning shock over Tom Toles' political cartoon from January 29th. I can just hear Ken Mehlman or one of his minions in the ear of the network's higher-ups. Outrage! Tom Toles is supporting the terrorists!

On their Healine News network, they are taking a poll, asking the leading question, "Did Toles take it too far?"

When is CNN going to grow up?

CNN's special news feature on "Two Irans" last night, following Bush's further SOTU demonization of and hyperfocus on Iran, was interesting, but I cannot imagine why we wouldn't be seeing a hell of a lot more stories about the "Two Americas." We have enough polarization and poverty right here in the U.S. to fill entire days and news cycles.

I am reminded of 2002 - the lead-up to the war with Iraq when CNN blasted all their demon-Iraq features. I am convinced now, more than ever, that CNN is just another arm of the Oval Office. I had turned them off completely after the presidential election in 2004. I didn't watch them for months and frankly, I barely missed them.

In my opinion, news editors at CNN need to be in more control of their own content instead of allowing the agenda of a very unpopular president (and the corporations who love him) guide their editorial decisions. Their credibility is draining away like swirling feces down the sewer pipe.

In the real world with a news organization with editors who have integrity and balls, Rumsfled would have been fired three years ago, and perhaps we may have never gone to Iraq at all. It's obvious that CNN was intimidated by Bush's SOTU dissent-warnings on Tuesday night.

I want news that really matters to me and my family. I'm sick of our news networks coddling the fear-moongerers and, by their failure to be adequately critical, become fear-mongerers. I long for the enlightened writers and news editors. The words "free press" mean nothing when there is inadequate debate and an ignorance of important issues.

I'm So Sorry, Mrs. Sheehan

I'm So Sorry, Mrs. Sheehan

I'm So Sorry, Mrs. Sheehan
A Poem by Iddybud

In this poem, I am acting as the voice of the Capitol police officer Mike Weight who arrested Cindy Sheehan in the visitor's gallery just before the State of the Union speech last Tuesday night. Mr Weight is the one who called out "Protestor!" upon seeing Mrs. Sheehan sitting down in the gallery and removing her jacket to reveal a T-shirt displaying a running tally of the number of troops killed in Iraq.



i'm so sorry, Mrs. Sheehan
but my master begged me do it
had i not arrested you
the boss would say i blew it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~



disruptive conduct was the charge
your T-shirt message was too large
it told a truth we cannot bear
and W couldn't afford you there.

i know your Casey died for me
and all his buddies, but, you see
"speech" on State of the Union day
is only "free" if you wear plain gray




disruptive conduct was the charge
your T-shirt message was too large
the reason we gave for giving you the boot
was because you didn't arrive in a suit

we tossed you from the gallery floor
because your numbers cut to the core
while W spoke of some far-off "liberty"
he was killing our own on prime-time TV

disruptive conduct was the charge
your T-shirt message was too large
they made me toss you from the People's House
i knew in my heart i was acting the louse

so strong was Bushite resentment for you
that they made me eject Beverly Young, too
bush honored one soldier while his family stayed
and booted you - Casey's sacrifice underplayed

disruptive conduct was the charge
your t-shirt message was too large
bush says he won't take your kind of dissent
you're out on your ass if you're not in his tent

the call of history to deliver the oppressed
turns to piss when the gallery's improperly dressed
we have to learn to nod, applaud, and obey
like Stepford wives on lithium and Cabernet

disruptive conduct was the charge
your T-shirt message was too large
my boss says he's sorry for doing you wrong
but he knew what he had to do all along

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I'm so sorry, Mrs. Sheehan
but my master begged me do it
had i not arrested you
the boss would say I blew it.