7-24-07 CLASS-ASS WARFARE
  Back in the day, our news was reported,
By ragged-ass folks like me.
They drove those old cars, drank in our bars,
They knew just how tough life could be.

Journalists now are Ivy League grads,
Wolf Blitzer makes four million five,
They hang with the fat cats and Beltway Elite,
No clue how us wage-slaves survive.

Health care they have. Wealth care they have.
Fat chance they'll hear our cries.
If they guard the gates when we storm the castle,
Then they can forget any Pulitzer Prize!
7-17-07 THE BATTLE OF FILIBUSTER HILL
  Not one IED
In Washington D.C.
No mortar attack
During votes on Iraq.
But little American flags on their coats,
Are badges of war, and the fight is for votes.
Warriors in Congress, too stubborn to lose,
Boots on the ground, too dead to choose.
7-10-07 A TERRORIST FOLLOWED ME HOME
  I dreamed that a terrorist followed me home,
Laughing like hell all the way.
He gloats about Arabic translators we fired,
It's policy, I said, they were gay!

With intercepts going unread, he snarled,
Your dumb-ass policy is fraying.
'Cause, you bet your iPhone we'll follow you home,
If we know you don’t know what we’re saying!
6-26-07 KEEPING AN EYE ON OUR CRAZY UNCLE
  Happy Birthday Uncle Sam,
Looks like you've been through the wringer.
Once the whole world saluted you,
Now it's mostly the middle finger.

You used to be such a likeable sort,
More friends than a co-ed dorm,
But torture, renditions and pre-emptive war,
Are really, really bad form.

Your leaders are sneaky, your borders are leaky,
We all think you're on the wrong track.
So, blow out the candles, and WISE UP, dammit!
'Cause I want my fave uncle back!
6-19-07 HOLY HATE
  The Righteous Right hates the hate crime bill,
They say it restricts their speech.
It's their job to tell us who God doesn't like,
So they talk some trash when they preach.
Professional haters have their rights, too,
And don't try to tell 'em what Jesus would do.
6-12-07 HAVE ANOTHER G-8
  He's back home at 1600 Pennsylvania,
With bi-partisan anger and anti-Bush mania.
His home-grown numbers have gone down the drainia,
But he wants to remind us he's huge in Albania.
6-5-07 WHAT'S THE HITCH?
  Republicans cry for marriage protection,
They wail the loudest before an election.
As in any race, let's look at the horses,
Republicans, Wow!  Lotsa divorces!
For real protection, we ought to condemn,
The serial marryers like them.
5-22-07 WHO'S ILLEGAL?
  When the first peace pipe was passed,
A mellow medicine man,
Crafted the first legislation,
A bad immigration plan.
5-15-07 E. COLI CONSERVATIVES
  The twisted minds of Republican hacks,
Insist we need government off our backs.
That's code for: look out, you're on your own, fella!
With E. coli salad and shrimp salmonella,
Your dog died?  Sorry.  Lax regulations,
I'd munch that next burger with low expectations.
5-8-07 A WEDGIE FOR ROE vs. WADE
  Abortion opponents can have it both ways,
They're against contraception as well.
Instead of one happy solution for all,
Two angry wedge issues to sell.
5-1-07 THE WAR ON REALITY
  Our President scorns reality,
(He thinks it's a liberal plot.)
He has his own science, makes his own facts,
He's no fan of logical thought.

Decider of deadly decisions,
(Leaving us at the scene of the crime.)
Still he covets the right to be deadly wrong,
Time after time, after time.
4-24-07 SECOND-HAND AMENDMENT
  The NRA has friends in high places,
Gun nuts who sometimes shoot friends in their faces.
They want us to think guns don't kill – people do,
Oh, please!  With no Glock, does he kill 32?
  ALL GRIEF IS LOCAL
  At Virginia Tech, the mourner-in-chief,
Had comforting words to say.
Does it seem to you that he rations compassion?
In Baghdad, 32 dead's a good day.
4-17-07 HIGH AND DRY
  Remember that time when the Reverend Falwell
(Who always knows all of God's plan)
Told us before we invaded Iraq,
That George Bush was God's chosen man?

Since then a taste of the famous Bush arrogance,
Has given the whole world a fit.
You wonder why Bush needs to hire a War Czar?
Well, here's what I think:  God quit!
4-10-07 PEACE ON EARTH
  The see-evil Christian speaks loudly of sin,
With a wedge issue up his sleeve.
The golden-rule Christian speaks softly of tolerance.
Permissive!  They'd have us believe.

But dangling salvation and thundering hell,
Seems mean clear through to the bone.
How peaceful t'would be if they'd wait for the Rapture,
And just leave us sinners alone.
4-3-07 McCAIN AGAINST THE GRAIN
  "Iraq's a success!"  the senator cried,
The problem is journalist's liberal views.
Cheer up, man, over a hundred have died,
Searching Iraq high and low for good news.
   *The senator took a short walk in Baghdad the other day with
     six layers of security including a tank and two helicopter gunships.
3-27-07 JUST US
  Bush buddy Alberto Gonzales
Has kicked up a helluva fuss.
The way he runs his department,
It's starting to look like Just Us.

And now there's a truthiness problem,
With congress demanding a chat,
So we'll see why the nations top lawyer,
Can't lie any better than that.
3-20-07 SHOCK AND FLAW
  Invading a country and blowing stuff up,
Will likely be misunderstood.
And four years of death and destruction,
Won't teach 'em it's for their own good.
This leaves a dumb cowboy to try to explain,
Why Attila the Hun is really John Wayne.
3-13-07 SAVING PACE
  That fire-breathing General Pace,
Says gays are a moral disgrace,
But by living a lie,
You can join up and die,
And do it with all sorts of grace,
So the medieval Army saves face.
3-6-07 WELCOME HOME
  The president strongly supports the troops,
Of course, with this president, there is an OOPS!
He welcomed our heroes back into the fold,
With cockroaches, rats and some nasty-ass mold.
Proud of bad government, still loves his war,
That cowboy has left us a bad saddle-sore.
2-27-07 BARACK AND WHITE
  It's gotta be tough
When you're not black enough,
That the brothers and sisters get down,
But still too black
To flag down a hack,
In a dangerous part of town.
2-20-07 WORD WAR III
  It's an ugly war only a president could love,
He's becoming a smirky-ass bore,
Congress breaks out in mouth-to-mouth combat,
Rhetorical blood on the Senate floor.
And each day another few boots on the ground,
Are too dead to care any more.
2-13-07 REMEMBERING MOLLY
  Thank God and Texas for Molly Ivins,
Destroyer of smoke-filled rooms.
She rambled through our political zoo,
And proudly showed off the baboons.

She gleefully trimmed a Bush back to a shrub,
And skewered fat cats and free riders,
So stand up, you wage-slaves and downtrodden rebels,
She told us that WE'RE the deciders!
2-6-07 MOUTH TRAP
  That motor mouth, Senator Biden,
Has a good-old-boy way of confidin'
But when he heads South,
He should harness his mouth,
Or that's where his foot will be hidin'
1-30-07 THE L WORD
  At an endless parade of staged events,
The president rants and the president vents,
But the bully pulpit has worn so thin,
That nobody's buying that dumb-ass spin.
So it's time to look for a sharp increase,
In the sneakiest form of press release . . .
The Leak!
1-23-07 THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE 34% PRESIDENT 
  No more folksy talk to dodge the truth.  We hate being folked.
No more whining from the safety of the rose garden that the war is “hard work.”
No more “Axis of Evil” now that the world thinks WE are the Big Evil.
No more “Go Shopping” to keep America great.
No more blaming liberal media for embarrassing truths.
No more “Defeatocrats” after being defeated by “Defeatocrats.”
No more “virtues party” for the Republicans.
No more feel-good labels to dress up destructive policy.
No more troops INTO Iraq.  More troops OUT of Iraq.
1-16-07 AMEN!
  If Martin Luther King were on board,
To witness our president rattle his sword,
We'd hear his stern warning once again,
About "guided missiles and unguided men."
1-9-07 LEGISLATION HAPPENS
  Marching behind the elephants,
Is the crappiest kind of frustration.
Democrats Reid and Pelosi will need,
Some scoop-as-you-go legislation.
1-2-07 NO URGE TO SURGE
  Look, Mr. President, no WMDs!
The war that you sold us is won!
The urge to surge means more dead heroes,
Has it been worth even one?
12-26-06 HARD SELL
  Our president's selling democracy,
To people who don't want to buy it.
There may be a flaw in his marketing plan,
Since it's killing the folks who might try it.
  *  Tragically, it's killing the American sales force, too.
12-19-06 SUGAR PLUMS & ECONOMIC JUSTICE
  Santa, please!  We need a new Congress,
That works more than three days a week.
And, hey, don't they owe us an eight-hour day?
Us wage-slaves who pay for their keep?

And, Santa, please bring us a living wage,
With a sweet little sugar plum . . .
That gives us a cost of living adjustment,
Every time Congress gets one.
12-12-06 HOLIDAY SHOPPING
  Have you bought a congressman yet?
For that quid-pro-quo minuet?
Better hurry 'cause everything's planned,
For Congress to strike up the band,
Where the fat cats and lobbyists will dance,
And us wallflowers won't have a chance.
But voters make lists and we're checking 'em twice,
So we'll know in '08 who's been naughty or nice!
12-05-06 HILL AND BILL ON CAPITOL HILL
  Will she run?  Let's ask Bill.
Bill says:  It's up to Hill.
Has he a clue?  Just a smidge?
Maybe a Post-it on the fridge?
Bill and Hill.  Hill and Bill.
See how they run on Capitol Hill.
11-28-06 THE UNCIVIL WAR
  They won’t let us call it a civil war,
'Cause then we could cut and run.
So staying and dying is what we'll be doing,
Until we get it all done.
I've noticed the spin about staying to win,
And all of the victory crying,
Comes mostly from folks who are oceans away,
From all of that staying and dying.
11-21-06 CHARGE IT
  The GOP hates government,
(Just look at how they’ve done it!)
Democrats who love it so,
Seldom get to run it.
Republicans, the all-time champs,
Of quid-pro-quo red inking,
Hand off the fiscal ship of state,
So Dems will own its sinking.
11-14-06 THE POLITICIAN
  Here lies a failed politician,
Shot down on a foolhardy mission,
He kissed the right asses,
Neglected the masses,
The folks back home sent him fishin'.
11-7-06 THE LAZY-ASS VOTE
  If you don’t vote, then don't bitch,
You want democracy, scratch the itch.

If you don't vote, it's all your fault,
Corruption will grind the gears to a halt.

The crooks and liars we send to the hill,
Need eagle-eye watching for hands in the till.

You're not helping out if you don't even vote,
'Cause we're bailing like crazy here, staying afloat.

Let's face it, democracy's in its last throes,
Are you just gonna stand there and watch as it goes?
10-31-06 RUMMY'S FOLLIES
  We all knew Don Rumsfeld talked in circles,
We thought it was part of his charm.
The clue that we missed: he THINKS in circles,
Should have been cause for alarm.

He gleefully juggles our troops and our treasure,
With equal parts chutzpah and chance.
But buckets of blood have been spilled on his watch,
So give him the hook for that cheap song and dance.
10-24-06 NOT AS I DO
  The party of virtue fires up its flock,
By talking that virtue talk.
Such high sanctimony
Sounds a tad phony
When they can't seem to walk the walk.
10-17-06 EXCLAMATION POINT
  Iraq's just a comma, the president said,
History won't count this number of dead.
But war-weary voters are all next of kin,
And we're rallying votes to punctuate him!
10-10-06 TUNNEL VISION
  Why couldn't the Bushies find WMDs?
Looking in all the wrong places.
Then, BLAM!  What’s that?  NORTH KOREA??
Can you say egg on their faces?
10-3-06 HOW TO SUCCEED IN THE GOP
  Remember, God's on your side,
So ethics will get a free ride.
But heed the wisdom of ages,
Don't grope the capitol pages.
9-26-06 TERROR ERROR
  The president frightens us year after year.
He fears disaster, that much is clear.
Now terror attacks,
By Republican hacks,
Reveal the source of his fear.
  * Those pesky Democrats.
9-19-06 THE DECIDER
  Who put the dent in president?
Who put the ass in disaster?
Who sank the Good Ship Bipartisanship?
Could it have drowned any faster?

Who put the I in decider?
Did the buck ever stop where it should?
And who put the folk in folksy?
It seems we got folked pretty good.
9-12-06 IRAQ?  OOPS!
  Didja protest the president's war of choice?
Didja march and picket and raise your voice?
To reward your statesmanlike sense of direction
You get TWO VOTES in the next election!

Documented proof of PRE-war activism will be required. Yes, most Americans
now agree that you were far wiser than the Bush administration. And for that,
Rush Limbaugh called you an idiot, Bill O’Reilly told you to shut up, Republicans
called you unpatriotic, and your president said you were irresponsible. Even some
of our fiercest war hawks have now said, “Oops!” But not our warrior president,
who says he knows it’s hard work, all that dying over there, but we’ll keep on doing it.
9-5-06 GEORGE BUSH: THE FREEDOM PRESIDENT
  Freedom from truth and embarrassing facts,
Freedom to spin all those illegal acts.
Free to use freedom for any occasion,
Change a regime, launch an invasion.
Freedom to do it and then to deny it,
Freedom to trash a small country, then buy it.
Freedom to smirk and to taunt "Bring 'em On,"
Freedom from guilt as the battles rage on.
Freedom to spin his small, bloody war,
Into World War Three, or possibly Four.
8-29-06 FEMA ATTACK
  The folks in New Orleans' Ninth Ward say they wonder,
How dense can our president be?
He says if you're scared of a terror attack,
You must put your trust in me.
Well, Bush can say any damn thing that he wants,
But a terror attack means a FEMA RESPONSE !!
      Now THAT'S scary!
8-22-06 DICK CHENEY RIDING SHOTGUN
  Our veep is a creep with a dangerous gun,
Blasting at Democrats hit and run.
He says that he knows
They give aid to our foes
Is he just having fun, or has Dick come undone?
   *By the way, aren’t those foes in their last throes?
8-15-06 SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE
  Connecticut voted and Joe didn't win it,
He says he won't go.  He says he’s still in it.
The Left doesn't like him, the Right, just a little,
So he called a do-over to run in the middle.
He says if he loses, it's still not too late,
To file a few papers and start his own state.
8-8-06 WHO PUT THE DIP IN DIPLOMACY?
  If you're not with us, we ain't talking!
That makes us look tough and mean.
It must be the water in Crawford, Texas,
That leaches out the diplomacy gene.

So half of the world blows itself up,
The rest is yet to come.
Just wait till the folks who don't like us jump in,
While the White House plays tough and dumb.
8-1-06 MEMO TO THE GOP
  We know your compassion to save the unborn,
Your end-of-life empathy shines.
But for God’s sake tune in
To the life that we’re IN
‘Cause you’re screwing it up BIG TIME!
7-25-06 THE WARRIOR WIMP
  Our president’s sort of a wimp about science,
It causes him lots of anxiety.
By copping a chill
On the Stem Cell Bill,
He got voted in to the Flat Earth Society.
7-18-06 ONE NATION DIVISIBLE
  The President brags the economy booms,
Wage earners say that it stinks.
Congress blows kisses to corporate wealth,
As the middle class lifeboat sinks.

Bush seems to think that we’re ALL in high clover,
With six-figure tax cuts to show it.
But here in the overworked, chump-change economy,
IF it starts booming, WE’LL KNOW IT !!
7-11-06 TIN STAR DIPLOMACY
  The sheriff wasn’t sure where Baghdad was.
It was plumb ‘cross the County Line.
They never liked us, and we never liked them,
And that used to be just fine.

But our sheriff scorned that Baghdad sheriff,
Said he was an evil dude.
We hadda blow up his chicken coop,
Cause he had a bad attitude.

So now Sheriff Bush has a homestead,
In the nice warm desert sand.
It looks quite a lot like a shootin’ war,
But the sheriff says it’s going as planned.

The sheriff’’s poor posse is dodgin’ bullets,
And good will is mighty slim pickin’s,
‘Cause folks get testy and tend to fight back,
When ya blow up all their chickens.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,
The sheriff twirls his gun,
And says with a smirk that dyin’s hard work
But we never will cut and run!
7-4-06 OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE?
  Congress has gotten its shorts in a bind
To stamp out a problem they still hope to find
. . . FLAG BURNING !

Do those tin patriots think they're elected
To keep the American people protected
From . . . FLAG BURNING ?

And how many workers in Communist China
Make flags we're saluting in South Carolina?
. . . THINK ABOUT IT !
6-27-06 WEALTHY WELFARE
  Congress wants us, the ragged-ass poor,
To subsidize millionaires, whom we adore.
But, hold it!  It's 70 billion they need?
It must be a struggle, that life that they lead.
This trickle down scam is losing its clout.
So here's an idea:  Let’s throw the bums out!
6-20-06 IRAQI PAPPY
  The president dropped in to Baghdad to say,
America keeps its word!
We all thought he'd finally found WMD's
But no, that would be absurd.

He just wants to tell us the mission's secure,
It's safe there as in Cincinnati.
And so, when you go to the polls in November,
Just ask yourself: who's your Baghdaddy?
6-13-06 GAY RITES
  Are we running so low on intolerance,
That we need to refresh our supply?
How shrill did the wind blow on Capitol Hill
Where the Gay Marriage bill went to die?
There Congress enshrined our narrowest minds
While Justice and Truth drew a bye.
6-6-06 PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
  When the very first peace pipe was passed,
One confused medicine man,
Crafted the Indian's first legislation,
A woefully bad immigration plan.
5-30-06 THE KATRINA WAR
  The president spins his Katrina war
To look like it's going his way.
But how many more will we bury,
Before next Memorial Day?

Each time this president says the word "Freedom,"
Another few lives are lost.
And who says "Democracy" justifies war
With no thought of who pays the cost?
5-23-06 GOD'S PINK SLIP
  The president sold us a short, sweet war
And gave us a long, bloody hell.
The president may think he's doing God's work;
I doubt that God thinks he's doing it well.
5-16-06 WHO’S SPOOKING?
  Does anyone think that the president’s spooks
Are not gonna spy on our calls?
We know most of us made the terrorist list
If we once marched for peace in Sioux Falls.
And so did most journalists, Hollywood types,
And a small group of Quaker peaceniks.
So, if I were you, I wouldn’t call me,
Or Neil Young or those darn Dixie Chicks.
5-9-06 TEXAS-FRIED EARTH
  Not everything coming from Texas is bad,
But two would be Bush and Big Oil.
They’ve poisoned our atmosphere, trapped in our heat,
The pot is starting to boil!

When glaciers are melted and rivers are dry,
Humanity's gasping of thirst;
If justice is done, when the earth gets fried,
They'll barbeque Texas first.
5-2-06 PUMP GRUMP
  A cowboy nation don't drive Minis,
We love SUVs.
And big old trucks that guzzle gas,
And hog the road with ease.

I lumber to the pump for gas,
And, Ouch!  It breaks the bank!
I used to have a tiger,
Now a kitten's in my tank.
4-25-06 STRAIGHT TALK FROM THE 32% PRESIDENT
  You knew we hated government.
Did you think we would run it with care?
You knew we scorned intellectuals.
Did you want analytical thinking?
You knew we favored wealth.
Did you think we would cherish workers?
You knew we made gutsy snap judgments.
Did you think we would plan ahead?
You wanted the down-to-earth guy clearing brush,
Not the brainy, articulate senator.
You wanted a regular guy. You got a regular guy.
Now, get off my back!
4-18-06 HECKUVA JOB, RUMMY
  Rummy's a heckuva guy, heaven knows,
He says the insurgency's in its last throes.
He thinks the top brass
Should be out kicking ass
And not tromping all over his toes.
4-11-06 TOM'S DeLAY
  A congressman named DeLay
Was creative at games people play.
Maybe more than he ought
Cause he finally got caught,
Now the GOP's been de-DeLayed.
  © 2009 Ellen Griffith