Wednesday, August 31, 2011

rhymes for the newsworth times a kastia curve

Whew, Irene with its deaths and flooding has now left and horrors Kastia is now there on deck to replace. Weathermen are talking about curving that may send Katia to the right away from our shores, good thing as more rain we cannot take. If you are going to talk baseball speak it right. A right hander's curve moves to the left and down but his screwball moves to the right and into the cold waters of the North Atlantic.
NAME YOUR PITCH
Irene has lost her punch and has been removed from the mound
Leaving billions lost and flooding water to abound
A reliever called Katia is on a slow stroll from the weather gods pen
Today only a question of where, no longer a question of when
The winds of Hell reach out to howl and to lash
Trees and buildings downed and to crash
The news is that she may "curve" off to the right
And die a slow death away from land on a September night
A curve and slider would break to the left and drop
Bringing death and destruction to swamped lands hard to stop
Time for the weathermen to with words refine
Trying to keep this storm on the proper line
Pray to the ghost of Hubbell and to the Big Blue memories of Fernando and Mike
That the weatherman can call the only pitch that we would all like
It's a screwball, dear writer and not a curve
Off into the Atlantic for the respite we now deserve
© August 31, 2011 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Rhymes on the Newsworthy Times Obama Reading List

I have always known the President takes a vacation in August well-deserved, but never knew his reading list was observed. it is a tradition and we learn our President while chilling on the isle of the rich, brought only fiction to read. I read 2 books a week and would never complain on one's reading list, but in the times of chaos, I am surprised that the list was not full of books on economics and how to create jobs. Tragic, to see the "leader" of the world out of touch, out of reality, and forgive my bias hopefully serving only one term.

To Read At The Vineyard
We are slipping into a double dip recession
Jobless rates soon to near the depression
While the Big Blue parties on the isle of the rich
the rest of us slide into the jobless ditch
yet we learn of Big Blue's reading list only fiction
Nothing on how to cure our nation's spending addiction
enjoy your reading list Big Blue on the isle of the rich
As your connect with the rest of us continues to unhitch

Friday, August 19, 2011

Rhymes on the Newsworthy Times Syrian Sorrows

World Humanitarian Day and in Syria they are again falling in the streets. Strong words, and more words from U.S. lips to somehow convince Assad to loosen his grip. We are lucky that tryants like this we would have to in our lives face. The only fear,we encourage to forces to arise, into the streets and then to their surprise we are not there, only words and all soon to demise. This guy is a killer, just like his father and he is not our friend. How about a cruise bouguet to hasten his end.

Syrian Nonhumanitarian Dreams

Another day of misery in Syria as 18 were shot
A tyrant who will not loosen his strangling knot
World Humanitarian Day and Assad seeks to kill
While the West in Libya no more patience, no more will
We cannot all be our brothers' keeper but how do you sit back
Innocents in the streets fodder for the snipers' gun to track
Words inspire, light the democracy fire, but end on a funeral pyre
Since we cannot add another front and get stuck in a killing mire
Obama finally speaks and the words are rugged, the words are tough
But Assad knows he lacks the spine, lacks the lasting stuff
So into the streets pushed by our words into the snipers' lines
Time to reflect on Pax America's grand design
As a world policemen we no longer have the wealth
But maybe on a world vote to remove, we can use the stealth
Assad is like J.K. Moody, it is time to go
Maybe a few seeds of democracy might sprout and grow
If and only if the world votes the same way to decide
Time to send in a B-2 and give this killer his final ride.

Rhymes on the Newsworthy Times Dream Act

Today, August 19, 2011, is World Humanitarian Day, hard to believe watching the slaughter of fellow species in Syria, Libya, or Afghanistan and Iraq. At list some glimmer of hope in that we celebrated the concept of humanity. Here at home some 300,000 illegals mostly young men and women who were brought here by their parents as small children, many of whom are in college or the military or in productive jobs face deportation. Congress turned down the Dream Act but today the Obama Administration ordered the review of all such cases as if the Dream Act were in effect which means that all but the felons may stay here. If we do not know the meaning of assimilate, all of us should look it up...securing our border and removing any significant portion of illegal aliens with roots here is a pipeline, even more so with an Administration that seems disconnected with the struggles of the American populace: My thoughts follow

Hummanitarian Dreams
Today is World Humanitarian Day
Time to reflect as passions join the fray
It becomes very difficult to deport
Young men and women dragged as children past the border fort
Especially those who have put their lives on the line
Dodging the bullets, IEDs and unexploded traps and mines
Or the college students seeking to enhance their lives
To deport back to countries most difficult in which to survive
This Administration with its jokes on alligators and moats
Lacks the will to secure the borders and turn away the boats
Unless Mexico gets its act together and starts producing more jobs than bodies and drugs
We will be swamped by those seeking to better, mixed in with the thieves and thugs
If we can assimilate under one flag, one language and one set of common ideals
It should be a goal to achieve, a worthy and productive real deal
But Congress is the only place to make that choice
Not a disconnected President loosing his right to be America's voice
© 2011 Michael P Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Friday, August 12, 2011

Sarah Palin To Run Or Not To Run

The Alaskanpoet as you may know grew up in Alaska in a small fishing village Petersburg on Mitkof Island at Prowley Point at the northern end of the Wrangell Narrows. But he also went to high school in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, home of the Vikings and located some 50 miles south of Sarah Palin's birthplace of Sandpoint Idaho (also by quirk of fate where my father spent most of his career in the Navy during WWII before being finally shipped to participate in the invasion of Okinawa). Another quirk, my mother after retiring took courses at North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene where Sarah attended before transferring to the University of Idaho. So while this poet has never met her, somehow feels connected. Here is the Alaskanpoet's advice to her which I sincerely hope she listens to.
Sarah Time Fold
Sarah, I grew up in Alaska and seined for six years
Sarah, here is advice I hope you can hear
Maybe Wasilla Alaskans so near to Anchorage lose their edge
When the winds of adversity blow they move from the ledge
But the Alaskans in the Narrows with LeConte's bergs to dodge
Are fearless and from a goal very difficult to dislodge
Sons and daughters of Petersburg are Vikings in name and in fact
Displaying the sense of honor and character you so sadly lack
We may not be able to see Russia but there is no fish we cannot net
And most of us live our lives without quitting, in honor to never remorse or regret
Book notwithstanding, caribou kills notwithstanding, as a President you would never be fit
It is time to move to Arizona, time from the list of potential candidates gracefully and finally quit
Michael P Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet © August 12, 2011

Saturday, August 6, 2011

AAA Fades Away

The drama in Washington over the debt ceiling has kept this muse actively tweeting and commenting on Fox, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc. A playground of 535 spoiled children in a fantasy world of spending cuts measured against projected increases not reductions. The tab for such foolishness will be billions in increased interest costs. Unless the Super Committee of 12 works a miracle, I am beginning to feel like the starving Pilgrims facing a Thanksgiving with no friendly Indians in the forest to bring platters of food.
AAA Fades Away
After all the drama and "hostage taking" the debt deal has flopped
Our S&P AAA credit rating has just been dropped
It is enough to make this poet gnash his teeth and weep
To be on a par with the Kiwis and their millions of sheep
What about 4 trillion in spending cuts did we not hear?
Clear and present warnings repeated only to fall on deaf ears
Billions more of interest added to the recession's curse
But what may follow is a fear that is even worse
This drop may be just the first of many and not be the last
Our days of a dollar currency standard may be long since past
Only hope our gang of 12 are the brightest and the best
And can find the 2 trillion in cuts and this spending surge begin to arrest
© August 6, 2011 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

Monday, August 1, 2011

Rhymes on the Newsworthy Times a Deficit Deal?

This muse is almost rhymed out, weeks of chaos to the brink and after if we get to pop open the corks, the champagne will be bitter not worthy of drink. Over a year from now with more debt and a most likely higher interest rate, we be facing the very same problem---a veritable Groundhog Day that will destroy our future. My hope is that the Tea Party continues to grow free of the disease of co-optment and principles becoming sacrificed to what is a very lucrative career.

Tea Leaves Readings
Where there is not a will there is no way
The dragons to be faced we cannot slay
Some may say this is a start
Others the nation is further apart
My quiver of arrows that slice and rhyme
Is empty, what could be a bigger crime?
This muse is almost completely rhymed out
So horse he can barely speak must less shout.
God help us when the Tea Party members in 2012 return
How much fuel to the torch of spending control will still burn
Only one way to survive for the wicked, lazy or even fiscal devout
You cannot long on the field of battle stay with only bugles and shouts
With shifting friends or allies or principles that fade
Flags of honor to the ground too quickly laid
One way and only one way we must now quickly enact
Amendment to the Constitution to balance the budget and revenues capped
For when the flame of public service becomes the most secure career
Our wallets are gone and we should be in a world of increasing fear
(c) August 1, 2011 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet