Snow time like the present

Will Congress stay frozen in ice
Or take the Obamas advice?
To a Midwestern child,
The higher it's piled,
The more we just work and play nice.


As to Ice, Chicago Still Obama's Kind of Town
D.C. Needs 'Toughness,' President Says
By Daniel de Vise and Michael Birnbaum
The Washington Post, 1/28/09

Coming soon...

To a theater (of the absurd) near you.

Blagojevich, feeling the sting,
Thinks he's Gandhi, Mandela, and King!
What's next? He'll evoke
Those Middle-earth folk
And be Frodo protecting the Ring?

Blagojevich in NBC interview compares himself
to Gandhi, King and Mandela
By Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times, 1/25/09

Culture clash

As a simple appeal to our hearts
We support a Department of Arts;
But a Government role
Oft reduces the whole
To a sum of much less than its parts.

I submit the above as the Savant's addendum to the online petition in support Quincy Jones' proposal for a new department. Though I see enormous potential for promotion of the arts and enhancing their influence, I am wary when the political culture mixes with the artistic one. Giving government bureaucracy a role in the fragile creative process scares the willies out of me. Remember that the camel was a horse, created by committee. Imagine what they might do to a horse's ass like yours truly!

Weigh in on where you stand in The Savant's latest useless poll to the right. =>

and click on the link to sign the petition if you're so inclined.

Quincy Jones Leads Chorus Urging a Cabinet-Level Arts Czar
By Jacqueline Trescott, The Washington Post, 1/14/09

And so we would know it was real...

Guess who was singing?

If the voice went a little bit flat,
You're Aretha! We know you're "all that!"
For your power to wow
You can still take a bow;
And, what's more, take a bow for that hat!

[OK, Mark. This one was for you]

A little prayer from the Queen of Soul
By Richard Morrison, Times Online, 1/21/09

A dream fulfilled

Now work to be done.

We have witnessed the arduous climb
Just to savor this moment, sublime.
Let the message ring out;
Can there be any doubt
That, at last, change has come to our time?

New President, 'New Era Of Responsibility'
by Mara Liasson, NPR, 1/21/09

Hawk like an Egyptian?

Speaking of "bail-outs," look who's out on bail.

His investors aren't feeling so sunny
To discover the tar in the honey.
The deals of their dreams
Were mere pyramid schemes
Where the dealer Madoff with the money!

[N.B. The unfortunate fact is that you or I may be one of his unwitting investors by proxy!]

Bernie Madoff's Victims:
Why Some Have No Recourse
By Robert Chew, Time, 1/12/09

Word of the Year 2008: "Bailout"

So "bail-out" was Word of the Year?
As a verb, we expected to hear
It used one of the times
When, for myriad crimes,
Those crooks went to court to appear!

Oh yeah. That didn't happen, did it?

About Auto Bailout
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost