plan A goes like this: 1. buy crap 2. sort it 3. list what might sell on ebay 4. ship what sells. plan B is this: take all the stuff that couldn't sell on Ebay or was tried and didn't sell to an auction or fleamarket and get someone else to buy it.

Too much plan A and 've got no space to move

too much plan B and I can't pay the bills.

i'd like mine brought back to life.

of course this question reminds me of one of the greatest moments in overhearing history, when song writer Robert Feldman overheard two teenage girls bickering in a candy store, the line that struck him and sent him running for his pen, "My boyfriend's back and you're gonna be in trouble."

As for me, I don't catch much of what is said right to me much less what people are saying to each other.

Pulling the lever
in the voting booth
like hitting the bull’s-eye
of a carnival target
with my old shoe
dunking the clown.

Roasted peanuts
heavy in my belly;
pockets empty;
I look at the goldfish won,
hope it will survive
until the next carnival.

Damn fool clown
had to be dunked.
I would have voted
for a yellow dog,
I nearly did
but you overtook her.


With little effort
you can be the greatest
president I have seen.
The bar has been set so low
you need only step over it.
I pray now not be limbo time.

My list (subject to change)

1. Life of Brian
2. Blazing Saddles
3. Bad Santa
4. A Mighty Wind
5. The Simpsons Movie
6. Airplane
7. Best In Show
8. Traffic (Tati)
8. Caddyshack
9. M*A*S*H

What have I missed?

I see the big shift this year not from people moving
from Republican to Democrat, but from "who cares?" to
"OK, now you've fucked things up enough that I care."

This election had the highest voter turn out in history.
The lowest, I believe, was Bush Sr. Vs. Dukakis. If you
count all the potential voters, the landslide winner was
"Who cares?" Even now, looking back on everything Bush Sr.
did in office, I don't think many who stayed home would
do something differently if they could go back.

From two points of view I think the conservative pundants
are right that the USA, on a whole, is more conservative
than liberal. I believe that the 15% or so that generally
care what happens in an election are more Right of Center.
If you only count them, you must see the USA as conservative.
And I'm pretty sure that if each person's vote counted as
much as the money they have, Republicans would win everywhere
but Boston and sometimes Manhattan. It is easier to make
and keep money if other people don't matter to you and
while that isn't true of all conservatives, I think it is
more true of conservatives than of liberals.

I think, the only way to see the USA as mostly left of
center is to go by all of the people, including the 70ish
percent of potential voters who might care a little about
the outcome of the election, but not enough to go and vote.

I believe that this election has sent a powerful message to
the Democratic party, that trying to win over a handful
of Republicans by appearing as middle of the road as possible
keeps the largest demographic from bothering to vote at
all: The people who don't care that much one way or another.

This election was profound. There was a real choice between
the candidates. It wasn't between a bad one and a not really
much better one. For the first time in decades we got to
pick between a not really much better one and a great one.
The result was people who don't usually care enough to vote
cared, and voted.

In future Democratic primaries perhaps we won't be as worried
about who is conservative enough to steal votes from the
Republican, and focus on who is liberal enough to get the
people as a whole to vote for them rather than not vote at all.

Amy told me how much my friendship, support and encouragement has meant to her over the years; a poetry reader that I don't think I've ever met in Arizona wrote to say my poem, "Trophy Case" put into words how he felt, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich just wrote "Happy Birthday."

What better gift is there than being told you matter both in the microcosm and the macrocosm.

nice.

i cried when they shot john lennon
tears ran down my spine
i cried when they shot tupac
as though i'd lost a good friend of mine
but oj got what was coming
he got what he asked for this time
so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal.

i go to anti-war rallies
and put down george w bush
i love eddie izzard and ellen
and virtually every gay star
but don't talk about same sex marriage
that's going a little bit too far
so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal.

i cheered when obama was elected
my faith in the system restored
i'm glad some republicans were thrown out
of the senate and congressmens' bar
i love pagans and polys and gays
as long as they don't live next door
so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal.

the people of western alaska
should all hang their heads in shame
i can't understand how their minds work
what's the matter, don't they watch steven colbert?
but if you say free mumia or peltier
i hope the cops take down your name
so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal.

i read the onion and village voice
i've learned to take every view
i've memorized bill hicks monologues
i feel like i'm almost a jew
but when it comes to killing bin laden
there's no one more red white and blue
so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal.

i vote for the democratic party
i want amnesty international strong
i go to ani difranco concerts
she sure gets me singing those songs
i'll send all the money you ask for
but don't ask me to come along
so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal.

once i was young and impulsive
i wore every conceivable pin
even went to a green party meeting
when i though ralph nader would win
but i've grown older and wiser
and that's why i'm turning you in
so love me, love me, love me, i'm a liberal.

He said Obama will now have the choice to stand up for the people of America or to sell us out to the same corporate machine that the Bushes and the Clintons have for so many years. And its a valid question. We are high with hope right now, but when the smoke clears will Obama be change or more of the same?

The fact is, he wasn't elected as the first black president, he was elected as the best person for the job without regard for his race, gender, age, or sexual orientation. That's what we are all hoping he will be.

Shepherd Smith and the Fox News flunkies aside, Ralph Nader has been, and will continue to be an important voice for good in this Nation. Nader spoke alloud a fear that some of us have, it is what keeps our hope from being faith. And I'm sure he didn't mean Uncle Tom, it was just a polite way of saying, so as not to offend. The term I'm sure he meant was 'House Nigger.'

January 20th Inauguration Day poetry events across the country, if there isn't one in your area set one up at a library, cafe, art center, or anywhere you can get, invite all poets and put up a bunch of flyers, notify local media, get word out.

Every willing poet is asked to write an original "inaugural poem" for President Barack Obama and read it for the first time anywhere at your nearby Inauguration Day Poetry Event.

The most debut poems at a single time in the history of the world.

Please pass the word.

Obama I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the war
Bushman is coming down from the Whitehouse and I don't have very long...

11th & 12th graders poetry for a competition at Munson Williams Art School here in town.

Two other judges. First place is pretty obvious.

Second place it going to be a tough choice between four.

But what's bothering me is one that isn't very good. The mistakes are glaring, in places its cliche and trite and bombastic and pretentious. Everything that can be
learned hasn't been. But what this poet has is what can't be learned, what just
comes from within if it does, and doesn't if it doesn't. This writer has the soul
of a poet and I'm afraid I have no way of saying so. This one I'd want as
a student. This one I'd want to read after a couple of years of being a serious
student.

Sigh.

The haves mostly vote for Republicans, the havenots usually vote for Democrats.

Let's just hope that the former haves realize they are havenots now and vote dem.

There are too many low level police. Politicians gain points by promising more police. Its just numbers, the police they add aren't highly skilled detectives solving murders and such, they are the lowest paid cops pulling people over giving tickets. Traffic infractions like running a traffic light or speeding can be policed by electronics. A simple computer can take a picture of the licence and mail the offender a ticket. Millions can be saved in wasted police force dollars.

The education system is even more wasteful. The amount of tax money spent on my two children when they were both in public school is more than our total household budget. The need for public education can't be greater now than it was in the 1700's --- with the internet, children have access to greater and more varied educational material at home than they do at school. A revamped, seriously scaled down school system could have the bulk of learning done at home, online. Still providing Special Education for children who can't keep up on their own, free, elective special classes available in things like music, sports, art, drama, debate, and such and, of course, testing to make sure children that are not keeping up get recognized and given Special Education and affordable childcare for those who need it. Just like that, Billions of dollars saved.

Just how bad is the economy?

The economy is so bad, the Fortune Five hundred has been changed to the Fortune Two Hundrend and Twenty Five.

i had to share

A friend is doing a church service on the theme of domestic violence on Sunday. She wants to include a reading, and so needs poetry on the theme. What would you recommend?