Instructions Not Included

Barack Obama, auto czar,
Would like a smaller GM car
That burns less fuel. He’s got his way.
The bankrupt giant’s ours today.

What, Us Worry?

Hail! Judge Sonia Sotomayor,
A High Court twofer when confirmed:
Hispanic woman, skilled and more,
Methodical but free, she’s termed.

He Had His Chance

Dick Cheney says we’re less secure:
Barack Obama’s too naïve
To guard the country. What manure!
The ex-veep would that we believe
That in the end as president,
His Doub’ya’s views were different.

When Virtue is More than its Reward

Hey chump— yeah you!— who zeros out
The balance on your MasterCard
Each month, so cloyingly devout,
Avoiding interest. Be en garde.

Is There Another Place at This Table?

This week and next, their ruling chiefs—
Israeli and the PLO’s—
In Washington with well-worn briefs
Will play their role as civil foes.
They’re quick to say the other’s wrong.
If only they could get along.

Flip-Flops Not Allowed Inside

Obama, does he flip and flop?
On second thought he wants a stop
To photos showing all the world
More shame that leaves our hair re-curled:
Some troops afflicting detainees
With torture that he now foresees
As grounds for anti-GI hate
And reason to retaliate.

The Groves of Claptrap

Obama’s May in academe
Is nuts enough to make one scream.
At Arizona State, they say:
Address the grads and go away.
No LL.D. degree you get.
You’re not enough accomplished yet.
Two books? The Harvard Law Review?
A party school is ASU.
An aloe-vera maker, we
Awarded honorarily.
He smoothed our skin to large extent,
And you are only president.

Your Money or Your Life

U.S. health care’s plain barbaric.
Pay or die if you get real sick.
Un- and undercovered panic.
Would our system looked more Gallic.
France’s system—socialistic—
U.N. figures rate terrific,
First in line, to be specific.

The Power of No

In Kenya, women sick of strife
That disarranges public life
For one whole week held back from sex
In hopes their abstinence corrects
Division in the nation’s rule.
It seems they’ve found a useful tool.

Already one man’s filed suit.
He mentioned back pains I’d dispute.
A lack of them results, I’d guess,
In what he cites, but I digress.
The boycott’s gained robust applause.
The P.M.’s wife has joined the cause.

But why stop there? Reflect worldwide.
Imagine having on our side
Subservient wives of Talibans
Desiring power like a man’s?
Al-Qaeda women, frayed galore,
Who’d give the choice of love not war?

The gift today, would it were so,
Is mothers’ sons without a foe.

— Mother’s Day

Un-American Activities

What a pain, Guantanamo,
Filled with guys we won’t let go.
Some perhaps we wrongly hold,
Guilt unknown or oversold.

Save the Fish Wrappers

Stormy cyber winds are blowing.
Journalism’s undergoing
Advertising slumps at papers,
Many running lean on vapors,
Risking fiscal detonations
While the younger generations
Rather watch TV and websites
For their news in speedy sound bytes.

What We Don't Know

For weeks it’s overshadowed other news.
The press, some feel, have overplayed swine flu
To sell more papers, reach more viewers whose
Obsessive worries, heightened fears accrue.

But how can mainstream media ignore
The Centers for Disease Control’s advice
To play it safe and think the worst-case more,
Instead of laying back and rolling dice?