The Tao Of Government Overreach

The best leaders are those their people hardly know exist. - Tao Te Ching

when the government agenda is set by shortsighted corporations

which have bought and paid for all of the elections

people see for whom rule by and for the people really works out to be

when the government overturns as failed and outdated

the policies of its immediate predecessors

people see just how quickly their best interests may be re-interpreted

when government employees reap benefits unavailable to the masses

yet are no longer fit to work at normal jobs

people sense the presence of strangers from alien institutions

when overpaid consultants and executives buzz like busy bees

between lobbyists and legislators

people observe the best and the brightest in all their wondrous glory

when governments compete for tax dollars from any new development

to finance their ever more bloated budgetary needs

citizens know where to look for guidance in creating a sustainable society

when homeland security is conducted behind utmost secrecy

within the worlds largest bureaucracy

people understand that the truly patriotic have nothing left but to fear

when the government makes a war against all the world's better judgment

the people must be helped to discern

morally obligatory pre-emptive defense from openly evil and naked aggression

when the government seeks to rip its last precious oil reserves

from its remotest remaining wilderness

people witness firsthand how conservatives practice conservation

when the government excludes SUVs, pick-up trucks and vans

from mileage and pollution standards

voters plainly see the finest governance that corporate money can buy

when 900000 pages of deliberately obfuscated tax code gibberish

funds a vast so-called industry of overpaid pig latin interpreters

people again see the wisdom of electing lawyers as their leaders

when conservative government leaders rail ignorantly against junk science

and criticize fuzzy math

the people feel free to belittle anything more complex than the average action movie

when the government tries to prod a sluggish consumer economy

by offering yet another prod of unfunded kickstart

people bend and submit once more to the financial electrodes

when the government's focus is always upon the latest poll

in advance of the next upcoming election

people do not miss the foresightful forefathers that they never learned of at all

when the government official tells God he must bless the country after every speech

and asks us all to add our prayers

good people sleep all the better knowing that He is on their side

when the government declares that every other nation

is simply either with us or against us

people know that even heathen foreigners will listen to simple reason

when the government encourages conglomerates to buy up all the media

and the vapid so-called news is the same on every channel

people scoff at the notion of an ever-vigilant press which guards their civil rights

when the government taxes cigarettes almost enough to make the smokers quit

then subsidizes tobacco farmers and pays Medicaid for lung diseases

people know that somewhere all these actions must make sense together

when governments sell more in weapons than they provide for development

and insurgents can get guns more easily than mothers can find flour

people are glad to note that their leaders pray humbly for lasting peace, every night

when one government spends more on its military than all the rest together

people can understand that increasing ignorance and poverty

is a slightly sad but necessary effect, of protecting our own Traditional Family Values

when the government speaks openly of might making right

while destroying societies to spread freedom in wars of liberation

be sure that the world worships in joyful wonder, the image of its only super power

when the government subsidizes its chosen religious groups

which discriminate based upon belief

those alienated mull upon the motto "one nation under God"

when the government takes away the knitting needles

from frightened grandmothers flying off to family holidays

wise men know our travel is made safer from ruthless terrorist killers

when the government always makes very little sense at all

the people find a consistency that they can come to rely upon

and with which the meaninglessness of their own lives dovetails very well

Flag-Waving Nationalists

Self-sacrificing petroleum patriots offer to brave so-called arctic wastelands

          to harvest the oil beneath its unproductive surface

This to help us to gain our vital energy independence and for export, as well

Drilling for god and country they can bring us a few sips

          to be guzzled and forgotten on one of our many wasteful, unnecessary trips

and take away forever anyone's chances

          to ever see one more of the few remaining bits of unspoiled habitat

Wise patriots tell us of our duty to consume

          and to ride in ever larger vehicles to the newest malls

and of the moral value of imported plastic decal flags upon our foreign cars

Caring patriots protect our economy from junk scientific theories

          Knowing conservation is simply a lifestyle choice, much like being gay

Their wisdom protects us from expensive action until all the facts are in

          They nobly save us money and jobs from that liberal plot

they have recast as climate change

Industry-oriented patriotic lobbyists draft policy with wise company executives

          Making sure to grease the skids of progress with cash contributions

Thus do we move forward in this land of faith-based democracy

          By-invitation-only, laboring in secret behind safely closed and soundproof doors

Practical patriots discern the nonsense in scientific discourse

          And lead the way in discrediting studies counter to their policies

using the twin lodestones of moral beliefs and campaign donations

          Framing the discourse of scientific research as a political debate

Helping our dumbed-down people to grasp the complex issues that we face

Morally focused patriots justify their actions with their faith

          Having god beside them on the podium grants them an otherwise-lacking inner strength

enabling them to distinguish black from white by casting out the gray

          Leaving them with unshakeable faith in the righteousness of their cause

Pontificating patriots should be listened to as they describe our many enemies

          Never asking us to examine our own hallowed lifestyles

Never questioning the correctness of the great causes which we champion

Militarily-oriented patriots ensure we are ready for overwhelming pre-emptive defense

          Annually stoking the war machine with ever-increasing billions

Ready to defend shopping malls against the incoming missiles

          Unable to capture disheveled ragheads in dirty clothes and sandals living in caves

Perceptive patriots help us to discern the truth from all the lies

          the right thing from devilish left-wing deception,

The righteousness of the measured and true course that we follow

          from the godless rhetoric of the heathen foreign idolaters

Great patriots, after consulting their moral compasses, inform us that

          we are either with them or, at our own great peril, against them

and that God blesses our lofty moral rectitude as he smiles down upon us

Responsible patriots trip over each other adopting tougher stances

          Each boasting how they will spend more money to kill and to destroy

Pumping up the bogeyman who wants to eat the children in your homes

          And exalting a ‘Defense’ budget greater than the entire world combined

True patriots free up our natural resources for holy commercial development

          protecting us from the evils of a pernicious creeping socialism

Let us thank them for the steadfast nature of this selfless vigilance

Larger than life patriots smile down upon us from all forms of the media,

          Guaranteed a place in our collective heart

Promoted by those wise contributing conglomerates

who provide all the information a good society should ever need

Discredited patriots no longer play roles in our wondrous progress

          Their actions erased from soundbite media history

At least until their party swings into power once again

Patriotic analytical wonks tell us that business profitability is increased

          and prices lowered by cutting benefits and outsourcing jobs overseas

while, at the same time, arguing just as strongly, it appears

          that increasing energy efficiency and improving conservation

are simply non-factors with regards to the economy of our great society

Corporate patriots help steer the ship of state

          Bravely offshoring ingredients and keeping wages low

Signing memoranda sending research and production overseas

          Stoutly maintaining the hallowed nature of free enterprise

by pumping up the price of their stock for yet another whole quarter

          thus ensuring more criminally-unearned multi-million dollar bonuses

Down home patriots drive loud pickups and watch NASCAR on TV

          Take their lessons from the bible and don’t read too goddamn much

They defend their rights to ignorance and a share of our forests

          They responsibly vote for those who raised their taxes,

helped un-insure them and approved sending their jobs far away

God Better Bless America

god better bless america

          if the sonofabitch knows what's good for him

goddamn well better bless america

          bastard’s either with us or against us

god forbid he don't bless america

          we'll send the bombers in to really fuck him up

god, you'd better bless america

          we've already told them what you’d say

goddamn sam, we demand your non-stop blessing

          from sea to shining sea

god will assuredly be blessing america

          before he blesses any other land

god bless us and protect us

          for we have chosen ourselves as your people

god you better hear our prayers

          since we’re the ones who pay your bills

god you best be listening

          so that we can shut our own eyes and ears

god, if you cain't bless america

          we can damn sure find someone else who will

god don't you get behind on them blessings

          because we count ‘em every day

goddamn you god, we have earned thy blessing

          which we intend to be about to receive

god stay over on our side

          so we can destroy those heathen third world hordes

god bless us one and all

          at least those that share our conservative beliefs

god you best help us to explain what the fuck is going on

          cause we told them that we talked all about it with you first

god bless it, you got to help us stay on message

          now that we have brought you on our staff

         

god bless you and keep you, if you stand here right beside us

          otherwise it’s god’s will should we happen to kill you

god, be sure to forgive our trespasses

          as we annihilate those who get in our way

What Is True Conservatism?

De-regulating giant financial entities which are driven only by their overpowering greed

Then stepping in with bailouts to produce inflation along with a recession

or instead, keeping a watchful eye upon those prone to selfish and childlike excesses

drilling unproductive wilderness and coastline for our tragicomic SUVs

          or saving some of that resource for later by buying it from others

as we scramble all available resources to gain a sustainable energy independence

subsidizing mass production to mono-crop our forests and our fields

          or carefully tending to the mystic diversity that we owe to the future

silting up streams and choking off salmon with corporate dams and logging

          or minding that watersheds stay clean and intact for future harvests

encouraging corporations to develop filthy aquaculture mass production

          or preserving our clean water and diversity of species

for the unknown needs of generations that might even yet be born

promoting the impersonal short-term, stock price-based corporate agriculture agenda

          or subsidizing the real stewardship of our precious native soils

with the oft-mouthed, constantly trampled values of Traditional Family Farmers

letting teenagers keep having children because it is a god-given right & abortion is a sin

          or licensing would-be parents via stiff examinations

lecturing fourth generation single mothers on the morality of abstinence

          or providing timely family intervention to break this pathetic cycle

incarcerating without tolerance ever more criminals raised without hope

teaching them real crime in prison and then setting them free upon our streets

             or seeking to identify and correct their problems at very early ages

funding local governments through cutthroat sales tax competition

over cheap, unplanned, unsustainable retail and housing development

or setting thoughtful long-term policy and implementing it through taxation

being forced by threat of being viewed as unpatriotically unelectable

to condone spending ever more billions on the military,

to combat a bogeyman who melts away somewhere into dusty, poverty-filled shadows

or investing at home in our own education, environment, agriculture,

energy needs, jobs, national debt and crumbling infrastructure

insisting that might makes right and that god is on our side

          or listening attentively to those considered opinions of

our European allies, who also happen to descend from our own very forefathers

electing professional, multi-generational politicians

who trade on their names and grow rich from their contacts

or promoting the Jeffersonian ideal of timely and limited service

to one's country as a matter of civic duty

tolerating a putrid mass of strangling tax code spaghetti

created by and for parasite lawyers and bloodsucking accountants

or making taxes lucid, reasonable, understandable and fair

opening up more of our forests for corporate timber and the obese on ATVs

          or diligently looking to preserve what little remains for the future

enriching puppet so-called royal families in their fly-plagued desert homes

          or severing all our relations through alternative energy sources

paying conglomerates to brew biofuel using up more energy than it makes

          or incepting grid-connected solar and wind power on every roof

allowing coal burning plants to increase their mountain-top destroying, mercury-laden,

horizon-obscuring, asthma-inducing, cancer-causing emissions

or subsidizing truly clean coal and fast breeder thorium reactor development

while systematically closing the oldest and dirtiest of the plants

making government smaller and ever more responsive

          or creating the largest bureaucracy ever seen by man

under the sacrosanct euphemism known as Homeland Security

subsidizing corporate agriculture while preaching of free trade

          or publicly calling out the bastards who ruin the land

with their fossil water mining, sewage lagoons, pesticides, fertilizer & antibiotic overuse

as they weave elaborate tax scams to increase their bonuses

allowing nightmare mega-scale domestic animal concentration camps

to pollute the country’s water with their foul fecal runoff

or ensuring that food production does not ruin our dwindling water supply

encouraging our companies to send engineering, research and information technology

positions overseas forever by citing the inevitability of global competition

or realizing that such services are imported straight back here

and that any developed nation must provide them for itself

letting faceless executives whose only goal is short term stock prices

set policy and retire inside locked compounds clutching obscene unearned bonuses

or demanding a wisdom and a vision beyond mere grasping business acumen

smiling as corporate leaders walk away rich, righteous and free

leaving us to adjust to the reality of a global standard of poverty

or holding them responsible for the debts they have placed upon our children

ensuring americans that their greatest patriotic duty is simply to keep shopping

and that hypnotized consumption is a fundamentalist value

or extolling the virtues of thrift and financial independence

while setting an example by keeping government spending within reason

creating the largest government deficit in all of mankind’s history

          or cutting back thoughtfully during difficult and trying times

demanding that foreigners buy our probably safe, genetically-modified corporate seed

          or working closely together to try and end the world's growing hunger

telling your allies that they are either with you or against you

          or striving for consensus and working together towards a shared future

refusing to sign a global ban on the sick foolishness of chemical warfare

          or leading the world in such a worthwhile crusade

ignoring greenhouse gases and treaties meant to stem their steady growth

          or pioneering profitable methods to deal with this global problem

relaxing pollution standards for the waters of our lakes and streams

          or making them safe to swim in for both the fish and for our kids

deciding that americans are above the laws of any world court

and applying sanctions to others who might be co-operating

or working together on a judicial system which works for the entire planet

refusing to support the international banning of brutal land mines

and continuing their production and export to one and all

or helping farmers and their children to avoid artificial legs and even worse

withholding funding for agencies providing birth control education

          or giving families in overpopulated lands already full of poverty

the ability to choose wisely, just for themselves

turning our national parks over to overpriced corporate property managers

          or keeping profit margins far away from the places

we have been entrusted to pass on to our future generations

interpreting world population growth as a threat to our national security

and determining to respond by increasing our unsustainable numbers

or working to design a rich and sustainable future

for a smaller and far less destructive human footprint

constructing maximally cheap with minimum environmental concern

          or building green with the aim of creating structures actually meant to last

discarding all wrappers, packaging, newspapers, aluminum and glass

since we paid for them and nobody is paying us not to throw them out

or reusing these things to let our children enjoy them as cheaply as we did

spreading the lie that economic growth continues at high rates forever

and burying generations to come beneath the debt of our tax cuts

or crafting a steady-state model that leaves as much as we enjoy today

for those existing beyond the laughably short quarterly horizon we now foresee

being laid off impersonally by some inhumane organization

as a discretionary expense, to be reduced merely to increase stock valuation

just to win a sickeningly large annual bonus for one’s so-called talents

or co-operatively reducing your salary maybe working part-time for a while,

at a place where you might even envision that there could be a future

         

touting free market worship while striving to build totalitarian oligopolies

and labeling any criticisms as socialist, unpatriotic and simply weak

or evolving capitalism to meet the needs of all humanity

aboard this one small blue space capsule that we simply must learn to share

trying to control fast-evolving pests by broadcasting long-lasting poisons

on food crops being raised to sell to your mothers and their children

or finding ways to control these long-term problems

more safely, cheaply and sustainably within the unforgiving laws of nature

encouraging lame urban cowboys to modify their motorcycles and trucks

to leave even more noise in their wasteful and infantile wakes

or enforcing simple common sense when the freedom to make empty noise

clashes with the right to natural peace and sublime quiet

allowing big media to set the body politic agenda via slick repetition

of stocks, entertainment, sports and government propaganda

mixed with 24 minutes per hour of higher volume commercials

and staged combat debates centered upon vital non-issues

or thoughtfully considering personal and national priorities

in reasoned discussion from a thousand different outlets

building the same tacky strip mall packages and

identical cheap convenience store setups at every new intersection

from border to border at the lowest possible costs

or searching for some kind of vision beyond mere stocks and profits

from some wiser group of men than these negligent but rich so-called leaders

whose legacy is greedy scheming behind closed boardroom doors

spinning, staying on message, gaining traction and shoutingly-managing the issues

          or publicly learning from mistakes, incorporating other points of view

and seeking involvement in quietly ongoing, open and non-poisonous debates

permitting contributory corporations to buy up all the media outlets

to serve up the same vapid, franchised media in every town and city

          or nurturing the plurality in our forgotten motto, 'e pluribus unum'

praising the virtues of democratic elections

while buying them with donations to be paid back with favors

or simply admitting that, under our current system, elections are about the money

and evolving our institutions to reinstate the ideals of the past

scornfully belittling science when it conflicts with well-scripted policies

already bought and paid for by corporate payoffs

or adopting the scientific method for rationally and fairly dealing with many

of our most pressing technical issues

invoking the lie of local control to grant outside developers unlimited power

permitting them to rend without foresight, planning or responsibility

or providing coordinated overviews for states, regions and the nation

to ensure a way of life that might even last a thousand years

counseling third world countries to preserve their so precious ecosystems

after having shattered our own and been proven unwilling to restore it

or providing a reality-based example of the benefits of conservation

and then profitably selling related goods and services to the world

touting the benefits of education while marginalizing scientists and

academia quietly through policy and openly in the corporate media

or respecting the educated as our best model for future progress

and our most precious current human capital

searching out the violent and the mindless in pleasure and entertainment

          or seeking enlightenment in the precious little free time we are granted

before we return to cold ashes and thin dust once again

expressing your true inner self via clothes, houses, cars and expensive vacations

          or searching for meaning through study and contemplation         

never saving and then demanding that government pay for your retirement

          or living within your means and laying out your own golden years far ahead

driving a 300 horsepower 4WD all by yourself an hour to work in a cube every day

          or leaving a smaller footprint on the earth and upon your descendants

issuing signing statements and underfunding enforcement agencies

          or impartially enforcing our laws per constitutional responsibility

paying ever more at toney restaurants until the last trendy seafood species

disappears from every ocean

or having the merest shred of common sense to at least leave

a viable breeding populations intact in the wild

ignoring the anonymous industrial holocaust-style production of your meat

          or consuming with forethought about what goes into your body

and having respect for the sacrifice of these other living beings

eating industrial fast food prepared by low-paid strangers who despise you

          or cooking good food and sharing time at home

with the people who are always there to love and respect you

blindly believing in creationism while harshly scoffing at the infidels

        or structuring your beliefs within a framework of reason and good faith,

sprinkled with a measure of respect for the considered opinions of others

spinning drunkenly from one corporate co-opted fad to another

          or cultivating reasoned and explainable values for living

growing fatter and dumber and being a daily target of ridicule

          or growing older and wiser and providing valued counsel

getting botoxed, dyeing your hair, wearing heavy makeup and too much gold

or trying to come to terms with the end of your, so-far, wasted life

spending every evening flipping channels with your stagnating brain disengaged

          or facing the onrushing void for a moment with an unblinking third eye

Why do they hate us

Why do they hate us, we all ask, quite aghast

Not because we will not join in banning the blind crippling of land mines

But why do they hate us, we must ask again

We will not join their foolish and costly greenhouse reduction folly

Tell us clearly then and get to the point, why do they hate us

Our citizens alone must remain above the laws of any world court

Why do they hate us, we ponder driving alone in our obese gas hogs

we won’t sign their treaties for the rights of women or children

One more time, name the thing that they hate that lurks here within us

we subsidize farming but preach free trade to a world that is starving

Even so, show me the one thing that makes them hate us all

we let a million die in Rwanda but intervene over Kuwaiti and Iraqi oil

Look, in plain language just spell it out - why do they hate us

over 2 million die of AIDS in Africa without our concern every year

but we trumpet that the greatest tragedy of them all happened on 9-11

Seriously, though, do they really hate us all

we will not sign their treaty to put an end to chemical warfare

You simply must give the reason that they target us with hatred

we hasten the cutting of the 2% old growth that is left on our land

while counseling them to save all of the forests that they still have

But, really then, that could not be why they would hate us

we give them our worst jobs and make slaves of their peoples,

poison their waters and ravage their lands to satisfy our consumer whims

Certainly that is not why they would hate us

we are illiterate, cultural imperialists

waterboarding their minds with our vapid Hollywood entertainment

That just sounds like nonsense, what's the real reason they hate us

We just yell at them louder in a language that we ourselves cannot even read or write

Give it a break and tell me why do they hate us

we generously support criminal regimes that repress and torture them

and let them rob their countries blind with a wink and a nod

Surely you jest, now tell the truth, why do they hate us

we trade them all off, one against another

while we try and take them for everything, that they still have

Why do they hate us, why do they hate us, we must ask again

Because God is on our exceptionist side

and they must be either with or against us for United We Stand

In reality, you have not outlined any real reason for their hatred

Well, we are an outlaw, cowboy nation run by fundamentalists

Possessed of lots of nasty weapons, pointed in all directions

Sing it loudly, now brother, and say it really ain’t that they hate us

We have proudly, noisily and foolishly descended

From the land of the free and the home of the brave

To the land of the ignorant and the home of the half-cocked

You mumble half truths relying on junk science, speak up, why do they hate us

Six percent of world population but, 35 percent of all its emissions

And eleven percent of us cannot even find our own country on a globe

Enough of spineless, liberal claptrap: where is their hatred against us?

We spout off about universal opportunity and equality

While generations right here live in poverty, hopelessness and ignorance

These unrelated and twisted facts are not enough, why would they hate us

We side with the jews who enclose the arabs in a sandy ghetto

And vote with the Israelis when it counts and give them lots of money

That is all just so many smelly road apples - now, why do they direct hatred our way

Our poorest abusers waste more every day on drugs

Than those without drinking water, electricity or gas earn in a month

Why would they hate us, is it not just simple jealousy?

We spend more on defense than the rest of them combined

We invade and torture and then lecture them on freedom and morality

Why do they hate us

We sneer and laugh at them like they were ignorant, bumbling idiots

So unswervingly certain of our god-given place at the head of the table