Archive for the ‘Political Haiku & Senryu’ Category

More McCarthy Mockery

Thursday, January 5th, 2023

According to WP’s Robert Costa, Matt Gaetz says McCarthy must either “withdraw from the race,” or commit to a “straitjacket” agreement.

Come to think of it, straitjackets sound like a great idea for most of the House Republicans!

*****

As self-centered loons
impede race to be Speaker,
insanity reigns.

*****

This haiku, I swear,
is my last McCarthy verse
until tomorrow.

*****

Way too many pols
in Republican Party
naught but Pied Pipers.

*****

“Concession-Kevin”
becomes just-pretend Speaker.
Pyrrhic victory.

*****

Haiku Message To Journalists

Wednesday, December 14th, 2022

Remaining “neutral”
and bothsidesing ev’rything–
a gift to liars.

Bigotry Haiku Duet

Monday, December 12th, 2022

Bigotry, once masked,
now unleashed for all to see —
Shameful, yet shameless!

*****

Donald cozies up
to Nazi-loving bigots–
Hardly a surprise!

Trump v. Everyone (Haiku)

Wednesday, December 7th, 2022

“I’m immune from suits,”
Claims Trump, again and again.
Judges disagree.

Immersed In Mendacity (Limerick and Haiku)

Saturday, December 3rd, 2022

Many folks have a shocking capacity
For deception and lies — sheer mendacity.
They will lie to the max,
Spurring violent attacks
On those guilty of naught but veracity.

*****

When mendacity
replaces veracity,
sorry state indeed.

Time For Political Haiku

Saturday, November 19th, 2022

Special Counsel’s named,
Customary “witch hunt” claimed,
Garland, Smith defamed.

Common Sense Haiku

Friday, November 4th, 2022

A Political Haiku, for a Change of Pace

Monday, October 31st, 2022

Political Haiku Trio 2

Saturday, January 1st, 2022

A resolution
for GOPers to try:
Stop Being Such Dicks!

Nixing worthy laws
To preserve filibuster?
Hope for us busted.

Donald Trump invents
Conditional Endorsement:
“Avenge me, or else!”

Political Tidbits

Saturday, March 21st, 2015

Glenn Beck just announced that he’s quitting the Republican Party.

It seems the GOP isn’t quite crazy enough for him.

*****

To prove he really means it this time, Donald Trump is forming a presidential exploratory committee.

Some circuses just can’t have too many rings.

*****

Dear Rand Paul, I don’t live in Kentucky,
And I think that you’re far worse than yucky.
Why’s your newsletter clogging
My email and dogging
My bandwidth with viewpoints so sucky?

*****

Facts can be pesky
and undermine views.
But the right just discards them
like old, worn out shoes.

*****

In a Playboy interview, Dick Cheney said Obama is “the worst president of my lifetime”.

I could have sworn that title belonged to Cheney.

*****

Why don’t I call
the GOP pols heartless?
I hate redundancy.

*****

Re Matt McLaughlin’s gays-killing CA ballot initiative, doesn’t his “Sodomite Suppression Act” deserve a “Matt McLaughlin Suppression Act?”

*****
Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young suggested letting wolves loose to cure the homeless problem.

What a foxy way to angle for a job at Fox News!

*****

The duped marks wallow
in hollow crap they swallow
from pols they follow.

*****

Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza has denounced Hillary Clinton’s “lawlessness.”

But I think D’Souza is just lonely serving time for violating campaign finance laws.

*****

Sudden clarity
of thought and reason in pols–
Can’t a gal dream?

*****

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has signed a “Right-to-Work” law, a/k/a the “Right to Destroy Unions by Reaping Benefits Without Paying Dues” law.

******

GOP hucksters
hock our nation’s future
to gain/maintain power.

*****

Senryu For Obama

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

Here’s my response to this New York Times article about the “fiscal cliff” negotiations between Obama and Boehner:

Senryu For Obama:

John Boehner’s con game:
Can’t muster votes. Give me more.
Don’t be fooled again.

Stormy Haiku

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

Political haiku for a change of pace:

Hurricane’s over,
but the political storm
is never-ending.

(More storm haiku here.)

Romney’s Fact-Free Universe Isn’t Healthy (Limerick)

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

Mitt Romney, who continues to lie about covering pre-existing conditions, seems to live in a fact-free universe. Here’s what he told the Columbus Dispatch yesterday:

We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.

Well, if 26,100 deaths per year is the same as zero deaths, then Romney’s correct:

More than 26,000 working-age adults die prematurely in the United States each year because they lack health insurance, according to a study published ahead of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.

The study, released on Wednesday by the consumer advocacy group Families USA, estimates that a record high of 26,100 people aged 25 to 64 died for lack of health coverage in 2010, up from 20,350 in 2005 and 18,000 in 2000.

That makes for a rate of about 72 deaths per day, or three per hour.

The nonprofit group based its findings on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a 2002 Institute of Medicine study that showed the uninsured face a 25 percent higher risk of death than those with coverage.

Romney’s Fact-Free Universe Isn’t Healthy (Limerick)
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Mitt Romney says nobody dies
For lack of insurance. He lies!
Three work-age adults
Die per hour — the results
Of no health plan. With Mitt that will rise.

*****
Political Haiku of the Day:

The debate’s on soon.
I’m sure hoping Joe Biden’s
less nervous than I.

Not So Light Haiku

Sunday, November 27th, 2011

Can’t help wondering
why some who have “seen the light”
keep spreading darkness.

(Written in response to a haiku prompt for the word light.)

Peppery Haiku

Friday, November 25th, 2011

Patrons pepper-spray
their fellow store customers.
Emulating cops?

(Yes this really happened at Wal-Mart.)

Washington Observer’s Haiku

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

I watch Washington,
Observe Republican pols—
Heart and hope erode.

(Prompted by Three Word Wednesday to use erode, heart, and observe in a poem.)

Radical Budget Haiku

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

I didn’t think I could do it. But I’ve summed up the Republicans’ radical (Paul Ryan-authored) budget plan in a single haiku:

Republican plan:
End entitlements, send wealth
to entitled rich.

*****

UPDATE: Prompted by a poetry site to include this trio of words in a poem (adamant, fabricate, peculiar) I challenged myself to fit them all into a single haiku:

Republican pols —
peculiarly adamant
fabricators.

Political Haiku and Tanka Too

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

White House and Congress
bought and managed by donors —
puppet theater.

*****

An epidemic —
political hypocrites —
Today’s GOP.

*****

Unlimited cash
from corporations to pols —
democracy dies.

****

Economic growth
still not translating to jobs —
Republicans shrug.

*****

Republican cuts
to budget sure to kill jobs —
Boehner: “So be it.”

*****

Deliberately
destroying economy
seemed unthinkable.
No longer a silly thought —
GOP election goal.

******

Author’s Note: These haiku and tanka were inspired in part by the following prompts: puppet, epidemic, unlimited, growth, and silly.

Political Haiku Quartet

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Styrofoam is back.
“Green the Capitol” is gone.
Job, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs?

*****

Rotund Rush Limbaugh
says Michelle Obama’s fat—
that’s hard to swallow.

*****

Freedom from taxes
demanded by those who crave
what taxes give them.

*****

The mental midget
mentioned an affinity
with Rush — no surprise.

*****

Showing up to vote—
a yearly exercise in
unrequited hope.

*****

(More political haiku here. And more Rush Limbaugh humor here.)

Limerick Ode To Clarence Thomas

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is under scrutiny these days for conflicts of interest related to the Koch Brothers, the Federalist Society, and the Citizens United case.

But today’s limerick and haiku will focus, instead, on the fact that Thomas hasn’t asked a single appellate hearing question in five years.

For the record, I did quite a bit of litigation work during my lawyering years. And believe me, his failure to speak throughout five years of hearings is peculiar and reflects very poorly on his judicial skills.

That brings me to my Clarence Thomas limerick:

Limerick Ode To Clarence Thomas
By Madeleine Begun Kane

I’m mindful that Thomas can talk,
But at queries for hearings he’ll balk.
He’s been silent for years–
Five in all. I’m all ears.
If he asks one sharp question, I’ll gawk.

And here’s my Clarence Thomas haiku:

The Sup Court’s Thomas–
Too ill-informed for queries?
Or just too lazy?

UPDATE: It’s been nearly two years since I wrote this limerick and haiku. So in fairness, I must announce that Justice Thomas has finally broken his silence.

Now mind you, he didn’t ask a sharp question … or, indeed, any question: He merely made a mildly amusing four-word (or so) remark about lawyers who went to Yale.

Still … it’s a start.