What was that, President Bush? Why are we in Iraq? Because this is a war against the same people who attacked us on 9/11, you say … again? The same people who attacked us on 9/11?? The same people who attacked us on 9/11? You know what President Bush? You have the highest disapproval rating since Richard Nixon. You have the highest disapproval rating since Richard Nixon. You have highest disapproval rating since Richard Nixon. I guess that’s what happens to U.S. Presidents who’s legacy is a bundle of lies. Bite me, President 66% Disapproval Rating. Here’s Bush’s speech on Iraq and here’s an article in the liberal NYT about it, you frat boy schmegege.

And if the war in Iraq against al Qaeda is going so well, why does the White House now think an al Qaeda cell has gotten into the U.S.? They’re holding a special meeting at the White House on Thursday about the pending al Qaeda attack. Or are they just holding the meeting because they need to scare us out of that disapproval rating?

Meanwhile, it’s hard to believe, but this is the most damning thing I’ve read yet about the Bush Administration. It’s not as if we didn’t know all this stuff already—that Bush lets politics rather than science dictate policy on stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, global health, and second-hand smoke—but damn, read this article. It’s the epitaph on the Bush era. Bush’s surgeon general between 2002 and 2006 says Bush’s politics trumped health care findings. Hey President Brain Power, 66% means two thirds. Two thirds of Americans disapprove of you and your politics.

And I knew this about the Bush administration already too, but the AP confirmed it by getting a leaked copy of an FBI report to Congress that details how the Bureau uses data mining techniques to spy on us. Again, I feel like I already knew this. But now, I’m sort of freaking out about it.

And in international news, I imgaine it’s all Israel’s fault or perhaps it’s a reaction to bullish Western Values (that we’re too culturally insensitive to understand), but I don’t know, call me high: Iran seems laughably, pathetically, totally creepy in its own right. An Iranian man is stoned to death for adultery.

I trashed Gregoire and the Democrats for not stepping up and passing a cap and trade bill to limit CO2 earlier this year. Instead, our bold governor called for a task panel force study blue ribbon. So, even though this new bill in the U.S. Senate has been watered down, I gotta say, I can’t believe Sen. Arlen Specter is more liberal than Gov. Gregoire. U.S. Senate to take up promising, compromise cap & trade bill.

I liked baseball … for a half-a-second…when I was. 8! God, who gives a damn about baseball anymore. Apparently, Seattle’s own Ichiro did really great at the Mid-Summer Classic.

97 degrees? Heatwave in Seattle. It’s hot in my apartment.

To quote Allen Ginsburg: “The reading seems to be going reasonably well. Shall we have some more poetry now?” Today’s installment from the Washington Poet’s Association:

What is Poetry?

by Ed Stover

First, I asked the wind,
but the wind merely danced and ran away.

So I went to the river clear and cold.
It only chuckled and raced on to the sea.

I asked the orchards and fields white with frost,
but they were asleep, dreaming of spring.

Far down the Valley,
I could see the town where I grew up,
and my mother fixing dinner--
liver and onions, her favorite.

And there were my uncles at the family store,
and my grandmother in her house on Maple Way.

They heard me and waved,
and Grandma offered me a slice of banana bread
fresh from the oven just like she used to.

But no one spoke.

In the mountains, I found Ira Hill,
my Scout leader at Camp Fife on the Bumping River.

Beyond, I spotted my father hopping a freight out of%uFFFD Kelso,
and there was my grandfather with his ax falling a tree,
In Tacoma, I saw my great-grandfather just
riding in from the gold fields of California.

Surely, they would know:
Please, what is poetry? I called.

They only smiled and Ira pointed to his heart.

As though I should know
that poetry is words like these--

about the sound of wind and the color of water,
about fields in winter waiting for spring,
about faces and places remembered from long ago--

words wrapped in love,
held in the heart,
longing to be freed.
Ed Stover
Yakima, Washington
Ed Stover is a board member of the Washington Poets Association. He comes to poetry via journalism where he eked out a living for 40 years on daily newspapers throughout Washington State. He also taught English and journalism at CWU and Yakima Valley Community College. He is retired and lives in the Yakima Valley where he grew up and is now active in the regional poetry community, including the annual Allied Arts Coffeehouse Poetry Event