THE TORTURE TOUR

This administration serves a crime du jour,
And a heinous one is the torture tour.
Diego Garcia and Abu Ghareb
Where many prisoners get a premature grave.

Hundreds and hundreds get to rot away,
Baking like lizards at Guantanamo Bay.
And most of these people aren’t charged with a crime
They just get the chance to serve infinite time.

We claim that this is a nation of laws
Supposedly, that’s our custom
But a suspicion of guilt is all we need
And we can’t wait for the chance to bust ‘em.
And after all the misdeeds that are done in our name,
Our leaders say we should trust ‘em.

Sleep deprivation and isolation,
Often we’ve defiled the Koran.
These criminal acts are a stain on our nation,
And the fires of hatred are fanned.

We terrify prisoners with vicious dogs
Which are sometimes ordered to bite
And their naked victims lie in pools of blood
But out leaders say it’s all right to do what we want
The laws of man don’t apply,
We can keep them locked up forever
Without charges, ‘til they die.

There are laws that are supposed to protect us
It appears that many are a sham.
And it’s painful to see our nation misled
By the sheriff of Nottingham.

You’re supposed to be innocent ‘till proven guilty,
But now it’s just the reverse
And many prisoners come in healthy,
And roll out in a government hearse.

We have no proof against many
They’re tortured to see what they know
Evil methods are used, and our captives abused
We haven’t learned that you reap what you sow.
They’re hung upside down on waterboards,
And told that they’re going to die
They can’t breathe, and they think that they’re drowning
But our laws against torture don’t apply

They’re forced into painful positions
And left their for hours or days
Psychological torture and humiliation,
These are the noble ways that we employ
When we try to extract a confession of guilt
Because we lack the facts
In the eyes of the world, these are criminal acts,
And karma will have it’s say

Many of our captives are beaten,
And some quite severely it seems.
But the American people are kept in the dark
And they never hear the screams
The victims of these criminal acts
Will forever have bad dreams.

Now there’s a brand new attraction,
It’s called extraordinary rendition,
Where citizens are snatched anywhere in the world
And subjected to tortuous conditions.

Our government kidnaps these people
And takes them to a foreign jail
Where there are no laws to protect the prisoners
No charges, no chance for bail.

These crimes that are done by our leaders
And are done in America’s name
They’re turning the world against us
And the apathetic share the blame

You have to speak out, ‘cause it’s flat out wrong
If you don’t try to stop it, then you’re going along

Torture was used in the dark ages
We’re supposedly heading toward the light
And these abominable criminal acts
Are something we all should fight

This administration serves a crime du jour
And among the worst, is the torture tour
We should send these rascals to a speedy trial
Because the honor of our country has been defiled.

© Rick Burnley November, 2005

IT’S NOT THE WAY OF JESUS

The President has told us,
That Jesus changed his heart,
But if he’s really read the Bible,
It seems he’s missed one part.

I know he’ll hate to hear it,
Because it’s a bitter pill,
But the Bible’s fifth commandment is,
“THOU SHALT NOT KILL!”

That’s not too hard to understand,
It seems to be quite clear,
It’s not the fifth suggestion,
What part don’t you hear?

You call yourself a Christian,
I guess that might be true,
But I’ve got a couple of comments,
That I’d like to share with you.

If Jesus is your master,
And really is your Lord,
It seems that you should listen up,
And hear his peaceful words:
“Whatever you do to whatever has life,
You do unto Me,” said the Lord.

It’s right to live in love and peace,
And it’s time to sheath the sword.
But our main business is peddling arms,
Their only purpose to kill,
Many of us are filled with disgust,
As more blood we’re planning to spill.

“Whatever you sow, so shall you reap”
If that’s really true, we’re in trouble, and deep.
The interplay of cause and effect,
Is just a theory that gets no respect.
And whatever happened to the Golden Rule?
Now it’s “Do unto others, before they do it to you.”

So don’t talk to us of Jesus, He “The Prince of Peace”,
Don’t talk to us of Jesus, as our bomb bay doors release
Their terror in the night sky, and little children scream,
“The Americans are killing us!”
Their nightmare’s not a dream.

And my guess is Jesus is crying new tears,
His bleeding heart breaking, as the warmongers cheer,
“To War, To War, We’re spoiling to fight,
We’ll send your sons and daughters,
Let them feel our might!”

The chicken hawks will stay home, and they’ll run the show,
Their friends and their families won’t have to go,
We’re so good at killing, it’s what we do best,
“War times are good times”, say the merchants of death.”

Loving Jesus means loving life,
He wouldn’t be dropping bombs,
Slaughtering innocent people,
Old folks, kids and moms.

As we get ready to bomb other nations,
In the name of the red, white and blue,
Just ask yourself the question.
“What would Jesus do?”

© Rick Burnley February, 2003

AMERICA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

America, what are you doing?
You’d better take a good look in the mirror,
Because it’s plain to the rest of the world,
That we’re driven by greed and fear.
And the noble vision that we started out with?
Well, to most of the world, it seems like a myth.

America, what are you doing?
You’d better stop and think,
Our trigger-happy government
Is taking us right to the brink.

The chicken hawks all tell us, that war is the only way
Though many die, as death rains from the sky,
The innocent having no say.

In the city of Baghdad,
Family’s trembled in fear
They knew cause of us,
And our war lust,
That their end might be near.
And not for anything that they had done,
But just because the cowboy’s got a big gun.

They say he’s a wimp,
And big oil’s pimp,
But he’s going to show them all,
As the emperor with his war machine,
He’s standing ten feet tall,
And he’ll save the Iraqis from Saddam,
If he has to kill them all.

The toll was many thousands dead,
And many thousands displaced.
All of this to get one man,
America was disgraced.

The American Constitution
Has also been attacked,
Another of the many victims
That our government has Bush-Whacked.

And all over the planet, people will see
The decay and decline of democracy,
And as they watch our war machine strike,
They’ll witness the birth of the new world’s Reich.

We claim that God is with us,
We’ve all heard that before,
It was written on Nazi belt buckles,
And carved over Hitler’s door.

So America, you’d better wake up,
Because the hour is getting late,
If we keep beating the drums of war,
We’ll be sealing America’s fate.

If world peace is important to you,
It’s time to speak your mind,
Don’t follow the New World Order,
Show your loyalty to Mankind.

© Rick Burnley February, 2003

GEORGIE BOY

Georgie Boy thinks your kid’s his toy,
And he’s gone and shipped him off to war.
You can hear him squawk,
He’s a chicken hawk.
He won’t put up with it no more.

He doesn’t have to,
Like Nero, he runs the show.
If he snaps his fingers,
The kids gotta go.
But when he had his chance,
He opted to stay back.
He didn’t want to be there,
Ducking bullets and flack.

He claims he was flying fighters
In the Alabama Air National Guard,
You’d think to find one person,
Who remembered him there,
Wouldn’t be all that hard.
And especially now that they’ve got
The sixty thousand dollar reward.

I guess he was flying
One of those Phantom jets,
A phantom pilot, in a phantom plane.

Chicken hawks all except for Powell,
Who finally surrendered to insanity,
Killing thousands of people,
To get one man.
That’s a crime against humanity.

Rumsfeld and Wolfewitz,
Cheney and Bush,
Chicken hawks all everyone,
They’re hot to send your kids to war,
But they’ve never been under the gun.

Most of our generals
Were pretty upset,
They thought this rush to war
Was a real bad bet.
But there was no one around
To hear their beef,
And they had to obey the Commander in Chief.

Because one thing no one could foil,
Was Georgie’s plan to get the oil.
He was itchin’ to run amok,
Filled with the lust to bomb Iraq.

Well we went in and did the dirty deed,
Fueled by the warmonger’s boundless greed.
But it wasn’t the cake-walk
That Cheney said
And thousands of people
Are crippled and dead.

Things haven’t worked out like they wanted,
And the whole thing’s a giant mess.
But the last thing we can ever expect,
Is for Georgie to confess
That there were no weapons of mass destruction
And that Saddam didn’t knock down the towers,
And that thousands of people died needlessly
And many of the deaths were ours.

So Georgie, don’t tell us we went to war
Because we were being humane.
We’ve just killed thousands of innocent people,
And that’s just clearly insane.

© Rick Burnley February, 2004

GEORGIE PORGIE

Georgie Porgie, puddin’ and pie
Shipped our kids to war
Where many of them die.
They were sent over there because of lie,
The weapons of mass destruction.

Georgie, you’re so proud of yourself,
You think you’ve done quite well.
You’re dropping bombs on cities
And you’ve opened the gates of hell.

You’ve used our kids as cannon fodder
To quell your insatiable greed
And you have the nerve to cry
Support our troops; Support our troops indeed.

To really support them
Would be to not send them
Off to foreign lands,
Where most of their victims are innocent
And our soldiers get blood stained hands,
And tortured souls from what they’ve done.
They’ve broken God’s laws, and man’s.

And now it seems we’re in eternal war
With no clear end in sight.
And the rest of the world trembles
At our unholy might.

And George just keeps rattling his saber,
He reminds me of Elmer Fudd,
And the crew he’s assembled
To catch the rabbit, really is a dud,
‘Cause the rabbit he’s chasin’
Is way, way brighter.
George, You’re a cheerleader for the rich,
You’re not a freedom fighter.

And in the future history books,
What will be your handle?
George the Puppet,
George the Merciless,
Or maybe George the Vandal?

‘Cause you’ve started lots of fires
That you can’t put out,
And cause and effects not your bag.
You like to prance around dressed up like a pilot,
Waving your little flag.
It would be quite amusing
If it weren’t so very sad.
The world’s at the mercy of a half-wit,
And the other half is mad.

© Rick Burnley August 30, 2004

LET US PREY

“Let us prey” say the hypocrites
Perched at the top.
And prey is what they do,
They prey on the weak and the poor of the world,
And the rest they merely screw.

Compassionate conservatives
Is how they want to be seen,
An oxymoron if ever there was,
They’re selfish, cold, and mean.
Their only compassion
Is for those of their ilk,
The rich and elite who rule,
And the rest of us are here to milk,
‘Cause we’re so easy to fool.
They pluck us like chickens
‘Cause we’re such easy pickins’
To them, we’re just a tool.

America’s like a movie set
What you see’s not what you get.
And behind it’s democratic façade,
The fat cats rule with a wink and a nod.

Here’s the way it really works,
I’ll get you up to speed
Robber Barons are ruling us,
And they’re driven by their greed.

Like bottomless pits,
They can’t get enough.
Hungry ghosts, they’re called in Tibet.
They pack it in as fast as they can
And they want everything they can get.

Lobbyists write our laws for us
They get access with barrels of loot.
They bribe our elected officials,
And it’s justice that gets the boot.

Democracy means one man, one vote
And that vote shouldn’t be for sale.
Our leaders are as crooked as a dog’s back leg,
And most should be rotting in jail.

Now we’ve got prisons for profit
All over the US of A.
The owners get slave labor,
And the taxpayer gets to pay,
To keep people in jail as long as they can
And most for a victimless crime.
They hand out years like m&ms,
Your life isn’t worth a dime.

And business is booming,
Our prisons are full,
Over two million at last count.
And they keep adding new laws
To lock more of us up,
And the numbers continue to mount.

Five percent of the world’s people
Live in the United States.
But a quarter of the world’s prisoners
Are behind our prison gates.

That’s right, one out of four of the world’s prisoners
Are here in the land of the free,
Locked up in the gulags of the ruling class,
And it doesn’t seem right to me.

Let us prey, and they do.
They’re gettin’ worse all the time.
And if we don’t try to stop them,
We’ll be complicit in their crimes.

When injustice becomes the law of the land,
It’s time for us to make a stand.
If you care about the future of our nation,
Resistance becomes your obligation.

© Rick Burnley August, 2004