And so the smile on my face just wouldn’t fade — even when I was knuckle-busted by my reel and the sound of line racing out was louder than the skiff engine.

I needed the break. Before I left Anchorage, I received an email from a friend. He said, “Shannyn, you take politics too personally. Have a good trip. Just fish.”

I tried. I really did. But I realized something between the coho and rainbow runs. Politics are personal. Maybe not to me every time, but most of the time.

I know why people throw up their hands and say, “Who cares? They all seem the same to me.” The intentional hijinks of politicians and the constantly convoluted processes of policy seem designed to make us shrug, walk away and ask, “What’s for dinner?”

But we dial back in when dinner becomes something we can’t afford, or the fuel to cook it costs more than the stove, or we lose our jobs or get sick from contaminated food. When it gets personal, we pay attention. Many of our problems are rooted in politics. You needn’t look very far to find similar issues in the faces of your neighbors, friends or family.

It would be great if we could elect our representatives and then get back to our personal lives. Most people in Alaska are more concerned with fish runs, hunting and gathering, filling freezers, a promotion at work or whether the Aces will win the Kelly Cup again next year. Go ACES! (Both of them.)

The truth is this: If your streets are clear of snow in the winter and dirt in the summer, that’s politics. If there’s a pothole on your street large enough to swallow a VW Bug, that’s politics. If you care about where you can hunt and fish and what the bag limits are, that’s politics. If you want to be able to marry whomever you choose, that’s politics.

In King Salmon I chatted with a man who told me he lived out there because he hated politics — but even he couldn’t escape. The proposed Pebble mine is personal for him.

Last week I read about a woman in Oregon with bone cancer and no health insurance. She was having yard sales, selling her possessions to pay bills she was afraid to open. The city she lived in said she had reached her limit of three yard sales a year and shut her down. A man in Florida, diagnosed with cancer, robbed a bank for a dollar and waited for police. He knew he could get treatment in prison. Health care is personal.

It was hard to be distracted by the drivel of public policy while giggling like a 5-year-old and making Dolly Parton Varden jokes under the big sky of Western Alaska. I thought about my friend’s advice to “just fish” and realized it wasn’t entirely possible. Having forgotten about my fear of flying as I gazed out at the unfathomably vast wild from the window of a 206, I realized politics are inescapable precisely because they are personal.

Years ago, I was protesting the Iraq war and realized I could support the warrior and still oppose the war. From my boat, watching a little pink bead for hours on end, I realized I don’t have to support the politicians to believe we have the best model for a government in the world. Politicians can’t be counted on to fix the things that are personal to us. We have to do that for ourselves.

Your interests may be predator control or music in schools or traffic calming on your street. It doesn’t matter. Just identify the biggest problem in your community — however you define that community — and start trying to fix it.

That’s politics, and it should be personal.

Originally posted in the ADN 8/27/2011

The work of Corbis Images is breath taking. Please go check them out.

Alaskans are blessed to have wildlife and salmon…and should be good stewards of it. No Pebble.

There is nothing I enjoy more than fishing.

It was pure bliss.

Here’s a link to the column I wrote for the Anchorage Daily News.

Thanks for reading.

Fish on, my brothers and sisters.

It’s hard to describe how surreal it was to meet the man who wrote a book I grew
up with. I remember the cover. Joe McGinniss had written one of the best books
about Alaska, though controversial in the late 70′s, but if Alaska is anything,
it’s controversial. I guess I thought he was just a guy who probably lived up
the Anchor River from our cabin, why would anyone write about Alaska unless they
didn’t have anything better to write about.

Then I read The Selling Of The President. Required reading at the time, and it rocked my world.
When Joe McGinniss contacted me in November of 2008 I was star struck. After
meeting him, spending more time talking about Bobby Kennedy than Palin, I’d
fallen in love. He was a bridge to a time before my birth that seemed more
curious than current times. The same day I met him, he sent me an email with a
paragraph he’d written and asked me to keep it in confidence. I did. It wasn’t
the last time he’d ask me to keep a secret.

Last February, a manuscript was leaked to the press. It was not breaking news
that Frank Bailey, former Palin aid had written a book. The news was who
collaborated with him; Jeanne Devon of Mudflats. I knew. I hadn’t known for long,
but I knew. She’d been offered (insisted by Ken Morris, a co-author) the chance
to read over 60,000 emails from Palin, Bailey and company and she took it. I’d
have punched her if she’d turned it down.  I agreed to keep confidence before I
knew the secret. I kept it.

Driving home from filming my TV show, it occurred to me who leaked it. No one
told me. I called a journalist who had received the leaked manuscript and asked.
It was confirmed.
Joe committed friendship suicide. I was asked to keep his secrets and a scourge
for keeping someone else’s.

I talked to a friend of mine in the national press this week. He said, “Joe
seduced a murderer, why did you think you were smarter?” I didn’t know. I didn’t
vet Joe.  It occurred to me, this is why Sarah Palin was elected. This is why I
took Joe McGinniss in like family. Alaska has an open heart that doesn’t ask for
a history. At one point, it was rude to ask people where they were from. Many
people run away to Alaska, reinvent themselves, and carry on. When people out
themselves as both Sarah and now, Joe, we get it.

I’m sure Joe’s book will show Sarah for who she is. I’m trying not to say “It
takes one to know one” here.  By releasing the unfinished manuscript of Frank
Bailey, Ken Morris and Jeanne Devon, he’s shown himself to be more like his subject.

I don’t think they are
that different.

Money. Loyalty tests. Vendettas.

Please realize how hard this is.
Joe McGinniss has stayed in my home, helped my daughter with her homework and
made me laugh like no other. His phone number is stored as “Larry David” on my
cell phone. We had one of the best weekends of my entire life in Alaska last
summer. Driving the 220 miles to my hometown of Homer, I explained to him the
detailed caution of porcupine copulation. Visiting my folks, his kindness
towards my mother and a trip to Halibut Cove on my pop’s boat.

That night, we drank fantastic scotch, talked about life’s regrets which
included missed opportunities for cannibalization, spent the night and in the
morning, after fresh eggs, stood at the grave of a dear friend of mine he’d met
in the 70′s while researching Going to Extremes. Watching soccer with him was
religious.  I introduced him to Oxford Fall’s “Wake Up Crabby” Bloody Mary Mix
and shucked countless Kachemak Bay Oysters. These silly details seemed part of a
sacred friendship.

I was played.

While I watch the investment of over a year by three people evaporate because
of his fear, I still find myself mourning Joe.

Largest wild salmon fishery wiped out by corporate greed?

Please watch this incredible program!

TIVO ALERT!

Watch Senator Bill Wielechowski eviscerate Governor Sean Parnell’s plan to provide $2-$3 billion in corporate welfare to the most profitable multinational corporations in the history of civilization-and at least one of them, Exxon, paid ZERO in federal taxes last year despite record profits!!!

TODAY, April 2nd, 4pm KYES Channel 5

TOMORROW, APRIL 3rd, 9am KYES Channel 5

Educate yourself-MUST SEE TV!

photo by Jeanne Devon of themudflats.net

Shannyn is in Washington DC lobbying for the preservation of Bristol Bay.

She’ll be hosting her radio show on Monday, April 4.

Guest hosting today is Steve  Heimel and Friday is Vince Beltrami.

We will be back with another episode of Moore Up North next week on Thursday, April 7 at 5:30pm.

See you then!

Governor Parnell’s bill to bailout the most profitable multinational corporations in the history of civilization with zero guarantees of new exploration should give every Alaskan pause.

The House Finance Committee held an invitation-only hearing at the LIO in Anchorage on Tuesday. Sure, it was open to the public, so long as you kept your mouth shut. The invitations were extended to the so-called business leaders of Alaska; from the heads of Native Corporations to bank presidents to owners of oil services companies, they were all lined up in a flight pattern eager to plea the sky had fallen and the only way for restoration and salvation was to pony up $2+ BILLION a year like a sacrificial virgin to some unseen gods.

Parnell’s own data contradicts his current flip-flopped meme. Everything thing you read, see or hear from the multimillion multimedia propaganda campaign is a lie.

Testify Thursday, March 24, from 5pm-8pm and Friday, March 25 from 3pm-7pm at your LIO.

NO on HB110! JUST SAY NO TO BIG OIL BAILOUTS!

On St. Patrick’s Day!

Be sure to tune in to KYES Channel 5 on Saturday at 4pm and Sunday at 9am for Senator Bill Wielechowski’s important, urgent and educational program on ACES!

Senator Bill Wielechowski came on the show and blew holes through the million dollar propaganda campaign that is attempting to provide, over the next several years, up $20 billion dollars in welfare to the most insatiable and profitable multinational corporations in the history of civilization. They have set so many consecutive records for record profit, Guinness stopped counting. AND…Senator Wielechowski used Governor Sean Parnell’s own data to point out their misinformation onslaught.

This episode of Moore Up North will be rebroadcast statewide on Saturday, March 12 at 4pm and Sunday, March 13 at 9am statewide on KYES Channel 5.

Bloggers: Please feel free to repost to get the word out. Richard Mauer wrote a great piece in the ADN tonight and it looks like the tide might be turning in Alaska’s favor. The time is NOW to email/message and call your state senator and representative. TODAY!

The Slides in Senator Wielechowski’s presentation may be found here.

Consider this: for absolutely NO INVESTMENT GUARANTEES, Governor Parnell wants to give away our FAIR SHARE!  What, you ask, is our FAIR SHARE? It’s roads, ports, schools, airports, health care, running the state. Our FAIR SHARE is also…wait for it…NOT having a STATE INCOME TAX, PROPERTY TAX and SALES TAX!  It’s having a PERMANENT FUND and a SAVINGS ACCOUNT and a CONSTITUTIONAL BUDGET RESERVE! In short, it’s NOT being BANKRUPT like nearly every other state in the union!

If HB110 and SB49 become law, Alaska will be in deficit spending mode in a couple years. Within five years, our $12 billion savings account will be wiped out. Once that happens and we have no revenue coming in, how long until the Permanent Fund is raided? How long till we see new unprecedented statewide taxes-covering income, property, sales, and whatever else they can think of?

And consider this, Norway started their Permanent Fund in 1990, the year AFTER the Exxon Valdez disaster and 14 years after the Alaska Permanent Fund was established. Yet, Norway has $560 BILLION DOLLARS! Alaska has $38 BILLION DOLLARS! Norway somehow managed to sock away $522 BILLION more than our Permanent Fund. How is that possible, you ask? Because they are getting their FAIR SHARE! And you know what? Norway’s taxes are higher than ours. And even though they have less oil than we do, Oil Producers are investing there!

Imagine if we had been getting our FAIR SHARE since 1976. What would our fund be? What if we had what Norway has now? We would have $28,000,000,000 for state government just off of a lousy 5% return! Even a free-spender like Governor Parnell would be hard-pressed to spend all of that!

And some breaking news, Great Bear is an up and coming energy company that just invested $8 million for acreage on the North Slope. They plan on a long-term development strategy that will invest $2 billion in Alaska each year over decades. They say there are hundreds of billions of barrels of high quality shale oil on the North Slope. They are forecasting 450,000 barrels per day by 2013 and much more after that.

But wait, there’s more!

Repsol is a Spanish Major that just announced it will be investing $768 million dollars in Alaska.

And two other new independents, ENI and Brooks Range Petroleum are also investing on the North Slope.

Apparently, they didn’t get the memo that Alaska’s Closed for Business!

And, Alaska is NOT closed for business according to the Tax Foundation. We are the NUMBER TWO most favorable business climate out of all 50 states. Read it and weep here!

Note to Chicken Little Murkowski: The Sky is NOT falling!

Governor Sean Parnell is attacking the late, great Wally Hickel’s OWNER STATE by putting forward a bill that is nothing more than a welfare program for the wealthiest corporations on the planet!

Call and email your legislator now. Tell them HANDS OFF ACES! NO on HB110 and SB49!

Alaska State Public Opinion Messages System for all legislators can be sent here. Email your Alaska State Representative and Alaska State Senator.

The House Finance Committee will be taking public testimony on HB110 on Thursday, March 24 and Friday March 25 at the Legislative Information Office downtown on 4th Avenue.

Check out Jeanne Devon’s great piece on this resource give-away on The Mudflats!

Apologies.

Tomorrow, SUNDAY, March 6th, Tune into to KYES Channel 5 for Moore Up North with Shannyn Moore. This week’s show is truly MUST SEE TV!

Shannyn’s guest was Senator Bill Wielechowski. Senator Wielechowski completely eviscerated the Anti-ACES propaganda campaign that could cost Alaska $20 Billion dollars!

AND, the best Bill in Juneau used Governor Parnell’s OWN INFORMATION to show how well ACES is working. Whatever side of this issue you are on, tune into KYES Channel 5. Arm yourself with education.

Moore Up North airs Saturday, March 5 at 4pm, and repeats Sunday, March 6 at 9am on KYES Channel 5.

Thanks to Mike Papantonio and producer Farron Cousins of Ring of Fire Radio

Palin was asked about Egypt on the “Brody Files“:

Sarah Palin: “Remember, President Reagan lived that mantra trust but verify. We want to be able to trust those who are screaming for democracy there in Egypt, that it is a true sincere desire for freedoms and the challenge that we have though, is how do we verify what it is that we are being told, what it is that the American public are being fed via media, via the protesters, via the government there in Egypt in order for us to really have some sound information to make wise decisions on what our position is.  Trust but verify, and try to understand is what I would hope our leaders are engaged in right now.  Who’s going to fill the void?  Mubarak, he’s gone, one way or the other you know, he is not going to be the leader of Egypt, that that’s a given, so now the information needs to be gathered and understood as to who it will be that fills now the void in the government.  Is it going to be the Muslim Brotherhood?  We should not stand for that, or with that or by that.  Any radical Islamists, no that is not who we should be supporting and standing by, so we need to find out who was behind all of the turmoil and the revolt and the protests so that good decisions can be made in terms of who we will stand by and support.”

“Trust but verify” has been an escaped mantra for Palin. You’ll wait years for a records request to find out what she was really up to in Alaska. How about this Sarah, we (you) don’t get to boss around another country. Remember how you didn’t like the United States Federal Government telling Alaska about building codes? Yeah, well, they don’t like it either. We’ve been propping up and funding a dictator in Mubarak who has amassed more personal wealth than the Alaska Permanent Fund in its entirety.

When asked how Obama was handling the situation:

Sarah Palin: “It’s a difficult situation, this is that 3am White House phone call and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House it it seems that that call went right to um the answering machine. And nobody yet has, no body yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and um, no, not, not real um enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And um, in these areas that are so volatile right now because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House.  We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with.  And um, we do not have all that information yet.”

SERIOUSLY? The answering machine? If you haven’t had the situation explained to you, it may have to do with the basics. We’ll start with, “Egypt is not a state in the country of Africa.” Sorry, I hate to get all “Gotcha”. We need “strength and sound mind” in the White House. You Betcha. I’m so glad John McCain isn’t living there. We DO have the information on what it is that America stands for and it’s not you. We do have that information. You’re tanking. The more you talk, the more you unravel the myth the McCain campaign worked so hard to spin.

When she was ask about a run for President, and what might she do differently?

Sarah Palin: “I would continue on the same course of not really caring what other people say about me or worrying about the things that they make up, but having that thick skin and a still spine, knowing that what is needed in America are those things that Ronald Reagan did espouse and what he lived and not worrying about what the critics are going to say me or my family or what it is that I stand for because I do believe, David, that there are more commonsense conservative Americans on our side on the issues that we stand for than there are those who oppose the idea of individualism and God given liberty and opportunity to work hard and to, um, to progress according to our own work ethic and our own merits.  I would continue to believe that there are more who are believers in those values than there are not, so I would continue down that same path.”

Yes. That is a tremendous way to get people to vote for you. Not caring what they say about you.  This skin? No. It’s stretched tight and even thinner than it was when you were governor. Good Lord, take a breath. That first sentence is a doozie.  You, madam, should never utter the words “work ethic” within earshot of any Alaskans. You are a quitter.

On Media Attacks?

Sarah Palin: “You know, I’m reminded so often of 2 Timothy 1:7 knowing that God does not give us a spirit of timidity or of fear, but he gives us a spirit of power and love and a sound mind.  A sound mind so that we can keep things in perspective.  We can stay grounded, we can know what is real, we can know truth, so just calling on that verse, reminding myself over and over again what’s God promises, that gets me through the tough times.”

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah.  I know a few really wonderful Christian Alaskans who have prayed their way through the hell you have wrought on them personally or through policy. Watch out for lightening.

The rest of that interview is here. It’s just about time for her to reconsider her “sit down and shut up” status.

And by the way. Remember that guy that “discovered” you back in 2007 on an Alaska Cruise to Juneau? William Kristol?  Perhaps you haven’t yet read this, but Bill Kristol talks about the very fear you and your buddy Glenn Beck are promoting. From the new issue of the Weekly Standard out on February 14:

Now, people are more than entitled to their own opinions of how best to accomplish that democratic end. And it’s a sign of health that a political and intellectual movement does not respond to a complicated set of developments with one voice.

But hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.

Nor is it a sign of health when other American conservatives are so fearful of a popular awakening that they side with the dictator against the democrats. Rather, it’s a sign of fearfulness unworthy of Americans, of short-sightedness uncharacteristic of conservatives, of excuse-making for thuggery unworthy of the American conservative tradition.

Kristol continues:

Let’s hope that as talk radio hosts find time for reflection, and commentators step back to take a deep breath, they will recall that one of the most hopeful aspects of the current conservative revival is its reclamation of the American constitutionalist tradition. That tradition is anchored even beyond the Constitution, of course, in the Declaration of Independence. And that document, let’s not forget, proclaims that, “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.”

An American conservatism that looks back to 1776 cannot turn its back on the Egyptian people. We should wish them well—and we should work to help them achieve as good an outcome as possible.

Conservatives are used to focusing on the downsides of situations. And there are potential downsides ahead, to be sure. But there is also a huge upside to a sound and admirable outcome in Egypt. American conservatives should remember our commitment, in the words of Federalist 39, to “that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.”

Egypt turns out to have its votaries of freedom. The Egyptian people want to exercise their capacity for self-government. American conservatives, heirs to our own bold and far-sighted revolutionaries, should help them.

I agree with Bill Kristol.

I need to get my skates out. Hell just froze over.

Was it something I said?

The Shannyn Moore Show goes FM!

Starting today, FOX NEWS TALK KOAN 1020AM will be simulcast in the Anchorage Bowl on KOAN 95.5FM!

Tune into The Shannyn Moore Show from 3pm-6pm EST/11am-2pm AST.

As always, you may stream the show on either KOAN Anchorage or KXLJ Juneau . Miss a show? Podcast it here!

CALL THE SHOW AT 907.522.1020!

NOW, 5 WAYS TO LISTEN:

1. 1020 AM Anchorage Palmer Wasilla
2. 95.5 FM Anchorage Eagle River
3. 1330 AM Juneau
4. www.1020koan.com
5. www.kxljradio.com
6. http://shannynmoore.podbean.com/

Truly, like Steely Dan sang…NO STATIC AT ALL!!!

Taproot is located in the Republic of Spenard at 3300 Spenard Road. It’s Mr. Whitekeys’ old Fly By Night Club!

The taping starts around 5:30pm.

This week’s show is our 2nd annual legislative preview show.  Here is this week’s Moore Up North guest line-up:

INTERVIEW

Lesil McGuire is a Republican legislator that’s represented South Anchorage since 2000. In 2006, she was elected to the Alaska Senate.

PANEL

Senator Hollis French is a former state prosecutor and was elected to the Alaska Senate in 2002. He is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Representative Lindsey Holmes has represented the 26th District since 2006.

Representative Les Gara has represented the Downtown District 23 since 2002.  He is an attorney and a writer and was the Assistant Attorney General during the Exxon Valdez oil spill case.

Check out Taproot‘s website here and their facebook page here.

Taproot has a full bar with a comprehensive selection of fine Bourbons, incredible single malt Scotch and a gargantuan beer menu! AND…Taproot expanded their menu! They offer a wide variety of tasty options available to meat eaters and vegetarians alike. Everything from their kitchen is prepared to order, fresh from scratch! At Tap Root they focus on wholesome, natural foods, and use only organic & free range proteins, and locally grown produce.

This season is dedicated to our dear departed friend Roger Ranch. We will miss him at every taping.

Rest in Peace Roger. We’ll leave a cup of coffee out for you.

In March, Sarah Palin posted this ad on her facebook page and tweeted, “Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!” Pls see my Facebook page.”

Arizona Senator John McCain defended Sarah Palin on NBC’s Today Show last March:

McCain was asked about what host Ann Curry described as Palin’s “incendiary language.”

“Ann, I have seen the rhetoric of targeted districts as long as I’ve been in politics,” he replied. “Please. This is — any threat of violence is terrible, but to say that there is a targeted district or that we ‘reload’ or go back in to the fight again, please…Those are fine. They’re used all the time.”

“Those words have been used throughout of my political career,” McCain added. “There are targeted districts, and there are areas that we call battleground states, and so please, that rhetoric and kind of language is just part of the political lexicon. There is no place for threats of violence or anything else, but to say that someone is in a battleground state is not originated today.”

After a testy back-and-forth, Curry said, “I think it is the ‘reload’ and ‘crosshairs’ that’s caused a lot of people to be concerned, senator.”

SarahPAC took the cross-hairs list down today. The mid-terms were over on November 2. Why would the Palin camp remove this ugly fund-raising ad from their website TODAY? Is this a tacit admission of her culpability in the violence she has been advocating since coming into the national spotlight on August 29, 2008?

Taproot is located in the Republic of Spenard at 3300 Spenard Road. It’s Mr. Whitekeys’ old Fly By Night Club!

The taping starts around 5:30pm.

Here is this week’s Moore Up North guest line-up:

INTERVIEW

Corwyn Wilkey and Rob Woolsey from the Taproot talk about their business and their latest venture-a nod to their new home’s dinner theater past.

PANEL

Lyda Green served in the Alaska Senate from 1995-2009 and was elected president in 2007. She decided not to run for reelection in 2008.

Tank Jones is best known as Levi Johnston’s body guard.  He is a private eye in Anchorage and has his finger on the pulse of our fair city.

Tom Begich is a singer-songwriter and statistics savant that has worked on over 150 political campaigns. He was the State’s Expert Witness for both Campaign Finance Reform and the 1992 and 2002 reapportionments.

Check out Taproot‘s website here and their facebook page here.

Taproot has a full bar with a comprehensive selection of fine Bourbons, incredible single malt Scotch and a gargantuan beer menu! AND…Taproot expanded their menu! They offer a wide variety of tasty options available to meat eaters and vegetarians alike. Everything from their kitchen is prepared to order, fresh from scratch! At Tap Root they focus on wholesome, natural foods, and use only organic & free range proteins, and locally grown produce.

This is our first show since our dear friend Roger Ranch departed this world for that great beyond. We are dedicating this season to his memory. We will miss him at every taping.

Rest in Peace Roger.  We’ll leave a cup of coffee out for you.

Truth tellers emerge in difficult times. David Rovics is a truth teller.

A Song for Bradley Manning

By David Rovics

Private Manning was an analyst
if what they say is true
He was paid to read reports
find the patterns sifting through

As he read the data
the patterns did emerge
Patterns that were clear
both before and since the Surge

Patterns of abuse
of the most horrific kind
Gunning down civilians
out of view and out of mind

Gunning down the opposition
in the middle of the night
Sending off the scholars
to be tortured out of sight

Sometimes you need desperate measures
when you live in desperate times
Private Manning saw he was
looking at war crimes

He wondered what to do
to allow the dead to speak
He finally decided
to contact Wikileaks

Now it’s all out on the table
and everybody knows
The emperor is naked,
he’s not wearing any clothes

Now Adrian Lamo
has to live within his skin
He stabbed Bradley in the back,
called the cops and turned him in

But not before the soldier
took a half a million files
If you printed all the pages
they’d stretch on for miles

Evidence against the state
right from the horse’s mouth
Machinations in the west,
bombings in the south

A treasure trove of details
for all the globe to see
How much they need to lie and kill
for democracy

How many drone strikes have hit villages
leaving everyone to die
They blamed it on someone else
the official line, “Not I”

How many coups have been plotted
by ambassadors who say
That free and fair elections
be the order of the day

Now it’s all out on the table
and everybody knows
The emperor is naked,
he’s not wearing any clothes

Now the Genie’s out of the bottle
and they’re trying to stuff it back
And stop it from illuminating
everything we lack

Such as the rule of law
or playing by the book
Look you can read it, it’s right here,
the ship of state is run by crooks

And they vilify the messengers,
call them every name
For daring to blow the whistle
on the nature of their game

The game of taking lives
and endangering the rest
In order for the wealthy few
to do what they do best

Dominate the world
for the corporate elite
But now their cover’s blown
from their head down to their feet

And now the stars and stripes
is looking much more like a rag
The lid is off the box,
the cat’s out of the bag

Now it’s all out on the table
and everybody knows
The emperor is naked,
he’s not wearing any clothes