In 1877 an Irishman wrote a ditty which will forever be linked to Jihadis and Czars. At a time when Iran is in the headlines and the US inducts its 33rd Czar under the Obama administration, what could be more suitable accompaniment to the news than the musical efforts of Frank Crummit?
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That was the end of Ivan and Abdul right? Well some things never die. The WSJ reports that President Obama, after showing signs of retreating before opposition to his health care “reform” plan, is doubling down.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.
White House officials say the president will detail what he wants in the health-care overhaul, as well as say he is open to better ideas on a government plan if lawmakers have them.
Democratic plans call for requiring most Americans to carry health insurance. Failure to comply could cost families as much as $3,800 a year, according to a new Senate proposal.
The health care debate isn’t over by a long shot. And in case you’re interested the story of Ivan and Abdul continued …
While I pondered the moonbeams descended quite low
Casting shadows suffusely, and then
I discovered that I was standing close by
The tombs of those two famous men
Then in the tombs shadows there rose from a grave
The form of a Russian Hussar
And my skin nearly peeled, as he stood there revealed
It was Ivan Skavinsky Skavar
‘Twas he who was calling, I hardly dared breathe
My heart ‘most stopped beating from fear
When out of a grave, in need of a shave
Arose Abdul Abulbul Amir
Oh Pelosi has said that she now has the votes
The Congress has moved very far
The Blue Dogs of course will be filled with remorse
Not so I. Skavinsky Skavar
For Ivan has teamed with the Democrat side
In spite of the disdainful sneer
From that bearded old man with the unnatural tan
His foeman Abulbul Amir
The House vote was close it came down in the end
To a Blue Dog from Tennessee bar
Who with faltering gait cast his vote very late
Hurried on by Skavinsky Skavar
It was then that the victors’ huzzahs turned to groans
As a fierce man tamped down the weak cheer
And faced down the lout who had ended the bout
It was Abdul Abulbul Amir
The Sergeant-At-Arms cried his vote has been cast
It cannot be changed or denied
Then Ivan stepped in with a devilish grin
And strangled Abdul till he cried
They wrestled all night on the floor of the House
Pelosi first hung back in fear
Then with fierce flashing eyes she stabbed both the thighs
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir
So the healthcare was passed by that one single vote
And the next day they named a new czar
Yes they plied him with wealth and toasted the health
Of Ivan Skavinsky Skavar
But the story’s not over there’s more still to come
It will shock you and call forth a tear
Of the terrible fate that befell the once great
Abdul Abulbul Amir
He ran for the Congress himself in the Fall
He canvassed his district by car
He arrived in DC quite embarrassed to see
The Speaker Skavinsky Skavar
Gog and Magog
Beautiful song. Obama, too, shall pass.
Gog and Magog meets Grog and Eggnog
Bravo Walt!
All we need now is a tinkly piano. But it’s great stuff.
Well, while we are quoting Irish poets:
An Appointment
BEING out of heart with government
I took a broken root to fling
Where the proud, wayward squirrel went,
Taking delight that he could spring;
And he, with that low whinnying sound
That is like laughter, sprang again
And so to the other tree at a bound.
Nor the tame will, nor timid brain,
Bred that fierce tooth and cleanly limb
And threw him up to laugh on the bough;
No government appointed him.
W. B. Yeats
The poem was written by Percy French in 1877.
My father used to sing that song from his boyhood to me in the fifties. Funny that a striking song about a zero sum game involving a jihadi and a Russian should live on with the help over the years of the likes of Groucho Marx and Stephen Fry. (WikiP Abdul Abulbul Amir) It is almost like it has become part of the folk wisdom…..
Theodore Bikel revived that song in the early 60′s as I recall.
Walt has outdone himself. The imagery is beautiful.
and – that is why we are where we are – it is not due to the 545 elected – it is due to the Ayres, and his ilk – who saw this route long ago, and have worked to bend the unionized, tenured , bureaucracy to the farleft -
you have doubt? – witness the education system we now have – and it’s product –
How, can a Ward Churchill – a William Ayers, and hundreds of thousands of that ilk prevail, have jobs, have tenure, - how, can a barry soetoro become president, a van jones be installed as a – green commissar – wielding some 30 -80 – billion – dollars worth of tax confiscations ?
how did this happen, why does it continue?
it is not just the 545 – it is the bureaucracy – unionized, tenured, entrenched, – unelected
they sustain themselves, sucking the tax teat – that – is our enemy.