i'm back in the kitchen of dissent

i just got back yesterday from out of town after teaching another workshop. on friday night, while sitting in the airport shuttle, i listened to the news on the radio. i heard of how the FBI is interviewing iraqi nationals in the U.S. and asking them stupid questions like, "do you like Osama Bin Laden?" it has gotten down to this asinine level... it ceases to amaze me in how utterly ridiculous it is to believe that all-powerful myth that the US is some beacon of democracy for the world to follow. let me list the ways in how it utterly fails!

1) so, what is freedom of the press, again? even the veteran members of the media establishment have to keep their mouths shut and take whatever propaganda the dubya administration has to offer naive, middle america. i just hope peter arnett decides to take the lead from other independent journalists to not tell the news only as the corporate war mongers in this country see fit.

2) the recipe for a feigned democracy post 9-11 (this dish is best served when corporate-backed figureheads (though, w/ not much of a head) who steal the US presidency are in season). step 1: sweep up, interrogate, and indefinitely detain at guantanamo bay's "house that halliburton built" a hodge podge of resident aliens, illegal aliens, and american-born citizens. step 2: conduct closed trials exempt from public scrutiny for hundreds of these countless and nameless detainees and deport them to god knows where. or, if you can't get osama bin laden's or saddam hussein's e-mail address and/or GPS coordinates, then "oops! my bad!" release them months later. that's right, with this gross disregard of basic democratic ideals of an "open" society, we can only know and say quietly to ourselves that the government is doing wrong, since now the evidence has been discreetly whisked onto a plane and flown off to somewhere else. garnish and chill before serving.

3) votes are in: americans prefer only the "colossus" at six flags magic mountain (valencia, ca). if you're tired, go to vegas to gamble where they pump fresh oxygen into the casinos; if you're poor, we'll give you "tax relief" to those making $1M or more by getting rid of the dividend tax--you can live vicariously through them!; if you're a member of huddled masses and you're a teenager who looks like you could be in a gang, you better make sure you don't walk in groups of more than three or we'll sweep you up into the juvenile "justice" system; if you're "yearning to breathe free," you're outta luck--participating in environmental treatises isn't our top priority, neither is producing hybrids--we need more lincoln navigators; if you're part of those "homeless, tempest-tossed," then we need to detain you indefinitely--we prefer you to enter the US illegally across the canadian border than on a boat from haiti to the florida shores. remember: lady liberty will be lifting her lamp beside the golden door!

if this is liberty, give me death!