10:55 pm CST

DREAM: A muddle of mundane editorial details about The Bush Junta gradually resolves into a coherent dream. I'm in a station wagon bound for New Mexico. My mother is driving; at other times, other people are driving. Someone says, "We're going to Quetzacoatl National Park." I've never heard of such a park and ask to see the map, but for some reason never get to see it, which is frustrating.

After much tedious driving, detouring, and getting lost, we finally come to a stop in the middle of a flat, dusty desert. There are no signs designating this place as a park, nor is there anything to recommend it as a park; it is ugly and barren, and the dust is unpleasant.

But everyone else is acting like this is the place. They pile out of the car and start walking towards a wooden building. I follow.

Inside, there are long, cafeteria-style tables. Elvis Presley is sitting at one of them watching television. "Elvis," I say. He turns around, friendly. I ask, "What do you know about this place? Is it really a park?"

"All I know," he replies, "is that it can be seen from outer space."

We talk some more, and I keep thinking how strange it is--yet familiar--to be talking to Elvis.

After talking with Elvis, I feel better about the place. Maybe I can relax here, I think. I can sit on the porch later when the sun goes down and smoke my pipe. Desert nights are nice. The days aren't so good, though. I'll need to be sure to wear my hat when I'm outside in the broiling heat.

Then it occurs to me I've left my hat--my white cowboy hat--in the station wagon. So I go outside, and find that 50 more cars have arrived, also two stagecoaches. I look for the station wagon, but can't find it.

Frustrated, I go back inside and encounter an old boss of mine. He tells me a story about George W. Bush--something bad that Bush did to a classmate when he was in college. "I hate the guy," he says, meaning Bush. I start telling him about The Bush Junta, but we're interrupted and he leaves.

I laugh and say to my wife, "I used to work for him. His management style was like this: If there was a fly buzzing around the room, he'd wait till it landed on a wall, then dynamite the whole wall."

My wife goes to the kitchen where the women are preparing Christmas dinner. I go into the garage to fill a water bowl for two red dogs, a big one and a little one. They keep fighting and I keep breaking it up. Finally, they settle down and we talk. To my surprise, the dogs can speak intelligently on a wide variety of subjects.

Then I become concerned that someone might slip on some water that was spilt while the dogs were fighting, so I try to dry it with a towel. But it won't dry, so I give it up and go into the dining room, only to find that everyone has finished dinner and the tables are being cleared. Hungry, I wander into the kitchen. A pretty, kind-eyed woman smiles and asks if I would like some food. I say yes, and she starts filling my plate with weirdly shaped pasta and mystery meat …

10:47 pm CST
A READER WRITES: Your posting today reminds me of when I flew from my home in New Mexico to New Orleans last July. Now I usually travel with my 9mm semiauto handgun, especially to places where I am unfamiliar with the people, crime stats, etc... not to mention that it just happens to be my 2nd amendment right (last I checked). So, not having flown since 9/11 I called the airline the day before my flight to inquire about whether it was still possible to check an unloaded handgun into baggage in a locked and secured hard-sided case.  When doing so I was placed on hold for no less than 10-15 minutes, then told it was still OK per FAA regulations. Well, next day at check-in I realized that my name had obviously been red flagged. I watched others go through the basic rudimentary security screen. When I checked in, before even proceeding to the gate I was taken to the side, my bags thoroughly rifled through, searched by hand and metal detector wand. I was allowed to proceed to the gate where I again was put through the wringer at the security check point/metal detector. Lastly, as I presented my boarding pass I was once again hand searched and wanded and told to remove my shoes, which were also given the once-over. Needless to say it was almost as bad on the return trip. All of this was done by those sorry-ass minimum-wage, power-crazed-because-they-have-a-little-authority police academy rejects with their military buzz-cuts.  Anyway, I slept soundly because I knew it was all for my good and that of my fellow subjects--I mean citizens. Welcome to Air Ashcroft.

Your experience is further proof that Homeland Security is not about keeping us safe. It is about harassment, intimidation, and showing us who’s boss. Used to be the government served the people, but now, in Police State America, it is the other way around.

2:03 pm CST
Sen. Charles Schumer's proposal to install airport-style security in shopping malls proves what has long been suspected, that whatever is required at airports will eventually be required everywhere.

For instance, if the CAPPS II plan to assign a "threat level" to airline passengers is instituted, it will eventually apply to other aspects of our lives as well--shopping at the mall, going to a restaurant, renting an apartment, getting a job:

"Sorry, ma'am, this mall is only for people with a Level 5 Security Clearance."

"Yes, sir, I understand you have a reservation, but we don't serve anyone with a Security Clearance less than 5. No, we can't make exceptions. Yes, you heard that right. Now, would you please leave? You're disturbing our patrons."

"Sorry, we don't rent to anyone with less than a Level 5 Security Clearance. I'm sure you understand. We like our tenants to feel safe."

"You passed your urinalysis and your mental health screening, and your references were all very positive, but I'm afraid there is one little problem.  We should have caught it earlier, but somehow it got past us. I apologize for that, but those things happen. Anyway, the problem is that--well, you have a Level 4 Security Clearance, and we only accept applicants with a Level 5. "

Actually, with regard to housing and employment, the groundwork has already been laid with criminal background checks, which have become more frequent in these paranoid, post-September 11 times. Ask any parolee.

Many apartment complexes, for instance, will not accept ex-convicts as tenants. Also, people come out of prison, having paid their debt to society (or so they thought), ready to find honest work, only to find that no one will hire them. For, in today's uncompromising, zero-tolerance, get-tough-on-everybody, keep-me-safe climate, no one is allowed to make any kind of mistake, and no one is ever forgiven.

I underwent a background check recently when I moved to a new apartment. I also underwent a credit check. Once it was determined that I was neither a deadbeat nor a convicted felon, I was allowed to move into the apartment.  But what about the next time I have to undergo a background check?

Right now, anti-war activists are being detained at airports. Right now, ex-convicts are being denied housing and employment. How long before these two practices are combined? How long before your political views put you in the same position as an ex-convict?

At the rate we're going, not long.

Returning to the subject of shopping malls, the above-linked article notes that, presently, shoppers feel safe in the malls and see no need for airport-style security. But that will change following the next big terrorist attack, which the government assures us will happen any day now. For, as you know, this is THE SUMMER OF TERROR.

4:25 pm CST
Bush plans to screen entire US population for mental illness

It will start with pre-school children. In order to enroll your child in the local government training center (euphemistically termed "public school"), he or she will have to be evaluated by a government-licensed psychologist. Any child who does not fall within the parameters of whatever the State considers "normal" will be prescribed an "anti-psychotic" drug concocted by the Bush-connected pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly. The prescription will of course be mandatory; any parents who refuse to "medicate" their children will find themselves in the same position as the father in this news story who, after seeing his son's personality deteriorate under the effect of Ritalin, took his son off the poison and now may face prosecution--except that, in the near future, there won't be any "maybe" about it, parents will face prosecution, they will have their children taken away from them, and they will be imprisoned for defending their children.

That's how it will start.  Then prisoners, whether they got into trouble for murder or burglary or marijuana possession or failure to pay a parking ticket or holding "politically incorrect" views or refusing to medicate their children, will be screened for mental illness. And they will be forcibly medicated, or implanted with a device to control their emotions. And the average, stupid American citizen will not care, because it's "only" being done to prisoners.

But then, one day, you will wake up and discover that you cannot get health insurance, a driver's license, government benefits, or a job, unless you submit to mental health screening. And they will test your "normality" with all manner of diabolical high-tech gadgetry. For instance, they will analyze your brain wave activity to discern whether or not you are lying when they ask you about your finances, your sex life, your favorite television shows, your political views, your religious beliefs, and so on. It will, of course, be junk science, with results subject to any sort of interpretation, but it won't matter--it will be the Law that you submit, and if you are deemed "abnormal" you will be medicated or micro-chipped, and you will be "cured." You will sit in front of the television with a catatonic stare, drooling, like the rest of the herd, watching American Idol and waving the American flag, getting all your opinions from Sean Hannity, supporting the endless War on Terrorism, supporting murder and torture, and always supporting your president.

Welcome to the Brave New World.

6:54 pm CST
An hour ago I completed the last page of my piece on September 11 for The Bush Junta. All that now remains to be done is some touching up and proofreading over the next couple of days. Then I begin my last task, which is to compile the bibliography for the book. Whew! The finish line is in sight. I can’t believe it.

Of course, there’s also the task of promoting the book—a process which began last night when Peter Relic of Rolling Stone interviewed me by phone for a piece about The Bush Junta. Peter is also interviewing Gary Groth, my co-editor, and I think there might be some sample artwork in the article. I don’t know the exact publication date yet, only that it is scheduled for Rolling Stone’s annual “Hot” issue which will be on newsstands by late July or early August.