"Oh, interesting," I replied. "I'm going back over to embed in Iraq on February 12. And don't worry about your son. It's pretty peaceful over there right now and he's probably not in any danger."
But Madam Jane was about to prove me wrong!
"You are just about the most naive person I know," she started scolding me the moment we got to my hotel which, incidentally, was right next to the ocean. "Not only is this poor man's son in danger, but every single other person in American is in grave danger too. Watch out, my friend. We are ALL being screwed -- and headed toward an early grave too."
But then my friend Woody Smith e-mailed me and shed some light on the kind of danger that The Madam might have been talking about -- danger from within. America's greatest danger doesn't come from terrorists. And we're not gonna get any relief from just employing more TSA guys and bomb-sniffing dogs and X-ray machines. "The dollar is falling at a frightening rate," said Woody. "The stock market is highly volatile and sinking, unemployment is high although the true extent of it is masked by statistical sleight-of-hand, most consumer spending is on credit, and the only reason we haven't been in a recession since shortly after Bush took office is that the falling dollar cleverly masks the true extent of our shrinkage."
So. The greatest danger facing America now is economic. But we all knew that. Nobody needs Madam Jane's crystal ball to know that. And then Madam Jane smugly went off to take a nap, to recover from jet-lag. And I checked my e-mail. "Jane," said the e-mail from the people in Iraq who had just approved my embed less than 24 hours ago, "I was just told by our PAO office at Corps, MNC-I, that they will not facilitate your embed request." What the freak does that mean? Can one actually get UN-embedded after having been promised something like that? In writing? Just like that? But I've already bought my plane ticket! They can't DO that to me! That's so UNFAIR! So I ran off and shook Madam Jane awake.
"Help me here, M.J." I blathered. "They've taken away my freaking embed. WHY?" But Madam Jane just shrugged and rolled back over to sleep. What good is having a freaking psychic in my hotel room if she's going to just sleep all day. Wake up! This is an emergency!
"Look," said Madam Jane. "I've been warning you for YEARS that merciless blood-sucking corporate conglomerates have taken over our government, our media, our White House, our Constitution, our economy, our schools, our healthcare and even our churches. And no one did anything about it while there was still time. And now the America that you and I used to know is Gone Gone Gone. Forever. Either get over it or do something about it. I was up all night on the red-eye. Go away. I need more sleep."
Merciless blood-sucking conglomerates? And I'm supposed to put on my Superman cape and go out and battle merciless blood-sucking conglomerates all by myself? That's whacked! "I heard that!" said The Madam. "Stop whining. You got yourself into this mess. Either do it or shut up."
But what can I do? What can any of us do? Nothing. "But," mumbled Madam Jane in her sleep, "sooner or later, when things get so bad that they simply cannot ignore it any more, Americans ARE going to wake up, are going to wise up and are going to act. And when that happens, the merciless blood-sucking corporate conglomerates that have stolen OUR country had better watch out! I predict that in 2008 there is going to be a one-person war on the loss of America -- and this one-person war will start with you. And there are also going to be 300 million other one-person wars on the loss of America, fought in the trenches by all us normal, average" -- since when did M.J. suddenly become average? -- "non-wealthy Americans who are finally gonna be totally pissed off when they finally discover that they have been had!" Good grief. Maybe I should never have woken Madam Jane back up!
But will this 300-million-strong army-of-ones then get me re-embedded back into Iraq? Or at least get me a refund on my plane ticket? And exactly HOW pissed off do these Americans have to BE before they get off their butts?
"Madam Jane predicts that they are gonna get pissed off enough REALLY SOON."
But will they do it before the coming presidential elections? Dennis Kucinich, the top candidate now running on a platform to protect American freedom and put the skids on corporate greed, has already been totally silenced in the media. And now John Edwards, another hero who was willing to take on corporate power, is also being cut out of the debates. Good grief. The next thing you know they'll be telling us that Huckabee is a do-gooder dragon-slayer on our side, that Giuliani is the ultimate family man and that McCain is truly the people's friend and not just a shill for the arms industry.
But will this ever happen? Madam Jane predicts that it will.
But will they ever let me get embedded back into Iraq or at least give me my plane ticket money back? And will people suddenly start running out to buy my book on my last embedding experiences, entitled 'Bring Your Own Flak Jacket' and available at Amazon or special-ordered at your local independent bookstores? "Sorry, but my crystal ball has gone dark."
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