Stars and Stripes Flying Upside Down (Past Recollection Recorded)

Mr. Mansel we here at the NSA have monitored your blog and have noticed that you have a grave dislike for the present administration.

Mansel: Yes, I fully admit it. I find this administration to be of grave consequences to the state of our nation.

Explain to us Mr. Mansel why you feel this way.

Mansel: You have the text in front of you I assume; it’s all there.

Mr. Mansel first we would like to explain that while what you say is protected under the first amendment of the constitution what is however not protected is your intent in this time of war.

Mansel: My intent is to utilize my concern in the form of dissent. Dissent in the way my country went to war illegally.

Mr. Mansel are you now or have you ever been an attorney?

Mansel: Let me say out of risk of life, internment and limb that your method of questioning is just about the worst I have seen or heard.

You have made mention of your use of satire, however in this satire you have detailed actual conversations that have taken place in the oval office.

Mansel: You know I had a feeling I was right about that; it gave me the chills. But wait how would you know this unless you bugged the oval office?

Mr. Mansel did you sign a petition at the University of Alabama some years ago for a communist publishing house?

Mansel: No, I gave them my address so they could send me information through the mail, information that again is protected.

Sadistic literature is what you are defending?

Mansel: You haven’t done your homework yet again. I never received any information through the mail. All I received was a phone call, two if I remember correctly from a young lady attempting to sell me books they had published. During the second call she expressed her annoyance of me not purchasing any of their books.

Did you attend a political rally in Atlanta, Georgia during the Democratic convention in 1988 and at this same rally did you meet dissident Timothy Leary?

Mansel: Yes I did. I attended with a friend and we ate a plate of vegetables and sat next to Ron Paul the leader of Norml, the organization to legalize marijuana. Yes I did meet Timothy Leary and he shook my hand. He autographed my book and after his brief talk my friend and I left and went home.

So you openly admit with conversing with an ex-con, a political dissident?

Mansel: Yes. But I would like to get back to your possible secret taping of the oval office. You know Lou Dobbs said today on CNN that this administration is experiencing Nixonian numbers in approval ratings. Lou Dobbs is one of your guys right?

The line went dead; the room became empty.


- Chris Mansel