Jim Vick: Listen

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This song is our bluesy response to the Bush administration's Patriot Act and related assaults on civil liberties. I had just been reading about the US Congress changing the name of the French fries served in the rotunda cafeteria to "freedom fries." Already outraged by what I had learned about the Patriot Act's undermining of our Bill of Rights, I was on my way to a pre-war protest at the Seattle Federal Building when it occurred to me that whoever came up with that idea had forgotten that "fries" is not just a noun, but also a verb. I had most of the song written within the next 24 hours. - JV

FREEDOM FRIES

Freedom fries in the Capitol Dome.
Democracy dies right her in our home.
Freedom fries in foreign oil.
Liberty loses on American soil.

All our rights could be gone next week
justified by doublespeak,
cooked up reasons, and half-baked facts.
Injustice served up in those Patriot Acts!

Disinformation is the name of their game,
and somebody else is gonna get the blame.
They'll claim it's in the name of security,
but the next one to go could be you or me!

The Bill of Rights is on the chopping block,
butchered and simmered in corporate stock.
Cut up and battered, it's ready to fry -
the best damn democracy that money can buy!

Freedom fries in the Capitol Dome.
Democracy dies right her in our home.
Freedom fries in foreign oil.
Liberty loses on American soil.
Liberty loses on American soil.
I said: liberty loses on American soil!

Copyright 2004 Jim Vick & Rob Moitoza