Uncensored Gore

[RBHam]

The take-no-prisoners social critic skewers Bush, Ashcroft and the whole damn lot of us for letting despots rule.
by Marc Cooper, LA Weekly

Excerpt:
(Q)But Gore, you have lived through a number of inglorious administrations in your lifetime, from Truman’s founding of the national-security state, to LBJ’s debacle in Vietnam, to Nixon and Watergate, and yet here you are to tell the tale. So when it comes to this Bush administration, are you really talking about despots per se? Or is this really just one more rather corrupt and foolish Republican administration?

(A)No. We are talking about despotism. I have read not only the first PATRIOT Act but also the second one, which has not yet been totally made public nor approved by Congress and to which there is already great resistance. An American citizen can be fingered as a terrorist, and with what proof? No proof. All you need is the word of the attorney general or maybe the president himself. You can then be locked up without access to a lawyer, and then tried by military tribunal and even executed. Or, in a brand-new wrinkle, you can be exiled, stripped of your citizenship and packed off to another place not even organized as a country — like Tierra del Fuego or some rock in the Pacific. All of this is in the USA PATRIOT Act. The Founding Fathers would have found this to be despotism in spades. And they would have hanged anybody who tried to get this through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Hanged.

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/52/features-cooper.php

[sweetheart]

1. The bushaviks are treasonous...

we all know that. They have not defended the constitution and should be tried and hanged. It is not a grey area. They are felons and the US government is a felon on the run.

President Gore is right.

[Cannikin]

2. Fantastic...email it to all your commi-servative friends..

[sweetheart]

5. already signed the impeachment petition

My mates ain't communists, sorry.

Fuck the US government and all the rats in that house. They are criminal scum, and it don't make the accuser a communist, rather a defender of the constitution.

FOcus the hate on an enemy, mate.

[evil_orange_cat]

4. lol Gore Vidal... not Al gore... :lol:

haha

[sweetheart]

6. Gore gore gore oops!

If president gore said it, it would be just as true.

:) oops! :)

[Q3JR4]

3. Excellent article.

Mr. Vidal certainly tells it like it is.

:bounce:

[cosmicdot]

7. Gore Vidal quoting Ben Franklin ...

"And when the people become so corrupt, he said, we will find it is not a republic that they want but rather despotism — the only form of government suitable for such a people." - Franklin


Do you not think of Bush and Ashcroft as Americans?

"I think of them as an alien army. They have managed to take over everything, and quite in the open. We have a deranged president. We have despotism. We have no due process." - Gore Vidal

[Cleita]

8. Vidal has been like a lone voice in the wilderness

exposing and criticizing this mal-administration. I have noticed when guesting on news shows, he is often treated very rudely by the conservative media, shut off and and his interviews cut short because he dares to question the gods in Washington.

[tom_paine]

9. kick

[Q]

10. Vidal on 'elections'...

Speaking of elections, is George W. Bush going to be re-elected next year?

No. At least if there is a fair election, an election that is not electronic. That would be dangerous. We don’t want an election without a paper trail. The makers of the voting machines say no one can look inside of them, because they would reveal trade secrets. What secrets? Isn’t their job to count votes? Or do they get secret messages from Mars? Is the cure for cancer inside the machines? I mean, come on. And all three owners of the companies who make these machines are donors to the Bush administration. Is this not corruption?

So Bush will probably win if the country is covered with these balloting machines. He can’t lose. ...But getting back to Bush. If we use old-fashioned paper ballots and have them counted in the precinct where they are cast, he will be swept from office. He’s made every error you can. He’s wrecked the economy. Unemployment is up. People can’t find jobs. Poverty is up. It’s a total mess. How does he make such a mess? Well, he is plainly very stupid. But the people around him are not. They want to stay in power.