Let us now praise Gore Vidal.

[Minstrel Boy]

Now, and always.

No one speaks so eloquently and mournfully about the passing of the Old Republic as Vidal. He's America's Cicero.

This morning, I bought his latest "pamphlet," Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia. Merely reading this excerpt from the back cover, describing Bush, gave me the shivers:

"He is like a man in one of those dreams who knows he is safe in bed and so can commit any crime he likes in his voluptuous dream. No one can stop him. His overall behavior suggests a kind of madness, unless he knows something we don't."

He plugs Bev Harris's book Black Box Voting and calls her "a splendid journalist-patriot." He writes of "the great hollow pumpkin head of that gambling dude who has anointed himself the nation's moralist-in-chief, William 'Bell Fruit' Bennett." He quotes Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention: "I believe...that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism...when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other." Vidal adds:

"Think of Enron, Merrill Lynch, etc., of chads and butterfly ballots, of Scalia's son arguing before his unrecused father at the Supreme Court while unrecused Thomas sits silently by, his wife already at work for the approaching Bush administration....

"Franklin's prophecy came true in December 2000, when the Supreme Court bulldozed its way through the Constitution in order to select as its President the loser in the election of that year. Despotism is now securely in the saddle. The old Republic is a shadow of itself, and we now stand in the glare of a nuclear world empire with a government that sees as its true enemy 'we the people,' deprived of our electoral franchise. War is the usual aim of despots, and serial war is what we are going to get unless - with help from well-wishers in new old Europe and from ourselves, awake at last - we can persuade this peculiar administration that they are acting entirely on their vicious own, and against all our history."

What a sad pleasure it is to read such rare wisdom.

[Fenris]

1. Vidal is one of the last of the giants

I'll have to pick up that book.

[mzmolly]

2. He is an amazing man.

:toast: To Gore Vidal! I am so glad he's on our side. :hi:

[tedzbear]

3. If she could, Myra would be applying her dildo to Mr. Bush...

...with exuberant glee right now. It's time for another sequel to Myra Breckenridge in which she visits Washington DC and wrecks havoc.

I had the honor of hearing Vidal in person at the Hollywood CA anti-war rally last year. He is getting old but he still worked the mike with patriotic enthusiasm. God bless him and I'm glad he's made Los Angeles his base again.

:kick:

[Veggie Meathead]

4. The combination of erudition and commonsense that are the

hallmarks of Gore Vidal is becoming extinct in our country of 15 second soundbites where blowhards like O'Reilly and watercarriers like Hannity and strutting peacocks like Mo Dowd rule.We are a nation impoverished by the assaults of the vulgar,the inane and the insane.I am going to pick up your recommendation but, like you say ,with sadness at what we could have been.

[gauguin57]

5. I'm still a little ticked that he didn't support his relative, Al Gore.

Back in 2000, Gore Vidal made it pretty clear he didn't care for his distant cousin, Al Gore. Which is his business, but those who publicly dissed Gore in 2000 helped bring us BUSH!

(I believe he said he was voting for Nader).

[DerekG]

18. Then you don't understand Vidal...

He is not a Democrat; he calls the two-party system "the war party, with two right-wings."

And I doubt he would agree with your second assertion.

[freetobegay]

6. I have always praised Gore Vidal!

[freetobegay]

7. .

[flamingyouth]

8. I bought that the other day

Haven't sat down to read it yet. I love Gore Vidal. He and Studs Terkel are two of my fantasy dinner guests. Can you imagine the conversation?! :D

[Coventina]

9. Not only that, but he's a WWII vet, been through a lot in his life

Lost the love of his life in that war....

No wonder he's anti-war now.

[frank frankly]

10. I heard him on the Majority Report and was stunned

I didn't know that a person could speak that well. Certainly one of the giants.

[mulsh]

11. "Bush-our Caligula"

Vidal said that on last years Bill Maher show while pimp slapping David Frum. I thought it had even more resonance than when he kept calling William F Buckley a "crypto-fascist". Glad he's still fighting the fight.

[proud patriot]

12. My Hero Gore Vidal

:loveya:

[Cleita]

13. I was always a fan of his fiction, but now I more a fan

of his patriotic and liberal journalism.

[tom_paine]

14. Well, I think technically Sen. Robert Byrd is American Cicero, but

Gore Vidal :yourock: all the same!

Yes, sad to see such clarity be such a raity. But thus is the current state of Imperial Amerika, as Franklin foresaw so many years ago...

[Minstrel Boy]

19. Thanks for the reminder, tom!

Gore Vidal may be "senatorial class," but Robert Byrd actually sits. Put them together, and that's one helluva Cicero.

And tom, permit me to say :yourock: for the constancy and clarity of your voice here remembering the Old American Republic, and your recognizing the Busheviks as a radical Wholly Other.

[geek tragedy]

15. He's a crazy old bastard and sympathized with Tim McVeigh.

Screw him.

Yeah, he hates Bush, but that isn't enough.

[Room101]

16. I have read 7 of Gore Vidal's books including his latest one

He has the ability to make his readers feel, as they are a fly on the wall during histories most epic moments. I have allot of Gore Vidal mp3’s and real audio. Later tonight I will link them. PM me, to remind me to assemble them.

[anarchy1999]

17. Thank you, there is a God or some higher power that still sends us

wisdom through great men and women. There is hope, if we can only get the message to the masses.