DOUBLE FLASH -- MCCAIN BACKS DOWN

THE ABSURD TIMES

It is difficult to keep up with how the valient Absurd Times has succeeded in straightening out John McCain.

In our last flash, we pointed out how McCain shunned and banished the crazy pastor Haggee who said Hitler was sent by God. McCain did this right after the Absurd Times released its espose. We also said we might take up Parson Parsley next week.

Parson Parsley was the one that said the United States was created, in part, to eradicate Islam. We pointed out that the U.S. had treaties with such countries dating back to the 18th Century (Washington, Jefferson, Adams, you know, those guys).

As soon as the Absurd Times announced its intention, its editors learned that McCain renounced that Pastor.

This is just one more patriotic service of the Absurd Times.

Flash -- Absurd Times Cows McCain

THE ABSURD TIMES

Flash update: Within two hours of the posting of yesterday's Absurd Times, John McCain lept into action and backed down from his pastor's endorsement. He renounced Mr. Hagee's endorsement and "all the offensive" things he said and asserted he fully rejects that endorsement. In true Christian fascion, Mr Hagee withdrew that endorsement.

He still has and savors the endorsement of the pastor who said the United States was created in part to destroy Islam, despite an 18th Century treaty we had with such countries. Next week I may have to go after that, but for now, McCain has been put in his place by The Absurd Times.

McCain -- It Never Ends

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: From Keith Tucker at www.whatnowtoons.com: This illustration is right on target. McCain, the great Maverick (even James Garner should turn his head away), the "reform" candidate (never support any "reform") just announced his independence for getting rid of five lobbysts running his campaign. I never saw one of them carrying his briefcase. He is the one independent of "special interests."

McCain's spiritual supporter Hagee once said that Hitler was send by God to create the holocaust so the Jews would go back to Israel, and he was quoting the Bible to do so. McCain has not renounced him even yet. Of course, it is God's will, according to this bunch. See, you gotta have all the Jews in one place so they can be destroyed, "obliterated" to use a favorite of Hillary Clinton, and sent to hell during a great "rapture" that will mark Jesus' return, impossible without Hitler paving the way. So . . . um . . . as I have been led to understand, God works in mysterious ways. Um, how many lobbyists did Hitler have in the U.S.?

****************************************

I've come across two interesting articles. One on the cost of "free speech." We talk about that all the time, free speech, that is, but have all sorts of ways to make one pay for exercising it.

The other one is by Ralph Nader discussion a possibility than the internet, via Google, will be able to break the monopoly the Republicans and Democrats have on Presidential Debates.

***************************************

When Free Speech Doesnt Come Free

May 21, 2008 By *Remi Kanazi*

Remi Kanazi's ZSpace Page </zspace/remikanazi>

Join ZSpace <https://www.zcommunications.org/zsustainers/signup>

Free speech is not without consequence*.* In the United States, for
example, criticism of Israel is tantamount to heresy. Former US
President Jimmy* *Carter felt a societal backlash last year after the
release of his book,/ Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid/, which condemned
Israel's apartheid-style policies in the occupied Palestinian
territories. Consequently, and without foundation, Carter was branded by
many in the American press as a one-sided, anti-Semitic propagandist.
Similarly, Harvard professor Stephen Walt and University of Chicago
professor John Mearsheimer were lambasted for a paper the two
co-authored that discussed the power of the Israel lobby and its adverse
effect on American policy. Additionally, Norman Finkelstein, an
esteemed professor at Depaul University and author of the bestselling
book, /The Holocaust Industry/, witnessed a McCarthyite-style campaign
mounted against him when he came up for tenure. Finkelstein, the son of
Holocaust survivors, has been an outspoken critic of Israel's human
rights abuses* *and of pro-Israel apologist and Harvard professor, Alan
Dershowitz. Predictably, it was Dershowitz who led the anti-tenure
campaign against him; ultimately, Finkelstein was not only denied
tenure, but he lost his job at Depaul. **

The attacks against Carter, Finkelstein, Walt and Mearsheimer serve as a
few well-known examples of the consequences writers and intellectuals
face when they breach the line and criticize Israel. Furthermore, the
condemnation writers and intellectuals of Arab descent face are
invariably higher than Jews of conscience, former presidents, and highly
regarded academics. As a result, many writers often acquiesce to the
demands of the mainstream. Their self-censorship usually appears in the
form of "toning down the message," be it to please editors or
critics—essentially to conform to the reality of purported pragmatism.
Yet, this "pragmatism" is a euphemism for acceptance of a repressive
status quo and is analogous to the "necessary" practical thinking that
silenced a multitude of commentators during the Oslo years—the supposed
time of peace. Unsurprisingly, untold Palestinian suffering followed as
a result of increased settlement expansion, land confiscation,
checkpoints and seizures, and the ultimate failure of Camp David 2000.

Shying away from perceived controversial matters may help to protect a
mainstream career, but the intent of a political analyst should not be
to produce works of fiction*. *The vast majority of Americans weren't
open to criticism of US policy during the run-up to the war on Iraq,
mainly due to the media's complicity in promoting the war, but criticism
was still the appropriate course of action based on the facts, and
Americans would have been better off for it today.**

* *

A man who combined principle, activism, and human appeal quite
masterfully was distinguished educator and commentator, Edward Said. In
the realm of academia and Middle East analysis, Said was by no means
viewed as the quintessential radical. Nonetheless, his positions were
radical when juxtaposed with "conventional wisdom": he was a proponent
of the one-state solution, an unwavering critic of the Israeli
government, and an ardent supporter of the ostensibly controversial
right of return. Said was still heavily criticized throughout his career
and endured incessant attacks by his detractors, yet his* *accessible
personality and articulate message kept him relevant.

Sadly, Said's relative acceptance has been the exception rather than the
rule. In recent years, there has been increased* *emphasis on putative
pragmatic dialogue. However, this accentuation on so-called rational and
balanced thinking has proven to be little more than a sinister means*
*to pressure the oppressed to accept the position of the oppressor. The
greatest leaders of the last hundred years didn't shy away from
controversy; they remained persistent, and saw their visions brought to
fruition; be they Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, or Mahatma Gandhi.
Nevertheless, one cannot overlook that even paramount figures have been
castigated for "overstepping" their boundaries, namely Martin Luther
King who was chided for speaking out against the war in Vietnam,
imperialism, and social injustices that plagued the US.

This week, Palestinians across the US commemorated 60 years of
displacement. Yet, the lens the Palestinian people are expected to look
through under the pragmatist vision is one that sees a dispossessed
people as necessary victims for a righteous state to take form*.
*Unfortunately, waves of writers and commentators continue to adopt this
line in fear of retribution, in exchange for nicer houses and
comfortable livings, or a combination of both.* *That is their free
will. Free speech is not without consequence. Nonetheless, losing piece
of mind is the only repercussion a writer should fear.

Remi Kanazi is the editor of the forthcoming anthology of poetry, /Poets
For Palestine/, which can be pre-ordered at www.PoetsForPalestine.com
<http://www.poetsforpalestine.com/>. Remi can be contacted at
remroum@gmail.com <mailto:remroum@gmail.com>.

***************************************************************************

Can the Company Break the Political Gridlock?

May 21, 2008 By *Ralph Nader*

Ralph Nader's ZSpace Page </zspace/ralphnader>

Join ZSpace <https://www.zcommunications.org/zsustainers/signup>

An invitation to visit Google's headquarters and meet some of the people
who made this ten year old giant that is giving Microsoft the nervies
has to start with wonder.

The "campus" keeps spreading with the growth of Google into more and
more fields, even though advertising revenue still comprises over 90
percent of its total revenues. The company wants to "change the world,"
make all information digital and accessible through Google. Its company
motto—is "Do No Evil," which comes under increasing scrutiny, especially
in the firm's business with the national security state in Washington,
D.C. and with the censors of Red China.

Google's two founders out of Stanford graduate school—Sergey Brin and
Larry Page—place the highest premium on hiring smart, motivated people
who provide their own edge and work their own hours.

We were given "the tour" before entering a large space to be asked and
answer questions before an audience of wunderkinds. E-mail traffic was
monitored worldwide with a variety of electronic globes with various
lights marking which countries were experiencing high or low traffic.
Africa was the least lit. One of our photographers started to take a
picture but was politely waved away with a few proprietary words. A new
breed of trade secrets.

I noticed all the places where food—free and nutritious—was available.
The guide said that food is no further than 150 feet from any workplace.
"How can they keep their weight down with all these tempting repasts?" I
asked.

"Wait," he said, leading us toward a large room where an almost eerie
silence surrounded dozens of exercising Googlelites going through their
solitary motions at 3:45 in the afternoon.

"How many hours do they work?" one of my colleagues asked.

"We don't really know. As long as they want to," came the response.

In the amphitheatre, the director of communications and I started a Q
and A, followed by more questions from the audience. It was followed by
a YouTube interview. You can see both of them on: (Q&A
<http://youtube.com/watch?v=KR-V6bl41zU>) and (Interview
<http://youtube.com/watch?v=zzUrUNhIj4c&feature=related>).

Google is a gigantic information means, bedecked with ever complex
software, to what end? Information ideally leads to knowledge, then to
judgment, then to wisdom and then to some action. As the ancient Chinese
proverb succinctly put it—"To know and not to do is not to know."

But what happens when a company is riding an ever rising crest of
digitized information avalanches without being able to catch its breath
and ask, "information for what?" I commented that we have had more
information available in the last twenty five years, though our country
and world seem to be getting worse overall; measured by indicators of
the human condition. With information being the "currency of democracy,"
conditions should be improving across the board.

"Knowledge for what?" I asked.

Well, for starters, Google is trying to figure out how to put on its own
Presidential debates, starting with one in New Orleans in the autumn.
Certainly it can deliver an internet audience of considerable size. But
will the major candidates balk if there are other candidates meeting
criteria such as a majority of Americans wanting them to participate?

The present Commission on Presidential Debates <http://opendebates.org/>
is a private nonprofit corporation created and controlled by the
Republican and Democratic Parties. They do not want other seats on the
stage and the television networks follow along with this exclusionary
format.

Google, with its own Foundation looking for creative applications that
produce results for the well-being of people, should hold regular public
hearings on the ground around the country for ideas. They may be
surprised by what people propose.

In any event, the examples of knowing but not doing are everywhere. More
people succumbed to tuberculosis in the world last year than ten years
ago. Medical scientists learned how to treat TB nearly fifty years ago.
Knowledge alone is not enough.

For years the technology to present the up-to-date voting record of each
member of Congress has been available. Yet only about a dozen
legislators do so, led by Reps. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Chris Shays
(R-CT). Recalcitrant power blocks what people most want directly from
their lawmakers' website. Here Google can make the difference with
Capitol Hill, if it wants to connect information technology to informed
voters.

When the internet began, some of us thought that it would make it easy
and cheap for people to band together for bargaining and lobbying as
consumers. At last, the big banks, insurance companies, credit card
companies, automobile firms and so forth would have organized
countervailing consumer power with millions of members and ample full
time staffs. It has not happened.

Clearly technology and information by themselves do not produce
beneficial change. That depends on how decentralized political, economic
and social power is exercised in a corporate society where the few
decide for the many.

I left Google hoping for a more extensive follow-up conversation,
grounded in Marcus Cicero's assertion, over 2000 years ago, that
"Freedom is participation in power." That is what connects knowledge to
beneficial action, if people have that freedom.

I hope my discussions with the Google staff produced some food for
thought that percolates up the organization to Google's leaders.

*Ralph Nader* is running for president as an independent.

UNITED STATES OF ABSURDITY

THE ABSURD TIMES

THE ABSURD TIMES

www.whatnowtoons.com

Illustration: Again, Kieth has an excellent view of the situation. The U.S. has nothing against socialim -- it is simply focused on who runs the government. The corporate junta that also owns the media, or "We, The People" (remember that phrase?)

Let's start: Over 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed by the Junta sending them to Iraq at the cost of Three Billion Dollars. There are also over 20,000 injured, and an innumerable quantity of them with PTSD that will act as a time bomb, or time bombs, for decades to come. We are also broke. Bush has show that he can sacrife too, however: HE WILL GIVE UP GOLF WHILE THE WAR IS STILL ON!!!!!

Since we really have nothing about socialism, let it be known that what is really needed is a more vigorous and progressive version of FDR's NEW DEAL. Government payment of all medical services for every citizen, the people, a social safety net, a minimum guaranteed income. To pay for this, the Corporations and wealthy will pay the same rates on taxes as they did in the 40s and 50s. Regulations will return to the 60s. Every reform from Nixon, through Reagen and the Bushes and even Clinton on welfare will be abolished. Then, the United States may have a chance of surviving as a viable entity.

Hillary won West Virginia which Barak did not even contest. John Denver lied about West Virginia as can be seen in the fact that he chose to LIVE in Colorado himself, not far from Hunter Thompson. The victory reminds me of a line from Gene Wilder in BLAZING SADDLES, where he consoles his African American friend by saying "You have to understand: these people are the salt of the earth, the common clay, you know -- morons!" So, Hillary has the double digit IQ constituency plus dried up old ladies on her side. Will they shift to McCain for a third Bush term or vote aginst it -- it will be an IQ test in November. She lost the nomination in February. She and Bill squandered all the good will he left office with -- and even a budget surplus. What's our deficit now?

Another country that used to be Burma was hit by a cyclone and at least 100,000 will be dead by now. As Bush and Brown started to make points about "democracy," China chimed in with its own disaster, an earthquake. It's size was huge. In area, think from Maine to at least Arizona being affected. Now that's a big earthquake. And, the midwest has been seeing tornadoes of tremendous effect and destruction, the kind that say on the ground. If we are to follow the reasoning of Christian Moron Hagee whose endorsement McCain sought, there must be a lot of gay people and Catholics around. (The Catholic Church, according to him, is no longer a whore.)

We can't forget the Mideast: Isreal is celebrating 60 years of occupation of Palestianian land and the Palestians are in a period of mouning for "The Catastrophe". Bush went there. No truth to the rumor that he intends to wear a beenie while playing golf to disguse himself.

Here is some reading material:

Yahoo! Mail

Re: [The Absurd Times] Wright and Obama -- With friends like this...

"hughman@pasty.com" <hughman@pasty.com>
To:
stanford_charles@yahoo.com
Will it solve the problem? No! but..." I think it would be a nice little
vacation for the American people." Mr Rogers/Clint Eastwood morph.
Solutions: Nationalize the multinational oil companies and behead the
smug SOB CEOs as would be done in China.
Make everyone drive only on battery operated golf carts at 15 MPH. Or
more realistically, make everyone drive only light weight, high milage
cars -so no one need worry about being squashed by an SUV or a semi.
Bumper cars!
Everybody get a horse. And wagon. 40 acres and a mule.

And Gore Vidal (I've done my best with this transcription. If the rest is posted and published, I'll forward it separately. At the end, she asks him how he would like to be remembered: "I don't care one Goddamn." or something like that. The links will take you to audio or video links.

Display full version <#>
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!

May 14, 2008

Vidal2web

Legendary Author Gore Vidal on the Bush Presidency, History and the
“United States of Amnesia”

With a career spanning more than six decades, Gore Vidal is one of
America’s most respected writers and thinkers. He’s authored more than
twenty novels and five plays. His latest book is /Point to Point
Navigation: A Memoir/. [includes rush transcript–partial]

LISTEN
WATCH <http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/14/stream>

Real Video Stream
<http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/may/video/dnB20080514a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=25:46>

Real Audio Stream
<http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/may/audio/dn20080514.ra&proto=rtsp&start=25:46>

MP3 Download
<http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0514-1.mp3>

More… <http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/14/stream>

Guest:

*Gore Vidal*, One of America’s most respected writers and thinkers. He’s
authored more than twenty novels and five plays. His recent books
include /Dreaming War/, /Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace/ and
/Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia/. His
latest is /Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir/.

Rush Transcript

*AMY GOODMAN: *With a career spanning more than six decades, Gore Vidal
is one of America’s most respected writers and thinkers, authored more
than twenty novels, five plays. His recent books include /Dreaming War/,
/Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace/ and /Imperial America: Reflections
on the United States of Amnesia/. His latest is a memoir; it’s called
/Point to Point Navigation/.

Last week at the /Los Angeles Times/ Festival of Books, I heard Gore
Vidal would be there and afterwards went to his home in Hollywood Hills.
We sat down in his living room, and I asked him for his thoughts on this
election year and on the last eight years of George W. Bush in the White
House.

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, it isn’t over yet. You know, he could still
blow up the world. There’s every indication that he’s still
thinking about attacking Iran: ‘And the generals are now reporting
that the Iran are a great danger and their weapons are being used
to kill Americans.’

I mean, you know, I think, quite rightly, the Bushites think that
the American people are idiots. They don’t get the point to
anything. There are two good reasons for this, is the public
educational system for people, kids without money, let’s say, to
put it tactfully, is one of the worst in the first world. It’s
just terrible. And they end by knowing no history, certainly no
American history. I didn’t mean to spend my life writing American
history, which should have been taught in the schools, but I saw
no alternative but to taking it on myself. I could think of a lot
of cheerier things I’d rather be doing than analyzing George
Washington and Aaron Burr. But it came to pass, that was my job,
so I did it.

*AMY GOODMAN: *You wrote /United States of Amnesia/. Why?

*GORE VIDAL: *That’s a good title. You must remember, this is a
people that has no culture, that has never had one. After all, I
was first published when I was nineteen, and the first time I was
a bestseller I was twenty-one, twenty-two. I thought by the time
I’m old, this place is going to be greatly improved, not just
because I was around, but I was going to contribute to it. But
then I saw how the /New York Times/ had blocked in their little
tight world of New York publishing, which they really did to
publish each other’s books. The results have not been very good.

So here we are, cut off from Europe, basically, by the World War
II. Then the post-war period was kind of interesting, because a
lot of us went abroad and stayed there for a time and got to
understand other cultures. And I saw—I saw, with many cases, Jimmy
Baldwin, he became a Frenchman, surprisingly. Surprising accent,
but he was sharp as a tack.

*AMY GOODMAN: *Did you know him?

*GORE VIDAL: *Yes, very well.

*AMY GOODMAN: *What are your memories of him?

*GORE VIDAL: *He had two voices. One, he sounded exactly like
Bette Davis suffering in one of her movies. And the other one was
“Call me Ishmael”—it was the prophet’s voice. So he was a bit of a
contradiction.

*AMY GOODMAN: *What does “amnesia” mean to you? And how can—

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, it means what it literally means: people with
no memory.

*AMY GOODMAN: *How do think that can be defeated, conquered in the
United States?

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, it’s won. I don’t see how you’re going to
defeat it now. People would forget to defeat it.

*AMY GOODMAN: *You write in /Point to Point Navigation/, “I was
born October 3, 1925, on the twenty-fifth birthday of Thomas
Wolfe, the novelist, not the journalist. I’ve lived through
three-quarters of the twentieth century and about one-third of the
history of the United States of America.”

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, I was not counting on them knowing what the
word “amnesia” meant.

*AMY GOODMAN: *You wrote two books during the Bush administration.
Two of the books you’ve written are /Perpetual War for Perpetual
Peace/ and /Dreaming War/. Why these two?

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, /Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace/, that’s my
main book during that period. That was the foreign policy of the
Bush administration: perpetual war. This was also Harry Truman’s
dream. He started the Cold War. If any history had been imparted
to our people, they’d know all this. And if you think I enjoy
having to be the one to tell them about it, I don’t.

*AMY GOODMAN: *And what about /Dreaming War/?

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, same thing. They were dreaming war. You can
see little Bush all along was just dreaming of war, and also
Cheney dreaming about oil wells and how you knock apart a country
like Iraq and of course their oil will pay for the damage you do.
For that alone, he should have been put in front of a firing squad.

*AMY GOODMAN: *Do you believe in the death penalty?

*GORE VIDAL: *No. But in their case, yes.

*AMY GOODMAN: *And so, here we are, moved into the sixth year of
the war with Iraq, longer than the US was involved in World War II.

*GORE VIDAL: *Yes, incredible. That was such a huge operation on
two great continents against two modern enemies. And we’re
fighting little jungle wars for no reason, because we have a
president who knows nothing about anything. He’s just blank. But
he wants to show off: ‘I’m a wartime president! I’m a wartime
president!’ He goes yap, yap, yap. He’s like a crazed terrier. And
look where he got us.

I didn’t realize—I think I’ve always had a good idea about my
native land, but I didn’t think that institutionally we were so
easy to overthrow, because it was a coup d’etat, 9/11. The whole
went crashing. And when we got rid of—when /they/ got rid of Magna
Carta, I thought, well, really, this wasn’t much of a republic to
begin with.

*AMY GOODMAN: *What do you mean, Magna Carta?

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, you know what Magna Carta means?

*AMY GOODMAN: *Explain it.

*GORE VIDAL: *Tell your readers, your viewers. It’s the basis of
our law. Out of it comes the whole theory, practice, on which
our—certainly judicial system is based: due process of law. You
cannot deprive somebody of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness,
because that is a right, constitutional right. And that is—I mean,
every proper American, that’s graved on his psyche, certainly was
on mine. There wasn’t a day passed—I was brought up by my
grandfather in Washington—hardly a day passed that he didn’t want
to talk about due process. And he was blind from the age of ten.

*AMY GOODMAN: *Who was your grandfather?

*GORE VIDAL: *Senator Thomas Pryor Gore. A Mississippi family. His
father had served in the Civil War, even though the Gores—they
came from Mississippi, they were not secessionists. They regarded
themselves as patriots. And the entire family was against going
into the Civil War, but because their friends and neighbors did
and honor required that they do so too, so they got killed off
quite a bit.

*AMY GOODMAN: *Your grandfather was a senator from Oklahoma?

*GORE VIDAL: *He was the first senator from Oklahoma. Last year
was the hundredth year of his election, 1907. That’s when he was
elected.

*AMY GOODMAN: *You’re also cousins with another Gore: Al Gore.

*GORE VIDAL: *True.

*AMY GOODMAN: *What is your assessment of what happened in 2000?

*GORE VIDAL: *He was robbed. I don’t know him. I never see him.
But within the family, I gather it was a great shock to him. He
did everything right in life. He was the good boy and loved the
Supreme Court and went by the rule of law, due process and
everything. And then the Supreme Court bites him in the throat,
because they have a lot of crooks on it. And I watched the Dred
Scalia the other day on television. Did you see him?

*AMY GOODMAN: *No.

*GORE VIDAL: *Oh, he was saying, “Get over it! Just get over it!”
He was talking to the liberals, and you know what awful people
they are—and about 2000, about the interference of the Court in a
national election, which is unheard of. It’s not their job.
They’re not even supposed to be referees. They’re just—they’re
doing something else. And he was a snarling: “Get over it! Get
over it!” I felt, go back to Little Italy, you know? It’s a type I
know very well from Naples.

*AMY GOODMAN: *That’s where you lived for many years.

*GORE VIDAL: *Mm-hmm.

*AMY GOODMAN: *What do you mean, Gore Vidal, when you say you
think what happened after 9/11 was a coup?

*GORE VIDAL: *Well, it was. The first move they made at the time
when Timothy McVeigh decided to blow up the federal building in
Oklahoma City—he started to write me letters, and I wrote him
back, and he’s a brilliant kid, very interested in law, would have
made a good constitutional lawyer, and a patriot. He’s a
professional soldier. But he has to be depicted as a monster,
because who else would blow up little children?

But he didn’t know he was blowing up any little children. He was
acting out of a fit of rage at what had happened at Waco, when
that whole religious community was set fire to by the Army. And as
a soldier, he thought to himself, you see, the one thing that
divides our country from being another military or militarized
republic, it is not only due process of law, but it is also the
Posse Comitatus Act of 1875, which the Army may not be used in any
action against the citizens of the United States. And they just
wandered—bang! bang!—they set fire to the place, burned down more
children and mothers and so on than ever Mr. McVeigh did.

So, at that time, it happened during the—must have been
what’s-her-name, Janet Reno, when she was Attorney General. It was
during Clinton’s watch, which was a sloppy one. And they got some
panicky legislation, because they thought, and with some reason,
that there was a group of people, many of them ex-soldiers, who
were ready to overthrow the government. And they were
anti-Semites, they were—I mean, anything you can think of, they
were that. They were in rebellion against this country.

And I wrote about it in warning terms. I went so far as to write
Mr. Mueller, who was the new director of the FBI. And I saw he was
never going to follow up. They did all these interviews with
various guys living in the woods around Fort Hood. I said,
“They’re going to be trouble one day, and you don’t even follow up
on them? Yet you go on inventing stuff about McVeigh which isn’t
true.” They tried to pretend he was a crazy and this and that.
Well, he got the Silver Star, I think it was.

*AMY GOODMAN: *Persian Gulf War.

*GORE VIDAL: *Yeah. So the coup d’etat comes out of this. They saw
their chance. They—Cheney, Bush—they wanted the war. They’re
oilmen. They want a war to get more oil. They’re also
extraordinarily stupid. These people don’t know anything about
anything. But they have this—there’s a thick piece of—sheet of—a
thick series of actions to be taken, among others—I think one of
them was to lock up every person of color in the United States in
order to protect us from the enemy within. It was evil stuff. So
they latched onto that. I guess Mr. Gonzales was already in place
by then. And that was the coup d’etat. They seized the state. And
from that moment on, they were appointing all the judges, they
were doing this, they were doing that, they got rid of Magna
Carta—I will not explain what that is a second time—and they broke
the republic.

*AMY GOODMAN: *The role of torture?

*GORE VIDAL: *Oh, everything was in there, yes. The USA PATRIOT
Act is just the unnatural child of the Clinton, we've got to
do something about these wild men in Montana

Corporate Welfare

THE ABSURD TIMES

You can find more of these cartoons by Kieth Tucker at www.whatnowtoon.com

Illustration: A pretty good example of how socialism is still alive in the U.S. It's just that we've got it all upside down, that's all.

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I wanted to pass along the following since Hillary had been crushed out of the race and McCain may die before election day. Right now things are getting pretty comical between them, but that's for another edition. Here is an article of one President we can still be proud of:

A Human Rights Crime in Gaza

May 09, 2008 By *Jimmy Carter*

Jimmy Carter's ZSpace Page </zspace/jimmycarter>

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a
million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no
access to the outside world by sea, air, or land. An entire population
is being brutally punished.

This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated
dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political
candidates representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian
Authority parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be
honest and fair by all international observers.

Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a
unity government with Hamas and Fatah and now, after internal strife,
Hamas alone controls Gaza. Forty-one of the 43 victorious Hamas
candidates who lived in the West Bank are now imprisoned by Israel, plus
an additional ten who assumed positions in the short-lived coalition
cabinet.

Regardless of one's choice in the partisan struggle between Fatah and
Hamas within occupied Palestine, we must remember that economic
sanctions and restrictions in delivering water, food, electricity, and
fuel are causing extreme hardship among the innocent people in Gaza,
about one million of whom are refugees.

Israeli bombs and missiles periodically strike the encapsulated area,
causing high casualties among both militants and innocent women and
children. Prior to the highly publicized killing of a woman and her four
little children last week, this pattern was illustrated by a previous
report from B'Tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization: 106
Palestinians were killed between February 27 and March 3. Fifty-four of
them were civilians who didn't take part in the fighting, and 25 were
under 18 years of age.

On a recent trip through the Middle East, I attempted to gain a better
understanding of the crisis. One of my visits was to Sderot, a community
of about 20,000 in southern Israel that is frequently struck by
rudimentary rockets fired from nearby Gaza. I condemned these attacks as
abominable and an act of terrorism, since most of the thirteen victims
during the past seven years have been non-combatants.

Subsequently, I met with leaders of Hamas, both a delegation from Gaza
and the top officials in Damascus, Syria. I made the same condemnation
to them, and urged that they declare a unilateral ceasefire or
orchestrate with Israel a mutual agreement to terminate all military
action in and around Gaza for an extended period.

They responded that such previous action by them had not been
reciprocated, and they reminded me that Hamas had previously insisted on
a ceasefire throughout Palestine including both Gaza and the West Bank,
which Israel had refused. Hamas then made a public proposal of a mutual
ceasefire restricted to Gaza, which the Israelis considered and also
rejected. There are fervent arguments heard on both sides concerning
blame for a lack of peace in the Holy Land. Israel has occupied and
colonized the Palestinian West Bank, which is approximately one-fourth
(28.5%) the size of the nation of Israel as recognized by the
international community. Some Israeli religious factions claim a right
to the land on both sides of the Jordan River, and others aver that
their 205 settlements with some 500,000 people are necessary for "security."

All Arab nations have agreed to full recognition of Israel if it will
comply with key United Nations resolutions. Hamas has agreed to accept
any negotiated peace settlement between Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, provided it is
approved in a referendum among the Palestinian people.

This holds promise of progress, but despite the brief fanfare and
positive statements at the peace conference last November in Annapolis,
Maryland, a retrogression has occurred in the process. Nine thousand new
Israeli settlement housing units have been announced in Palestine, the
number of roadblocks within the West bank has increased, and the
stranglehold on Gaza has been tightened.

It is one thing for other leaders to defer to the US on the crucial
peace negotiations, but the world must not stand idle while innocent
people are treated cruelly. It is time for strong voices in Europe, the
US, Israel, and elsewhere to speak out and condemn this human rights
tragedy among the Palestinian people.

/Jimmy Carter, a former President of the United States, is founder of
The Carter Center, promoting peace, health, and human rights worldwide.
This commentary is published by DAILY NEWS EGYPT in collaboration with
Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).
<http://www.project-syndicate.org%29.%3c/i%3E>// /

TESTICULAR FORTITUDE

THE ABSURD TIMES

After her lop-sided and humiliating defeat in Guam, Hillary Clinton (not pictured above because she looks like a TV add for Benzadrine) will use her TESTICULAR FORTITUDE to try to win a state almost certain to go Republican in November (I know, I was in southern Indiana once and it makes Missouri seem like New York). She will also try to win in Northern Carolina, the Governor of which said she had TESTICULAR FORTITUDE which makes one wonder about the genetics over there.
She has proposed a gas task to give relief at the pump. Randi Rhodes, great talk show host, pictured above because she has beautiful, long straight hair with bangs, said "Wake up America! A dog is pissing on your leg and you tell me it's raining?" It all trickles down.
Randi can be heard Monday-Friday on NovaM radio from 2 to 5, Central time. It streams at a speed as low as 16, so even with dial-up most people should be able to hear it. Maybe there is an outlet in your area.
Of yes, she was the one I wrote about before. Air America suspended her for an infinite period of time, so she quit. I think her offense was to call Geraldine Ferarro a f*cking whore. (That * represents a u, but we don't want to use the word right now.)

Primaries tomorrow.

OBAMA CRUSHES HILLARY -- BLOODY DEFEAT

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: From minuteman. I understand the the food required to fill one tank of gas as ethanol is enough to feed a human being for one year. Maybe it's a family. I dunno. However, it is now clear that ethanol is our new weapon on the war on terrorism. We simply starve all the terrorists or people we don't like.

Barak Obama just dealt Hillary Clinton's campaign a devastating blow with its overwhelming 53% to 47% victory in Guam. Clinton's campain had no immediate reaction to the humiliating defeat. Rumor has it that Chealsy Clinton is considering changing her name. Omaba called Hillary's "gas tax holiday" phony and just another typical political Washington business as usual tactic. With his customary humility, Obama did not comment on the defeat that may well "obliterate" Hillary's Presidential chances, thus preventing her from "obliterating" Iran.

The results from the first primary since Pennsylvania, Guam, are in. Of course, you have to realize that each delegated that is elected, eight of them, only gets one half of one vote. Why you ask? Because it is south of the equator, of course. There water goes down the sink in the opposite direction and we don't want to start a trend now, do we? In addition, since these people dress funny, they can't vote in the November election. In fact, they are so far west, way past Hawaii, that they are actually east and we all know about the East.

Before we get to that, however, we should add that Nelson Mandella is on our no-fly list. Lest you wonder how something this absurd could happen, remember that 1) he is a person of color, and 2), he lives south of the equator. Hey, it's as good an explanation as you've gotten elsewhere, isn't it? Here at the Absurd Times, it is our solem duty to find reasons from everything.

Now the economy is the most important issue, as if a 3 trillion dollar war has nothing to do with domestic conditions. Well, McCain came up with the idea of a gas tax holiday. More about that later. Right now, I'm remembering about what was said about "new Europe" and "Old Europe," at the start of the was. By "New Europe," that sort of said "yeah, go ahead," to us on the Iraw occupation was meant the countries technically called "less developed", former Soviet Union members in Eastern Europe.

Things get puzzling. What ever happened to Bird Flu? Now that was a nice time in the past, sitting outside, watching, waiting for birds to sneeze, a neighborhood watch, possible crazed Ostriches running down victims. Those were the days.

Now things are complicated. For example, I heard Home Depot announce 40,000 layoffs last week. This week, our government announced that 20,000 jobs have been lost. Am I missing something? No, of course not, someone is lying.

McCain, then Hillary, said they'd suspend the federal gasoline tax of 18 cents/gallon. That would make a four dollar gallon three dollars and eighty one cents. IF, the oil companies don't turn right around and raise the price by 19 cents. Who trusts the oil companies? It would also cause a loss of about 600,000 more jobs as it pays for repairing our infro-structure. They still haven't settled the millions of dollars in liability caused by lack of maintainance of the bridge in Minnesota.

One of our faithful readers sent me his thoughts on McCain:

Re: [The Absurd Times] Wright and Obama -- With friends like this...

Will it solve the problem? No! but..." I think it would be a nice little
vacation for the American people." Mr Rogers/Clint Eastwood morph.
Solutions: Nationalize the multinational oil companies and behead the
smug SOB CEOs as would be done in China.
Make everyone drive only on battery operated golf carts at 15 MPH. Or
more realistically, make everyone drive only light weight, high milage
cars -so no one need worry about being squashed by an SUV or a semi.
Bumper cars!
Everybody get a horse. And wagon. 40 acres and a mule.

All I can say is it works for me. I think I'd rather have a donkey, however.

So now we do have a primary going on: for the democrats it is either Obama or Clinton, for the Republicans either John McCain or Ron Paul. All the others have dropped out or, more precisely, "suspended" their campains. Ron Paul has published a book subtitled A Manefesto. It is number 1 on Amazon. Still, John McCain is ahead on delegates. The ability to read is not a pre-requisite for voting in a Republican primary.

We also have a "HIT COUNTER" visible. It had been invisible until someone told me how to make it visible. Now, if you visit the site, you can see how many "hits" we have had. (Just click here.) You can see we have been "hit" over 30,000 times. However, in the process, another "Hit Counter" also appeared giving a perfectly absurd number of "hits" bearing no relation to reality. I've decided it leav it there just for the hell of it. (It's the smaller one on top).

Why have they never taken the long-time suggestion that all ballots have the "None of the Above" option on them? I believe that alot of American citizens do not vote because they do not like the choices. Apathy isn't even worth the energy to express.

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Here is an Academic story:
It seems a down home self-made millionaire in Texas had the conversation with the President of a small University. Actually, it doesn't have to be Texas:

M. Howdy there!
President: Why hello, Mr. Clanton, good to see you. What can I do for you.
Clanton: Now I known yew for a long time and gave lots of money to this place and never asked for nuttin, right?
P: That's right, let me know what I can do.
C: Well, Ah wants to be one a them there teachin assistants.
P: I'm very sorry, but for that you need to be a college graduate and be working on an advanced degree, even writing a dissertation.
C: Wow, sure enough I aint got that. How about on of them thar Assistant Professors?
P: Well, for that you have to already have a Ph.D., be publishing, and establishing yourself.
C: Well, sure nuff?
P: I'm afraid so.
C.: Well, how bout one of them Full Professors? They don't do much.
P: I havve to agree with you there, but you need everything for all the previous positions and tenure -- it usually doesn't happen for at least ten years after you get a Ph.D.
C: (Saddened, and shaking his head) Well Ahll be a sun of a bitch!
P: Now your talking. If you wanted to be a Dean, why didn't you say so? You got it.

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