[GJM] Fw: [globalnetnews-summary] 'The US is not a republic anymore' - Gore Vidal

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'The US is not a republic anymore'
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:42:15
An interview with Gore Vidal by Afshin Rattansi, Press TV, Tehran
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=61813&sectionid=3510302

Press TV:We hear that Michael Mukasey is going to become the latest of the 
President's Attorney-Generals to be subpoenaed, this time over his 
conversations with Bush and Cheney - does this show that Congress is serious 
about calling the executive to account?

Gore Vidal: No, Congress has never been more cowardly, nor more corrupt. All 
Bush has do is to make sure certain amounts of money go in the direction of 
certain important congressmen and that's end of any serious investigation. 
After all, one of the bravest members of Congress is Denis Kucinich who 
brought the article of impeachment in to the well of the House of 
Representatives. The House of Representatives must then try the president, 
and then after that it goes to the Senate for judgment. However, none of 
these things will happen because there's nobody there except for Mr. 
Kucinich who has the courage to take on a sitting president who is kind of a 
Mafioso.

Press TV: How can it just be one person among so many hundreds of 
Congressmen who wants the impeachment of George W. Bush in these 
circumstances?

Gore Vidal: Well it's because we no longer have a country. We don't have a 
republic any more. During the last 7 or 8 years of the Bush regime, they've 
got rid of the Bill of Rights, they've got rid of habeas corpus. They have 
got rid of one of the nicest gifts that England ever left us when they went 
away and we ceased to be colonies - the Magna Carta - from the 12th century. 
All of our law and due process of law is based on that. And the Bush people 
got rid of it. The president and little Mr. Gonzales who for a few minutes 
was his Attorney General. They managed to get rid of all of the 
constitutional links that made us literally a republic.

Press TV: You have often written about the US's superpower status in terms 
of the history of previous superpowers. Do you think we're witnessing the 
end of US power as some suggest. Will the White House be seen like 
Persepolis?

Gore Vidal: Well it won't make such good ruins, no. It'll be more like the 
tomb of Cyrus nearby. They managed to destroy the United States - why? 
Because they're oil and gas people and they're essentially criminals. I 
repeat that this is a criminal group that's seized control of the country 
through what looked like an ordinary election. But there's some very nice 
films and documentaries about what happened in the year 2000 when Albert 
Gore won the election for president and they saw to it that he couldn't 
serve. They got the Supreme Court - which is the Holy of Holies ordinarily 
in our system - to investigate and then accuse the thieves of being 
absolutely correct and the winners - Mr. Gore and the Democrats - of being 
the cheaters. It's the first law of Machiavelli, whatever your opponent's 
faults are, you pick his virtues and you deny he has them. That's what they 
did when Senator Kerry ran a few years ago for president. He's a famous hero 
from the Vietnam War. They said he was a coward and not a hero. That's how 
it's done. When you have a bunch of liars in charge of your government you 
can't expect to get much history out of that. But later on we'll dig and 
dig. and we will dig up Persepolis.

Press TV: Senator Obama talks about change but of course he has courting 
Wall Street as well as the Israeli lobby - do you see any prospect of change 
with him as president?

Gore Vidal: Not really. I don't doubt his good faith, just as I do not doubt 
the bad faith of Cheney and Bush. They are such dreadful people that we've 
never had in government before. They would never have risen unless they were 
buying elections as they did in Florida in 2000, as they did in the State of 
Ohio in 2004. These are two open thefts of the Presidency. When I discovered 
that this did not interest the New York Times or the Washington Post or any 
of the press of the country I realized our day was done. We are no longer a 
country we are a framework for crooks to go in and steal money. Knowing that 
they'll never be caught and they'll be admired for it. Americans always take 
everybody on his own evaluation. You say I'm a state and they say "oh, yeah 
yeah yeah, he's a state, isn't that great." And you accuse the other people 
of your crimes before you commit them. It's an old trick which was known to 
Machiavelli who wrote about it in his handbook, the Prince.

Press TV:Finally that issue which is exercising so many minds in the Middle 
East and beyond. You, yourself have written about so many Imperial wars of 
the United States. Do you think Bush and Cheney would risk another war in 
what Mohammad ElBaradei of the IAEA calls a fireball?

Gore Vidal: They are longing to but they have spent all of the money. They 
have got it in their own private companies like the Vice-President and a 
company called Halliburton which is stealing more money and should be on 
trial sooner or later before Congress. But perhaps not, who knows? But it's 
well known in Washington, these people are leaking away the money of the 
country. Well there's no more money. They are longing for a war with Iran. 
Iran is no more a harm to us than was Iraq or Afghanistan. They invented an 
enemy, they tell lies, lies, lies.

The New York Times goes along with their lies, lies, lies. And they don't 
stop. When the public that's lied to 30 times a day it's apt to believe the 
lies, is not it?