Forwarded with Compliments of Government of the USA in Exile (GUSAE):
Free Americans Proclaiming Total Emancipation and Working Towards
Democracy. NOTE: Thanks to truthout.org for this. --
kl, pp
Welcome to the Big Darkness By Hunter S. Thompson ESPN.com
July 22, 2003
Hi, folks, my name is still Thompson, and I still drink gin with
ER Nurses at night -- but in one particular way, I am a New Man, a
different man, a more dangerous man than I was the last time we
talked. And that was a few weeks ago, eh?
Indeed, I can walk again, and I like it, because last month I felt
an acute spasmodic pain in my spine when I walked. There was nothing
cute about it, no socially redeeming factor. It just plain sucked.
But I have just returned from an extremely intense few weeks at the
world-renowned Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colo. (yes, the
same city where Kobe Bryant ...), where I had radical surgery to
repair what was beginning to give me some pain. Great pain on some
days, and I finally decided to get rid of it.
I am no stranger to organ replacement, and I always find it refreshing,
always a happy improvement over Pain.
I hate pain, despite my ability to tolerate it beyond all known
parameters, which is not necessarily a good thing. I once gouged
about two-thirds of my hip socket into mush for five consecutive
years, until I finally felt enough pain to have the bastard replaced.
And Titanium turned out to be far more comfortable and flexible
than the human spine anyway, especially mine. It is lighter, stronger
and far more adaptable, in every way, than bone or steel or anything
else in the human body -- and I am installing it in my own body as
rapidly as possible without doing anything stupid.
My alloy spine replacement is about 70 percent finished, and after
it's completed, I will take a break. And maybe have a look at this
weird and degrading Kobe Bryant story, which interests me. The more
I learn about this case, the more I understand that this is not
about Rape at all. It is about money, pure money and nothing else.
Nobody is going to jail in this case, but some people are going to
Pay.
The downward spiral of Dumbness in America is about to hit a new
low. You thought O.J. was bad? Wait until we get a taste of the
K.B.
scandal. It will be like a feeding frenzy and a long parade of
cannibals.
When I went into the clinic last April 30, George Bush was about
50 points ahead of his closest Democratic opponent in next year's
Presidential Election. When I finally escaped from the horrible
place, less than three weeks late, Bush's job-approval ratings had
been cut in half -- and even down into single digits, in some states
-- and the Republican Party was panicked and on the run. It was a
staggering reversal in a very short time, even shorter than it took
for his equally crooked father to drop from 93 percent approval,
down to as low as 43 percent and even 41 percent in the last doomed
days of the first doomed Bush Administration. After that, he was
Bill Clinton's punching bag.
Richard Nixon could tell us a lot about peaking too early. He was
a master of it, because it beat him every time. He never learned
and neither did Bush the Elder.
But wow! This goofy child president we have on our hands now. He
is demonstrably a fool and a failure, and this is only the summer
of '03. By the summer of 2004, he might not even be living in the
White House. Gone, gone, like the snows of yesteryear.
The Rumsfield-Cheney axis has self-destructed right in front of our
eyes, along with the once-proud Perle-Wolfowitz bund that is turning
to wax. They somehow managed to blow it all, like a gang of kids
on a looting spree, between January and July, or even less. It is
genuinely incredible. The U.S. Treasury is empty, we are losing
that stupid, fraudulent chickencrap War in Iraq, and every country
in the world except a handful of Corrupt Brits despises us. We are
losers, and that is the one unforgivable sin in America.
Beyond that, we have lost the respect of the world and lost two
disastrous wars in three years. Afghanistan is lost, Iraq is a
permanent war Zone, our national Economy is crashing all around us,
the Pentagon's "war strategy" has failed miserably, nobody has any
money to spend, and our once-mighty U.S. America is paralyzed by
Mutinies in Iraq and even Fort Bragg.
The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my
lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse.
I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American
generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when
we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police
are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security,
once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and
destroyed by the same gang of ignorant greed-crazed bastards who
brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip and
ignominious defeat all over the world.
The Stock Market will never come back, our Armies will never again
be No. 1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of
our lives.
The Bush family must be very proud of themselves today, but I am
not. Big Darkness, soon come. Take my word for it.
DR. THOMPSON IS BACK WITH US NOW, AND READY TO RUMBLE. HE IS FREE
OF THE HIDEOUS PAIN THAT HAS PLAGUED HIM AND HIS LOVED ONES SINCE
TIME IMMEMORIAL. BUT IT IS GONE NOW. THINGS HAVE CHANGED.
To be continued very soon.
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was born and raised in Louisville, Ky.
His books include "Hell's Angels," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,"
"Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72," "The Great Shark
Hunt," "The Curse of Lono," "Generation of Swine," "Songs of the
Doomed," "Screwjack," "Better Than Sex," "The Proud Highway," "The
Rum Diary," and "Fear and Loathing in America." His latest book,
"Kingdom of Fear," has just been released. A regular contributor
to various national and international publications, Thompson now
lives in a fortified compound near Aspen, Colo. His column, "Hey,
Rube,"
appears regularly on Page 2.
: t r u t h o u t 2003