Vonnegut's rail to the chief

New York Daily News | 5/6/04

Vonnegut's rail to the chief
Lowdown, by Lloyd Grove

The brief, leading section of this column has the following on Kurt
Vonnegut. Don't overlook the passing comment on his in-progress
novel...

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nobody needs to tell Kurt Vonnegut to stop beating around the Bush.

"They're adroit criminals," the 81-year-old literary lion labeled
President Bush and his underlings while riding in a taxi with Lowdown's
Hudson Morgan to Wednesday night's 27th anniversary party for In These
Times, the paleoliberal magazine.

"They're committing war crimes - attacking a country that hasn't
attacked us. Pretending it had. And torturing prisoners and filling
countless graves with dead Iraqis. But adroit, sure. Al Capone was
adroit."

The pop-culture icon added dismissively: "I don't care how Bush does,
because I don't believe him. He believes himself, and that's what is
quite terrifying."

As for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz,
they're the ones "who allowed this torture to go on, kept it secret
since January. These are war crimes," Vonnegut said. "I dealt with
prisoners when I was a soldier. We sure didn't torture them - we were
well aware of the Geneva Convention. I myself became a prisoner" of the
Germans as an Army corporal in Dresden during World War II.

"It's my country, not theirs," he continued lashing the Bushies. "And
they've trashed the reputation of Americans. ... It's possible to
destroy a great civilization. Bush and those people have no love for it
at all."

Vonnegut - the author of "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and
"Breakfast of Champions" - has been penning polemics for In These Times
and is hoping to produce another novel.

"I've taken an advance. But now is not the time for a novel, is what
Samuel Goldwyn would have said. If you have a message, send a telegram.
And it's time to send telegrams right now."

What he'd really like to do is be an analyst on CNN. "What I want is -
they've got all these generals and stuff and military retired
consultants to CNN and so forth, I want 'em to have a retired corporal -
me!"

He sure won't mince words.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

For full column go to:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/190940p-165095c.html

--
obscura RemoveThis @null.net ¤ "Cleaning birdshit out of cuckoo clocks." -- KV

DaveL <obscura.DeleteThis@null.net> wrote in message news:<2jru90dbde1ul3m02erjdap095tff0qfhj.DeleteThis@4ax.com>...
 > New York Daily News | 5/6/04
 >
 > Vonnegut's rail to the chief
 > Lowdown, by Lloyd Grove
 >
 > The brief, leading section of this column has the following on Kurt
 > Vonnegut. Don't overlook the passing comment on his in-progress
 > novel...
 >
 > <~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 > Nobody needs to tell Kurt Vonnegut to stop beating around the Bush.
 >
 > "They're adroit criminals," the 81-year-old literary lion labeled
 > President Bush and his underlings while riding in a taxi with Lowdown's
 > Hudson Morgan to Wednesday night's 27th anniversary party for In These
 > Times, the paleoliberal magazine.
 >
 > "They're committing war crimes - attacking a country that hasn't
 > attacked us. Pretending it had. And torturing prisoners and filling
 > countless graves with dead Iraqis. But adroit, sure. Al Capone was
 > adroit."
 >
 > The pop-culture icon added dismissively: "I don't care how Bush does,
 > because I don't believe him. He believes himself, and that's what is
 > quite terrifying."
 >
 > As for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz,
 > they're the ones "who allowed this torture to go on, kept it secret
 > since January. These are war crimes," Vonnegut said. "I dealt with
 > prisoners when I was a soldier. We sure didn't torture them - we were
 > well aware of the Geneva Convention. I myself became a prisoner" of the
 > Germans as an Army corporal in Dresden during World War II.
 >
 > "It's my country, not theirs," he continued lashing the Bushies. "And
 > they've trashed the reputation of Americans. ... It's possible to
 > destroy a great civilization. Bush and those people have no love for it
 > at all."
 >
 > Vonnegut - the author of "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and
 > "Breakfast of Champions" - has been penning polemics for In These Times
 > and is hoping to produce another novel.
 >
 > "I've taken an advance. But now is not the time for a novel, is what
 > Samuel Goldwyn would have said. If you have a message, send a telegram.
 > And it's time to send telegrams right now."
 >
 > What he'd really like to do is be an analyst on CNN. "What I want is -
 > they've got all these generals and stuff and military retired
 > consultants to CNN and so forth, I want 'em to have a retired corporal -
 > me!"
 >
 > He sure won't mince words.
 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
 >
 > For full column go to:
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/190940p-165095c.html</font" target="_blank">http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/190940p-165095c.html</font</a>>

Wank, wank, wank! What a chowder head. And if he's going to take
someone's money for a job he ought to do it
Talk about criminal. Yeah, I'll write a book (even though I swore I
was done) just
hand over the cash and I'll write a muddleheaded diatribe instead
insisting Bush is worse than
Hussain.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->