PRESIDENT JONAH-A Dig led by Gore Vidal-THROW BUSH OVERBOARD

[kpete]

Opinion
Gore Vidal: President Jonah
Wed Jan 25, 3:33 PM ET



While contemplating the ill-starred presidency of G.W. Bush, I looked about for some sort of divine analogy. As usual, when in need of enlightenment, I fell upon the Holy Bible, authorized King James version of 1611; turning by chance to the Book of Jonah, I read that Jonah, who, like Bush, chats with God, had suffered a falling out with the Almighty and thus became a jinx dogged by luck so bad that a cruise liner, thanks to his presence aboard, was about to sink in a storm at sea. Once the crew had determined that Jonah, a passenger, was the jinx, they threw him overboard and--Lo!--the storm abated. The three days and nights he subsequently spent in the belly of a nauseous whale must have seemed like a serious jinx to the digestion-challenged whale who extruded him much as the decent opinion of mankind has done to Bush.

Originally, God wanted Jonah to give hell to Nineveh, whose people, God noted disdainfully, "cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand," so like the people of Baghdad who cannot fathom what democracy has to do with their destruction by the Cheney-Bush cabal. But the analogy becomes eerily precise when it comes to the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when a president is not only incompetent but plainly jinxed by whatever faith he cringes before. Witness the ongoing screw-up of prescription drugs. Who knows what other disasters are in store for us thanks to the curse he is under? As the sailors fed the original Jonah to a whale, thus lifting the storm that was about to drown them, perhaps we the people can persuade President Jonah to retire to his other Eden in Crawford, Texas, taking his jinx with him. We deserve a rest. Plainly, so does he. Look at Nixon's radiant features after his resignation! One can see former President Jonah in his sumptuous library happily catering to faith-based fans with animated scriptures rooted in "The Simpsons."

rest of the article
http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/20060124_president_jonah/

[corky44]

1. George Bush: the ultimate "cooler"

[sasha031]

2. thank you I am a big fan of Gore Vidal

:kick:

[El Supremo]

3. But at the end...

Jonah converted Nineveh.

I think * is more like the whale. The whale gobbled everything up - budget, branches of government, lives.

[Democrats_win]

5. Bush & Jonah were cursed so to stop curse, throw them off the ship.

That's the main analogy. You're right, the main point of the Jonah story is that God's will be done.

Jonah was trying to escape God's will that he go to Nineveh. So the ship that was taking Jonah away from Nineveh was having problems until they threw him over. The whale burped him up near Nineveh and Jonah completed his mission. For God it was Mission Accomplished. For Bush, it's:

the best laid plans of mice and men
often go awry
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.”

What's worse, bush's plan was as evil as God's is good.

[Democrats_win]

4. Great find! Can't believe how good this article is--dig after dig!

Funny joke about going to Hawaii!!! Comment on how there can't be a war against terror, he says, "terror is an abstract noun like liar."

Gore Vidal has more intelligence in his small typing finger than the GOP has in its entire body of neoconpoops.

[KoKo]

6. K&R...I have his book from 2003...and he said Bush is an Imperial

President...way back then...he said "he will do ANYTHING to keep and maintain POWER."

Vidal had him pegged and it's not getting better...only worse. Where the Little Emperor...throws shit in our face and it's supposed to be "rose petals."

He usurps and usurps...and only the "maddness of the internet" even bothers to call him on it...we who see it all.

Well...there's always "hope." Doesn't it "Spring Eternal" as the old saying goes?

Let's hope that it get's better...

[enough]

7. I thought the photo was a joke,

but here is the caption:

PHOTO
President Bush after meeting with members of his cabinet at the White House Sept. 6. Bush, facing demands for an investigation into what went wrong in the initial response to Hurricane Katrina, resisted any immediate probe into what has become the worst U.S. humanitarian crisis ever. To the left of Bush is Vice President Dick Cheney.



Always great to read Gore Vidal. Thanks