I find Hunter S. Thompson's suicide to be suspicious

[wicket]

He's been coming out hard against the Bushies- I'm just saying.
Either way- very sad :(

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=518039

Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counter-culture author of books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a personal friend of Thompson, confirmed the death to the News. Sheriff's officials did not return calls to The Associated Press late Sunday.[/blockquote/

[Goldmund]

1. Oh, come on...

[genius]

19. Bush could shoot up a nursery in front of some people

here and they would defend Bush to the death. Thompson's death, Hatfield's death, Shoedinger's death, Baxter's death are all suspicious. Mark and David Wellstone found proof that their father was murdered.

[Goldmund]

21. Do you really think I'm defending Bush?

I am saying that once you realize something -- in this case, that Bush is sufficiently "evil" do to something like that -- that doesn't mean that the world stops and everything happens for a reazon related to your realization. No, people killed themselves before, and they're not going to stop just because Bush is president. So unless there is some indication to the thesis that Bush had something to do with HST's death, and there isn't -- I can't even see a motive, to tell you the truth -- this is just idiotic.

[shawcomm]

2. Good grief! I hadn't heard!!!

Damn.

[Downtown Hound]

3. He's also someone that danced with darkness his entire life

Actually I'm thinking Bush actually did play a role. I think he might have been so depressed about the state of the country that he didn't want to stick around anymore.

[Ilsa]

10. That was my first thought as well.

RIP, HST. I read your books, but I feel like I barely knew you, you were so deep.

[NVMojo]

17. or he knew more than just that Bush was pimping coke at his party

in the 70s ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1612362

[ThereIsNoConspiracy]

4. I wonder...

... if this has any connection to the */marijuana story. If anyone had counterculture connections, it was HST.

[Catch22Dem]

11. I don't even think anyone cares about */weed

I don't. I mean he's an admited coke head and boozer. Ain't like pot is going to be a big story at this point.

[Skittles]

24. it only matters if you're a Democrat

nt

[4morewars]

5. aw fuck

I really liked him, either way it sucks. RIP

[tinanator]

6. ditto

ditto again

[kentuck]

7. That's a real bummer...

:(

[wicket]

12. it really sucks, kentuck

He was one of the good guys :(

[whistle]

8. A taste of HJT....

<snip>



NEW YORK CITY | "WHAT'S THIS GOING TO DO TO ME?" my beautiful girlfriend asks, looking nervously from the Doctor to the small black ball zipped in the tiny plastic baggie. We're sitting across from each other in a luxury suite on the fourteenth story of the five-star Manhattan Carlyle Hotel–the main room is adorned with a glossy grand piano, and the surroundings as a whole most likely cost more to rent per night than I'll ever make in my entire lifetime.

"Nothing, nothing," says Hunter S. Thompson–the aging mastermind behind Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the godfather of Gonzo journalism–removing the hash from the plastic baggie and slicing it with a bread knife courtesy of room service. "You'll be fine, my darling," Thompson says, packing the processed greenery into the compact pipe he demanded–along with a quarter-bag of marijuana–before consenting to this 2 a.m. interview.

"Well, okay…" my beautiful girlfriend says, taking the pipe and sucking down the potent vapors, coughing after the first inhalation.

"You're going to go completely crazy now," 65-year-old Thompson says, grinning like a sadistic hyena and putting his arm lecherously around my girlfriend's shoulder. "Completely fucking psychotic. You're doomed, all right. Jesus."

Good fucking Lord, how did this happen? I ask myself, trying to recall the events of this insane night through the cerebral haze of marijuana and hashish presently clouding my 20-year-old mind. I remember the anticipation, the cancelled plane out of Aspen, the excruciating 24 hours of telephoning clueless publicity agents to reschedule the meeting, and finally the desperate late-night call to Thompson's room, begging for an in-person audience… The mad rush through my girlfriend's NYU dorm, searching for a student majoring in street pharmacology (we couldn't find that goddamn Dell dude)… Christ, is this actually happening? Am I actually smoking Mexican hashish with the greatest writer of my parents' generation? The man who made Rolling Stone magazine actually worth reading at one point long, long ago?

<more>
<link> http://nmazca.com/verba/hunter0203.htm

[NVMojo]

9. On Kerry and Bush and 2004 ...

Your neighbour’s grandchildren will be fighting this stupid greed-crazed Bush-family war against the whole Islamic world for the rest of their lives if John Kerry isn’t elected to be the new president on Tuesday. - Hunter S. Thompson

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Me too.......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3150659&mesg_id=3150659

[necso]

14. Damn.

I imagine that he might have been feeling poorly (poor health or physical decline).

A gentleman of the old school might be slow to talk about such things.

[despairing optimist]

15. Just like Abbie Hoffman's suicide

Sometimes escaping to Canada isn't far enough.

[laheina]

23. A better parallel might be

Gary Webb. Another thorn in the side of the Bushies.

[LittleClarkie]

16. I'm just sitting here in tears right now

The last thing I read that he wrote was his endorsement of Kerry in the Rolling Stone and his commentary on how much better Nixon was than Bush, comparatively speaking.

I'm going to miss his perspective on politics. I don't know of anyone quite like him who can take his place in that realm of commentary.

I wonder if it was the loss of the election and not being able to face four more years of Bush. But then, we probably don't know all the demons he was dealing with.

[NVMojo]

18. he lived like across the street from Prince Bandar ...

Bankrate: You've been pretty outspoken in your dislike of our current commander in chief.

Hunter S. Thompson: I was candid about Nixon, too.

Bankrate: Yet you say Nixon pales in comparison to George W. Bush.

Hunter S. Thompson: Oh, yeah, he looks almost like a liberal. You look at the Clean Air Act and several others back then. Nixon was a crook but at least he operated off of an individual base. But this yoyo, this stupid little … It's cheap opera. Take a look at your pocket. Take a look around you. It's a hold-up, a looting of the national treasury, and that's what they're doing. The combined spending of the Kerry campaign is far less than $5 million for advertising. Five million dollars, that's like a goddamned Susan Anthony dollar compared to $60 billion that is just routine going out to Halliburton. We might lose if we went to war with Halliburton.

Bankrate: You are neighbors with Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador and longtime Bush family friend featured in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Hunter S. Thompson: I can see him from my front porch. He's been a pretty good neighbor; that counts for a lot out here. He will shoot some skeet now and then. I don't want to say anything really ugly about him. He's an enlightened plutocrat, I guess you call it. Michael Moore is dead right on that, and it's even worse than you think. Bandar. All kinds of roads cross out here. Networks and wires.

Bankrate: The Bush Administration seems to have lit your fuse. Are you angry again?

Hunter S. Thompson: Very angry. I'm very angry. That's why I guess I have to write this (campaign) piece for Rolling Stone. This is the darkest hour that I have seen in my long experience as an American. This is evil.

Bankrate: As a betting man, what to you think of John Kerry's chances?

Hunter S. Thompson: If there is an election on schedule -- if -- I would say 60-40 Kerry right now. I think if we can get the sportswriter's vote, the dope fiend's vote and the Grateful Dead vote, that would make a big difference. Hating Bush is not enough. You've got to vote now in self-defense. If we have another administration like this, it will be so bad that what's happening now will look like a small breakfast for what's coming next.

more...

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20041101a2.asp

[NVMojo]

20. weird ...he was one of the major speakers for the Aspent Idea Festival

this summer ....

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20041110/NEWS/111100016

[JI7]

22. he has been coming out against them for a long time

everyone knows where he stands when it comes to politics.

why would they have any reason to get rid of him now of all times and of all people ?

[DistressedAmerican]

25. Jesus! I hadn't heard yet.

Well the got to Abbie Hoffman. Why not Hunter? I'm currently experiencing a great deal of fear and loathing for Washington.

Sorry guy! I'll keep fighting til they get me!

On Edit: I actually stole one of the guy's Dunhill smokes and gifted it to a smoker friend that was a fan. I felt it was a move he would have respected.

[Telly Savalas]

26. So they'd kill a sportswriter for ESPN page 2...

and leave folks like Paul Krugman and Molly Ivins alive?

Ya know, maybe the cigar is just a cigar.