Tag: Books

What I’m Reading is None of Bush’s Business

Trish

One of the most ridiculous parts of the Patriot Act has to be where the government can force libraries to turn over lists of books you’ve checked out and bookstores to report what you bought. Yeah, a terrorist is really going to be exposed that way! Not. It’s just another stupid idea from the most paranoid, facist, dictatorial president ever.

Enough already. Go sign the petition at TrueMajority.org supporting a bill introduced by Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). A message will be sent to your own representative, telling him or her to have the government drop the Hoover-esque snooping. Hurry, because a joint House and Senate committee is deciding on whether to alter the Patriot Act now.

Lott vs. Frist Offers No One to Root for

Jon Ponder
What Lott said was absolutely true. The United States would have been been much better off if Thurmond had been president instead of Republican Dwight Eisenhower – if you define the “United States” as “white males,” as Republicans do.

Boy, it’s a hard to pick someone to root for in this fight. In his new autobiography, “I Am a Lying Snake, and I Know It,”* former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Lynching) has shellacked the current Majority Leader, Sen. Bill Frist (R-Medical Industry) for back-stabbing him after Lott fatally wounded himself by wishing out loud that the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-South Hypocrisy) and his pro-lynching Dixiecrat party had won the presidency in 1948.

After Lott’s fall from grace, Frist – who has admitted killing kittens for fun – was given Lott’s job by the White House, after a pro-forma vote by the GOP Bush-lickers in the Senate.

In his memoir, Lott describes his laudatory comments about a would-be Thurmond presidency as “innocent and thoughtless” and blames the media for reporting his remarks. He has a point. After all, what he said was absolutely true. The United States would have been been much better off if Thurmond had been president instead of Republican Dwight Eisenhower – if you define the “United States” as “white males,” as Republicans do.

In the book, Lott reportedly blames his conservatism on liberal professors at Yale who apparently tried to make him feel guilty about his racism – but instead made him devote his life to preserving white supremacy.

Lott most recently made headlines by joining the Senate’s Pro-Lynching Caucus – handful of Southern senators who refused to sign onto a resolution expressing regret for the Senate’s refusal to outlaw lynching in the 1960’s and before.

*Okay, obviously, that’s not the real title. It’s “Does My Hair Look Real?”

James ‘I’m a Gay American’ McGreevey Seeks Six-Fig Book Deal

Buck Banks

RadarOnline reports that former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey is negotiating a mid-six-figure book deal with Regan Books for a tell-all of his side of the scandal that drove him from office.

It was August 2004 when McGreevey’s surprising resignation and self-outing made headlines. The married father of two reportedly stepped down as his longtime aide, Golan Cipel, was preparing to mount a sexual harrassment suit against the guv. Rumors also abounded that Cipel had sought $5 million to keep mum about McGreevey’s being gay.

If the deal goes through, McGreevey will be in good authorial company. Regan has published tell-alls by porn star Jenna Jameson, gangster Frank Gotti Agnello and ex-baseball player, inveterate liar and braggart Jose Canseco.

PR Reviews ‘The Family’ by Kitty Kelly

Jon Ponder

The Family, by Kitty KelleyiconTHE FAMILY: THE REAL STORY OF THE BUSH DYNASTY by Kitty Kelley.
Published by Doubleday, September, 2004.

Reviewed by Pensito Review contributor Violet in NC.

Kitty Kelley is a brave woman. She writes, with both authority and vengeance, tell-all unauthorized biographies of powerful American personalities who are long of reach, big of ego, and short of tolerance. In other words she takes on the elite and goes for the jugular. This time her book takes on the Bush clan who have succeeded in claiming the chieftainship of the greatest country in the world. And have passed it down. And hope to pass it on. Citizens! Beware!

The theme of Kelley’s book is the conscious, deliberate attitude of entitlement enjoyed by the Bushmen and their women. Bar (maliciously nicknamed after a Prescott Bush family horse) runs the stable of political studs in the manner of Don Corelone, with a firm hand and behind the scenes maneuvers. She masquerades as a genial grandmother while controlling her family and associates with biting vitriol. Married working women receive special scrutiny with questions such as: When are you going to quit and have a baby? Or: Why aren’t you home with your children?

The Bushmen–Prescott, G.H.W., and George W.– are portrayed as ruthless elites who are driven, not by ideology, but ambition, to best the Old Man, whoever he may be. All three of them are Yalie Bonesmen with all the accruing benefits of rank and pull. The two elder were excessively penurious with their offspring, providing instead of money, connections into the high-flying world of finance, oil, and politics. Motivated by best-for-me ideals, they find the surest road to success neither guided by principal nor feeling. The lack of connection with those not occupying their stratosphere is astounding. Their careless exploitation of the sincerely held beliefs of certain narrow misguided religious segments is breath-taking.

The Family is a horror story. But ironically and tragically for the United States and the world, it is non-fiction. Kelley writes with a slant. Absolutely. But she also tells her story convincingly with the research and depth of investigation needed to make it ring true. It is as real as your worst nightmare. If you still have trouble believing that two of these men have acquired the desk chair once occupied by FDR and JFK, read this book.. Then you will get it.

Order The Family by Kitty Kelly from Barnes & Noble.