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Non-Regnery bestsellers

by Mark Gisleson

Bits of this and that today. Just biding our time waiting for the next big scandal to emerge, and one will, no doubt about it. Has any administration ever planted the seeds of so many scandals so quickly?

Osama bin Laden's about due to show up in the news cycle again. The Independent's John R. Bradley is reporting some interesting old news. Yosif Salih Fahd Alyaeeri, one of the nineteen May 12th Riyadh bombing perpetrators, apparently had a letter on his person from Osama. Meanwhile, The Mirror's Mark Ellis reports on the new audio tape from Abdel Rahman al-Najdi in which he claims that Osama's alive and urging Iraqis to fight back. Shocking stuff. Hard to believe such things could happen. Certainly no one could have predicted such things before we invaded Iraq. [Well, OK, maybe these folks: James Fallows, Zoltan Grossman, various think tanks, or DIY).

You'll be seeing this link everywhere over the next few days, but at some point do take the time to read the salaciously delicious story of All Arnold's Scandals. Thank god for the British press and their willingness to report all those political sex scandals that don't involve Bill Clinton's penis (oh, and happy birthday today to Bill, Tipper Gore, and Mary Matalin — a threesome Larry Flynt would love to stick a staple into).

George W. Bush's resume was floating around the 'net for quite a while, but as a recently reformed long-time résumé writer, I wasn't very impressed (by the format, not the content, which was extremely unimpressive). Here's a new Bush resume site that does a much better job of conveying to Bush's employers (us/U.S.) just how underqualified he is for the Oval Office.

Bush is getting a lot more attention than just the kind Karl Rove seeks out for him. Here are some interesting selections from Amazon's bestseller list:

#6, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, by Al Franken

#8, Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth, by Joe Conason

#52, Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton

#68, All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, by Stephen Kinzer

#69, The Prince of Providence: The True Story of Buddy Cianci, America's Most Notorious Mayor, Some Wiseguys, and the Feds, by Mike Stanton [audio link]

#73, Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, by Molly Ivins

#87, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq, by Sheldon Rampton and John C. Stauber

#98, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History, by George Crile

Aside from the obvious liberal penchant for colons in book titles (as opposed to the conservative penchant for book titles written by assholes), the most telling thing about this list is the sudden rush to document recent history. Bush Wars readers won't be shocked to hear that the CIA is responsible for a great deal of the mess in the Middle East today, thanks to their strangling the region's first democracy in its infancy. But Charlie Wilson's story is less well known and no less important. Good books for diligent readers who have already gone through their stack of summer reading.

Posted by Steve Perry at August 19, 2003 9:52 AM

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