Required Reading

The Great Unraveling by Paul Krugman
Krugman is a celebrated economics professor and an Op-Ed writer for the New York Times. He has a real nack for translating dry economic jargon into something laymen can digest. He also has a nasty habit of analyzing policies and budgets to determine what their actual effect will be, as opposed to the spin dutifully regurgitated by the mainstream press. For this he is despised beyond reason by the radical right. This book is a collection of his editorials, grouped by category, and the three-page "chapters" can be consumed like popcorn. But the most important contribution here may be the introduction, which applies Henry Kissinger's thesis on revolutionary powers to explain why the current administration does what it does and how it gets away with it, thus adding an important contribution to the "Lies Trifecta" (Big Lies, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them and David Corn's The Lies of George W. Bush).

Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
The political book accessible to the masses. Al Franken is a funny guy. And this book is extremely well researched. It has the same tone as Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, but has the financial advantage that Fox News sued him for using "Fair and Balanced" in his tag line, for which they were literally laughed out of court.

Big Lies by Joe Conason
Smokin' Joe does it again. Every Democrat running for office, and every media pundit tapped as a liberal, should read this book, memorize its themes and boil every chapter down to a set of pithy sound bites. Learn it, love it, live it. Our public discourse would be a hundred times better. And conservatives would be boiling mad.

What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman
Unlike conservatives who bitch and moan about the "liberal media", and then completely ignore all of the indisputable conservative influences, Alterman acknowledges the liberal media. He then goes on to show how tiny it is compared to the conservative juggernaut, and how it embraces a diversity of views. But mostly he exposes how conservatives control all forms of media today: TV and cable, radio, newspapers, the internet. And how most supposedly liberal outlets are in fact incredibly unfair to left. Unfortunately, the first edition feels very rushed, with a slew of typos.

The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk by Susan McDougal
If, like me, you didn't dive in-depth in to news stories back in the 1990s, you may have wondered just who Susan McDougal was and why she was sitting in jail rather than talking to Ken Starr. I certainly wondered. The story is all here. It's mostly because Starr demonstrates that he is clearly untrustworthy, but it's partly because Susan misplaces her loyalty in her husband-beyond-help Jim McDougal. I've got a number of friends from college who hail from Arkansas, all of them extremely bright. Then there is Clinton and now Wesley Clark. McDougal also proves herself to be exceptionally literate in this very readable book. Arkansas' educational system, in my experience, is far better than its reputation.

The Bush Dyslexicon by Mark Crispin Miller
At first glance, you might think this is a collection of "Bushisms" with a clever title. In reality, it is so much more. Dr. Miller is an accomplished political analyst, and he puts Bush's speech impediment into a much wider context than you might think possible. His categorization and analysis of W's verbal miscues is a tour de force . . . inspiring and frightening at the same time.

Blinded by the Right by David Brock
Brock, who famously penned the Anita Hill slur as well the "troopergate" article that spawned Paula Jones, gives us an insider's view of the right wing propaganda machine. It is not a pretty picture. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand political America in the 1990's.

The Betrayal of America by Vincent Bugliosi
I've always been a fan of Bugliosi -- I read not only Helter Skelter but a couple of his other true crime books. This is the best of the books on the Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore. It's main failing is that is uses the legal footnoting style -- long passages that are more extensive than the main text. You'll find yourself flipping backwards and forth. But worth the effort. It's main selling point: he unflinchingly calls the five Justices who voted with Bush criminals, and backs it up.

The Hunting of the President by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons
A longer and more in-depth read than Toobin's A Vast Conspiracy, it's also better. You of course get descriptions of all the bizarre characters who mercilessly pursued Bill and Hillary Clinton, using Richard Mellon Scaife's limitless funding. But you also get direct comparisons of trial transcripts and the New York Times deceptive reporting during the McDougal and Tucker trials. The distortions they published just to keep the story alive were journalistic crimes. From our "paper of record" no less. Conason and Lyons, thankfully, skip the Lewinsky mess, since we all know what happened there.

Sound and Fury by Eric Alterman
Definitely the work of an academician, Alterman's book gives a history of those members of the media charged with enlightening us with their opinions. Without stating it explicitly, Alterman makes it clear that the liberal media was dead by the time Reagan took office. Perhaps he will be more explicit about it in his upcoming What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News. His decimation of such pseudo-intellectuals as William Safire and George Will is a joy to behold, although it leaves you feeling sorry for the man who had to read all those misleading columns just to write his book.

Supreme Injustice by Alan Dershowitz
Longer and more technical the Bugliosi's Betrayal it's a harder read (for a layman anyway) but there is a lot of good information and analysis here.

Shrub by Molly Ivins
Subtitled The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, this book is necessarily short, but fills you in on everything you need to know about our King George. It starts out humorously (it's Molly Ivins, after all) but the last three chapters are positively frightening.

Fortunate Son by J. H. Hatfield
This book is famous for accusing Bush of being arrested for cocaine possession, being ordered to perform community service, and having his record suppressed by a judge friendly to Poppy. Fortunately for Team Bush (and not coincidentally in my opinion) Hatfield had a shady past that was used to discredit his accusations. He is completely open and honest about his past and the rest of the book is frustratingly even-handed towards W. That should lend credence to what he said, but the mainstream media has never followed up on it. Oh yeah, Hatfield has since been found dead in a motel room of an "apparent" suicide. Not that I would advocate conspiracy theories . . . .

Down & Dirty by Jake Tapper
Tapper goes to great lengths to make Bush and Gore look equally mercenary during the Florida recount battle. But he can't quite pull it off, because, well, Gore wasn't mercenary. Interesting speculation about the Bush team encouaging military absentee ballots to be sent in after the voting deadline.

Too Close to Call by Jeffrey Toobin
Toobin writes a good book, and provides information you can't get anywhere else. His main problem is that he buries his lead. On the last page, he accuses Bush of a crime against democracy. Hey, Jeff, that should be the theme of the book.

A Vast Conspiracy by Jeffrey Toobin
Another decent effort by Toobin, held back by a little too much timidity. Again, he digs up information you won't find anywhere else, but won't pull the trigger. Sure, there was a conspiracy he says, but he isn't willing to characterize it as "vast." A subjective description to be sure, but given the funds at their disposal, I personally have no problem with the word "vast".

© Copyright 2003 Bill Spotz. Last update: 10/13/03; 10:01:55 PM.