Monday, November 07, 2011

A dilemma

Jack Abramoff has wrote a book. He apparently names names about Congressmen he bought and what he bought from them, as well as names names about other lobbyists who are doing exactly the same thing today. I am lusting to read that part of his book (not so lusting to read the other part of the book, which is standard boiler-plate small government GOP stuff).

Problem: political pressure meant that no conventional publisher would touch Jackoff's book. Meaning that it's being published by... World Nut Daily Press ("We're batshit crazy and so are you if you read us!"). The notion of sending my money to Birther Central makes me vomit in my mouth a little.

What to do, what to do...

-- Badtux the Overly-curious Penguin

14 comments:

  1. OH MY!! Now that's a dilemma for sure.

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  2. Just wait a bit. The good parts will get excerpted and you won't have to support WND.

    But think on this: why would you believe a word that he says?

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  3. Because he pretty much has stated since day one what he did, and it matches what the prosecutors said he did, the only argument at trial was whether what he did was illegal? I.e., there is independent verification by a court of law that what he said he did is, in fact, what he did?

    Really, the only possible credibility issue is the specific names that he names. But that can be independently verified too. If he says that aide X got a job promise to steer legislation through Congress, it's easy enough to verify that aide X did in fact end up getting a job with one of Jackoff's lobbying cronies.

    - Badtux the "Independent verification" Penguin

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  4. Do you have an eReader? If so, you can download a copy.

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  5. The names will slip out. The villagers like nothing better than leaking dirt. Especially on one who has lost his juice.

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  6. Have patience grasshopper and borrow it from the public library.

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  7. @montag I would be surprised if this title gets popular enough to be picked up by too many libraries. Besides, publishers make money on library books.

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  8. I have a similar problem. M. J. Trow is the author of a series of books in which Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard (yes, Lestrade out of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series) is the principal character. The books are decently well written and very entertaining. Holmes enthusiast that I am, I'd love to read the whole Lestrade series...

    ... but I refuse to send my money to Regency, the press that publishes half the right-wing vanity books on the market. I just won't do it.

    FBOW, the public library here has a few of them, so the dilemma isn't as bad as it might be.

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  9. Lynne, I assume you mean download an illegal copy, since legal copies would still send bucks to World Nut Daily Press. I'm not interested in that, I know too many ways to monitor current P2P networks.

    dpjbro, yeah, I'm sure, but I'm impatient!

    Montag, I'm not going to request that my library buy it, and unless someone requests it, it's not likely that they're going to buy it. On the other hand, you give me a good idea there -- I'm sure used copies will eventually flood into the used book stores, that'll be a *great* place to get the book without having to send money to Crazy Joe and Birther Central!

    Steve, with your mobility problems it might be hard to get to a used book store, but it might be worth a shot. I haven't lived in Houston for decades but when I lived there, there were a number of good used book stores with large selections. Maybe let your fingers do the walking?

    -- Badtux the Curious Penguin

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  10. Yes of course *used* books. duh!

    There are certainly some stores in your area, Badtux that have excellent selections of used books. But if you can't find it and want to support an indie rather than Amazon, Powell's in Portland and The Strand in NYC each have excellent online stores.

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  11. A good used book store will find a copy and mail it to you.

    John King in Detroit is great. Or at least they used to be. haven't had need for their services in a while.

    Might cost more than buying it new (though probably not) but you won't be supporting the lizards.

    Cheers!
    JzB

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  12. Jazzbumpa, John King is still fabulous. Their website, not so much. :)

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  13. Brazenly write the publisher. Mention that you write a modestly popular blog. Say you'd like a copy so you may review it. Produce the promised review.

    That way, World Glues Faily underwrite you. Bwahahahaha.

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