A wave of liberal authored books are hitting the proverbial bookshelves this year lamenting the slow economy, calling for substantive change, and offering little in the way of cover design. The new crop of books reflect the left’s mood swings in reaction to the Obama administration’s handling of the economy, concerns over corporate power, government spending and investment: heightened cynicism, despair, futility, disillusionment, disappointment, anger, fatalism, abject panic…..

Oh, the good ol days, when we all agreed that we HATED W BUSH! When the reaction to the terrible Bush/Cheney White House included a veritable presidential library of such books. Through every fault of its own, Bush/Cheney, inc. became a publishing cash cow, from the omnibus “Bushwhacked!” to all the glorious takedown/mockeries like “The End of America!”, “Worse than Watergate!”,”The Anti Intellectual Presidency”, “Pretensions to an empire”, “Voting to Kill!”, and all the “Bushism” stocking stuffers.

Chris Jackson, executive editor of Spiegel & Grau, a Random House Inc. imprint says:

“I published a bunch of liberal books during the (George W.) Bush administration and the theme was basically, ‘I hate Bush. This time, we’re dealing with the limitations of what a president can do and systematic things like the influence of the financial industry and the relationship between the 1 percent and the 99 percent.”

Upcoming releases “The Great Divergence” by Timothy Noah and “The Price of Equality” by Joseph Stiglitz focus on the growing gap between rich and poor. James Carville’s “It’s the Middle Class, Stupid”, is campaign oriented. Others are prescriptions for the economy like “End This Depression Now!” by Paul Krugman and a new book by former Obama advisor Van Jones, “Rebuild the Dream”, which I’m currently reading. I just pre-ordered “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt,” co-authored by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, a report from the frontlines of poverty in America with accounts of some of the country’s most devastated communities, “sacrifice zones”  like Camden, a poster child of postindustrial decay. The authors call for reform, as places like Camden stand as warnings of what much of the United States stand to become if we cement in place a permanent underclass.

The Price of Inequality, End This Depression Now, The Great Divergence, It’s the Middle Class, Stupid!, Rebuild the Dream, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Here is a magazine called The Conservative Teen, if nothing else, a very good example of why you should never sign up for a photostock shoot:

http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&…

Has anyone noticed the over/mis use of the word “Orwellian” recently? And by Right Wingers, who you know for a fact have never read anything by Orwell? Add “Orwellian” to the list of simple terms used to describe government, politics or history that the Right Wing does not understand.  It is now among friends like “Socialism”, “Fascist”, “Nationalize”, “Gotcha” “Marxist”, “Culture War”, “Bootstraps”, “Teleprompter” , “Ad hominem”, “Small Government”, “Evolution”, “Freedom of Speech”, “Job Creators”, Elitist” ,”Jesus”, “Scientific Theory”, Founding Fathers” and “Constitution”.

Everyone else knows that Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four were written by one of those dreaded European socialists, an EcoSocialist who considered the Soviet Union a betrayal of socialism, not the works of a McCarthyite red-baiter who thought that Free Markets would save the world. They don’t read the books. They just quote someone who’s quoted someone who’s quoted someone else. These are the same  idiots who adopted Won’t get Fooled Again and Born in the USA as Right Wing Anthems. Never mind the lyrics, the “words”. 1984 is such an ingrained part of our consciousness – it doesn’t even feel like allegory anymore, but rather a murky, half-experienced reality – that having Republican candidates in 2012 adopt it non- ironically as their guidebook is really beyond the pale.  Continue reading →