Book Wrangler

August 1, 2005

By Bob Patterson

Harper's Magazine, in the issue on the stands for August 2005, features a book that looks at the possibility that the 2004 election was rigged.  Several other books available in the summer of 2005 have a similar point of view.  Historians of the future might relish the opportunity to do some time travel and look in the bookstores during the summer of 2005.  Here is some of what they could find:

What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election by Anita Miller, with an introduction by Gore Vidal  ($10.95 papberback Academy Chicago Publishers)

Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count by Steve Freeman, Joel Bleifuss  ($15.95 paperback Seven Stories Press)

Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld, Harvey Wasserman  ($40 paperback Columbus Alive)

Election 2004: How Bush Won and What You Can Expect in the Future by Evan Thomas, Eleanor Clift, and the staff of Newsweek  ($14.00 paperback Public Affairs)

Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America by Andrew Gumbel  ($15.95 paperback Nation Books)

War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution by Peter Irons ($26  Metropolitan Books)

Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit by Laura Penny ($21.95 Crown)

Surrounded by Idiots: Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America by Mike Gallagher  ($24.95 William Morrow)

The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President by Edward Klein ($24.95 Sentinel)

The Pampered Chef: The Story of One of America's Most Beloved Companies by Doris Christopher ($24.95 Currency)

Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide by Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, and Jon Warshawsky ($22 Free Press)

Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers by Thomas Oliphant  ($24.95 Thomas Dunne Books)

Old Twentieth by Joe Haldeman ($24.95 Ace)

It's not often you will find a novel that includes a look at the 1918 influenza.

 The Death Of Free Speech: How Our Broken National Dialogue Has Killed The Truth And Divided America by John Ziegler  ($24.95  Cumberland House Publishing)

Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq by Larry Diamond  ($25 Times Books)

First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan by Gary Schroen ($25.95 Ballantine Books)

War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres ($23 Atlantic Monthly Press)

In Breaking the News, James Fallows wrote: "When anchormen travel to the site of a flood or bombing or hurricane, when correspondents do standups from the campaign trail or the White House lawn, they usually seem to be part of a spectacle, competing to hold our attention for a moment, rather than part of a process that would engage us in solving or even considering shared problems."  (P. 240)

Now, if the disk jockey will play Ladies Love Outlaws, we'll ride out of here for this week.  Until the next time, have a week that leaves no paper trail.

Copyright © 2005 – Robert Patterson

Email the author at worldslaziestjournalist@yahoo.com