
On Sunday, September 3, we’re proud to welcome John Dean to the FDL Book Salon. He’ll be discussing his book, Conservatives Without Conscience, and answering questions in the comments section starting at 2pm PDT/5pm EDT. Dean has played an extraordinarily important role in critiquing the moral decline of the modern conservative movement, and about the book Glenn Greenwald had this to say:
With 2 1/2 years still left for this administration, the true radicalism of the administration and its followers has become unavoidably, depressingly clear, and it is equally clear that this movement has not reached anywhere near the peak of its extremism. Dean’s central thesis explains why that is so.
Dean contends, and amply documents, that the "conservative" movement has become, at its core, an authoritarian movement composed of those with a psychological and emotional need to follow a strong authority figure which provides them a sense of moral clarity and a feeling of individual power, the absence of which creates fear and insecurity in the individuals who crave it. By definition, its followers’ devotion to authority and the movement’s own power is supreme, thereby overriding the consciences of its individual members and removing any intellectual and moral limits on what will be justified in defense of their movement.
Glenn will also be hosting the first week of the Book Salon discussion on Sunday, August 27. Please mark your calendars and join us, it’s a remarkable opportunity to chat with two lively and influential voices who don’t mince words and I know you won’t want to miss it. I for one will have my party shoes on.



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fitz
Dean!
Strange happenings, that we would one day view John Dean as a hero.
But there you are.
JOHN DEAN!!!
Comic relief: check out the high quality of Republican candidates in Wisconsin. It’s funny except that one of these jokers could end up being Attorney General.
I loved this book.
I’m gonna read it again on my long plane ride to Germany.
OT Your daily gas prices
Average price for regular gasoline 8/11/06 in 50 states and DC
$3.00 plus 31 states
$2.90 plus 19 states
$2.80 plus 1 state
Average national price: $3.032, down $.004
Highest recorded national average price: $3.057 9/5/2005
Highest average price: Hawaii $3.363
Lowest average price: South Carolina $2.862
Nymex Crude Future $74.35, up $.35
Dated Brent Spot $75.80, down $.06
WTI Cushing Spot $74.35, up $.35
More states with $3.00 plus gas while the overall average is marginally lower. Lebanon, the BP incident, and the UK terrorist plot have, at least for the moment passed through the system and oil is about where it was before all these things happened, which is to say expensive.
HSAT #6,
Just out of curiosity, are books still allowed on airplanes and is there a list of forbidden objects?
Jane -
Thank you very much for announcing this very pleasant surprise. :)
Greg @
4
Oh shit that’s hilarious!
John Dean *and* Glenn Greenwald? Nice. Can’t wait to be here and show some love. Although, dang, I might be afraid to say anything at all. That’s a pair of very, very bright men.
Hugh @ 8
With this administration – I’d say more likely just a list of forbidden books.
TRex @ 11
This from a guy recently in a major U.S. paper.
TRex, if you can hang with the Wall Street Journal online, you can hang with John Dean at Firedoglake.
Way to go, FDL!
Way to go Jane!!!!!
TRex, you just think they’re cute. And smart. How is that not attractive, now that you mention it.
Time to get me that book…
btw, there’s a nice interview with Dean over at Buzzflash; it illustrates pretty well his thesis about authoritarian personalities and modern neo-cons and theo-cons: BuzzFlash Interviews: John Dean
Hope that link is accurate.
1,237 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
I hope folks use the opportunity that havin John Dean in the house offers to explore the genetic link to fascism in our political helix. I have listened to and watched with interest Dean’s efforts to analyze and understand the evolution of the “conservative movement” and, I think he has provided useful insight into the rise of contemporary American fascism since 1964. However, I am gunna ask ‘im about the “blind spot” he has in his developing understanding…that is, the lack of acknowledgment of the direct links to fascism from the early 1930’s straight to Richard Nixon.
I hope the very astute folks here at FDL will use the opportunity to channel thru Dean to the Nazi roots of Henry Ford, IBM and the America First crowd which are alive and flourishin’ in the White House as we speak.
The terrible power of historical irony is playin out in our country and Israel and we better figure it out by November…”Never Again” should be a rallying cry of a national anti-fascist movement beginning today and carrying into war crimes and treason trials in 2007.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THIS BATTLE HAS JUST BEGUN!!
Wow. Jane, you totally rock. Thank you for this fabulous opportunity. This totally blows away any bookclub I’ve ever joined.
Sorry for OT, but Cal Thomas has today published a column (syndicated nationwide) that calls Lamont’s win a win for the “Taliban Democrates.”
Link Here: http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/cthomas.htm
Jane, where are Lamont or his people to be able to hit back on this, fast and hard?
Just now, on CNN, John Roberts asked if Lamont was “the Al Qaeda candidate.”
We’re being swiftboated, people, and this screaming colicky baby slime machine needs to be strangled in the bathtub. NOW.
(Yes, I’ve officially mixed several metaphors there. Knock me over with a feather.)
Seriously: Ned, where are you?
Yes! Looking forward to this.
I bought the book and book-CD. This is one of the best books I’ve read in 10 years. Immaculate research and fun to read. One of my favorite bits was how the research showed that an authoritarian liberal is all but non-existent.
Penman @20 – Chuck Roberts, I believe.
And you guys, if you haven’t done it yet, it would be nice to send a note to Matt Phillips to thank him for portraying bloggers in a fair and generous way.
washwire@wsj.com
I want his first experience with bloggers to be an overwhelmingly positive one, so you guys know what to do. I mean, read his first sentences again:
They’re part pundit, part power broker. They’re zealous volunteers and journalists — sometimes at the same time. They’re bloggers, a key contingent who have helped push Ned Lamont’s primary bid.
That’s pretty sweet, especially when you consider that if most other MSM reporters had written it, it would have gone:
They’re part wombat, part poisonous snake. They’re rabid zealots and armchair quarterbacks – sometimes all at once. They’re bloggers, and they pose the deepest threat to Our Way of Life that exists today.
Yes, thank you, Matt Phillips. We owe you one.
Sorry, CHUCK Roberts. He, formerly of CBS, of the unmussable hair.
Penman, just send these assholes a link to henryrollins.ifc.com and tell them to click on “teeing off”. Those are my sentiments (except I would’ve used more cuss words) to a tee.
Wow.
Penman — This isn’t an attack on Ned.
It’s an attack on democracy, and that’s where WE are required to step up and defend it.
Anyone who finds fault with Ned Lamont’s candidacy for Senate is undemocratic.
And we should be vociferously complaining with LTE’s and online posts at any outlet carrying either against such attacks on our democracy.
Ditto for Bobo Brooks; David Sirota did a fine job in Huffpo on him, but we need to get his back.
This is WONDERFUL book. I have listened to it twice — I can’t recommend it enough — I encourage everyone to read it.
Thanks, Jane — Dean’s work provides many answers to questions posed here at FDL and I have wished FDLers would read it.
I wish Cal Thomas et al put as much effort into critiquing the current Administration as they do into thinking up new names to call those of us who don’t agree with them.
NorskeFlamethrower…4:39pm
You might also want to bring up to John Dean the monetary ties the Bush family had to the Nazis prior to, and during WWII. There exists a lot of info. re: the Bush family connections with the Nazis.
NewsHour
Shields: UK terrorist plot helps Bush short term
Brooks: Overpolitical, Republicans arc of Islamofascism, Democrats concentrate on Iraq
Shields: Are we safer? Doesn’t answer his own question. (Ouch!) 911 commission recommendations not implemented but talks just that Bush has spent his political capital in Iraq. (Huh?)
Brooks: No one has an answer (this of course lets the Republicans who have been in power for the last 6 years off the hook)
Shields: Lieberman 911/Iraq/Lamont statement: desperate words of a desperate man
Brooks: (I knew he would say this!) I thought Lieberman would lose by more. Lamont is the hallmark of the “peace” movement which equals Democrats
Shields: Democrats hate the war in Iraq and politicians scurrying to catch up, Lamont’s victory not due to blogs (well thanks)
Brooks: “that” (i.e. peacenik) part of the party shows further polarization of the parties, hard to be in the center like Lieberman (as if)
Brooks: Lieberman has a good shot in November, 80% of those who voted for him would vote for him again (Let’s massage those numbers and hope nobody’s watching)
Shields: Democratic machine in Connecticut now with Lamont.
Both: Republican candidate in Connecticut is a joke
eg? are you still here?
backthread – JftB @ 3:49 pm. Couldn’t agree with you more. Great comment.
Yep, of course it’s an attack on Democrats generally. I get that.
Guys, if CNN is asking if Lamont is “the Al-Qaeda candidate,” it’s a little lame to respond with a Huffposting, smart and spot-on as Sirota is. Sorry to belabor THIS metaphor, but that’s bringing a knife to a gun fight.
We need the megaphones–right now Lamont, perennially Reid, Clinton, Feingold, whomever–to speak out and shut this down.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this smear just doesn’t stick anymore.
But I’d hate to find out the hard way that it does…(c.f. John Kerry, 2004)
Breaking news from MSNBC: U.N. Security Council approves Mideast cease-fire resolution
Eric Alterman gets letters — Slacker Friday
Leo Strauss was undoubtedly a very learned and intelligent man, but as an innovative philosopher, he was essentially a one-trick pony. He unreflectively applied a Heideggerian hermeneutical style to a variety of interesting topics that he often oversimplified as false opposites–Reason vs. Revelation, Ancient vs. Modern, Jerusalem vs. Athens, etc. Taken as a whole, it is unclear if his studies amount to a definitive coherent position, and he himself was reportedly modest about his achievements. But his elliptical treatment of seemingly provocative issues has made it easy for today’s anti-Liberals to cherry-pick from them alleged principles, e. g. Moral Certitude, to suit their own political agenda. The ironic result is a form of Nihilism, seen plainly in the absence of a clear rationale for the Iraq invasion, that Strauss’s own anti-Nihilist writings might not even recognize.
[A letter responding to this]
From Thursday’s Altercation Book Club:
“What is a Straussian?” from Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism by Steven B. Smith.
[snip]
The first point I would make about Straussianism is that it is not all of a single piece. There is rather a set of common problems or questions that characterize Strauss’s work: for example, the difference between ancients and moderns, the quarrel between philosophy and poetry, and of course the tension between reason and revelation. None of these problems can be said to have a priority over the others nor do they cohere in anything as crude as a system. Whatever may be alleged, there is hardly a single thread that runs throughout these different interests. Strauss did not bequeath a system, doctrine, or an “ism,” despite what may be attributed to him. Rather, he presented a distinctive way of asking questions or posing problems that may have been loosely related but that scarcely derived from a single Archimedean point of view. It is questions that motivate all of Strauss’s writings—questions like “Is reason or revelation the ultimate guide to life?” “Has the quarrel between the ancients and the moderns been decided in favor of modernity?” and “Are the philosophers or the poets better educators of civic life?” The point of Strauss’s questions is less to provide answers than to make us aware of certain alternatives. In the age-old debate, he was probably more a fox than a hedgehog.
[snip]
For more, go here.
From the manual for jouranlistic standards for main stream media, filed under fair and objective
“Ah Mr. Lamont I see you’re sober now, so can you tell me if you have stopped beating your wife and kids.”
Not having read any of Dean’s earlier books, I was impressed with his objective and academic delivery in this book. It’s timely and it’s very important. So glad you’re having him on and I hope I am able to participate that day. Thank you.
Hugh @ 8
Actually Hugh, Dr.Turtle called and started telling me all the things not to bring. I told him it was too late–I had already boiled all of my clothes down into a gelantinous state and funneled them into smoothie containers.
Alas.
Stephen Parrish, CPA @
35
As Kofi Annan said in so many words : ‘Bout damn time !
HSAT #38,
Happens every time, doesn’t it? LOL
Hi, my name is RBG, and I’m a Deanaholic.
Well done, Jane. Both the book and its author are a great addition to the Book Salon roster.
Let’s see, we’ve been called Taliban Democrats, Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge Democrats (hello, John Gibson, and how’s that war on Christmas going?) and Al Quaeda Democrats. It’s wingnut rhetoric, and we should be used to it by now. And we’re not the intended audience. The audience is the hardcore Republican base. Rover is afraid the base won’t turn out in the fall. His problem is that 60% of the country is opposed to the war, and this sort of rhetoric will just make us angrier. In a base election, it’s all about turnout. Ned won because irate moderates who have had enough turned out to vote in record numbers. Keep it up, wingnuts, we need them to stay mad so they’ll vote in November.
“Hi RBG..welcome”
Penman @ 34
I just read the Sirota piece and it was spot on. I see that as a starting point and the candidates need to jump from there. It’s sad that so many MSM talking heads can get away with just regurgitating this crap. David Brooks and his ilk are shaking in their boots because there is a tide of change on the horizon. They’re realizing that they’re becoming less mainstream and that’ll hit them in the pocketbooks eventually. But until that time comes, progressive candidates need to keep pushing and can’t back down for one second.
My favorite is “Pajamahadeem”
The Cal Thomas article is just gross. In which other publications is that man syndicated? I’ve always struggled with just how exactly to hit back “hard and fast” against such trash. Taliban Democrats? Do you even dignify that with a response? Rayne at 27, I like what you said, and yet Penman at 34 – exactly my feelings and frustration! Whaddayado? I’m so tired of these jerks who care not a whit for democracy, let alone professionalism, and somehow get the big megaphone.
Hugh – certain titles may put you on a special watch list.
Read a story a few months back. In Australia, a man was reading a book that another passenger was offended by the title. After landing the man was detained for several days by authorities. It was a S. King novel or some such, he purchased it in an airport bookstore before departure.
While it certainly is good that a cease fire may begin in Lebanon, unless the underlying causes for the strife are dealt with, it will be a short-lived cease fire. The Iraq and Lebanon mess has drained what little credibility the U.S. had on the Arab street. And for that matter, in a lot of the rest of the world. America needs to be a lot more even handed in dealing with the Middle East.
Oh my goodness…. I should have stayed on vacation. This is getting very very weird. That hideous lying fraudulant LOSER, Lieberman, is trying to push some bogus unity movement. He got Bob Kerrey to work with him on some kind of Bushlite Social Security plan. Look at this. His Unity movement needs to be crushed. Look at this statment by Lieberman (with my editorial comments):
I’ve led the Senate on issues like national security the creation of the 9/11 commission; efforts to stop global warming; protect social security
[OK, stop right there, that is a damn bald face lie. Lieberman played footsie with Bush on a scam to steal the trust fund and destroy social security. Can Lieberman be so stupid as to believe that junk he said. I cannot believe it.]
and find cures for diseases like cancer and diabetes.
And I’m staying because I want to help end the war in Iraq in a way that brings stability to the Mid-East and doesn’t leave us even more vulnerable.
[That is insane. I was away, but from what I have read, Lieberman never uttered one coherent sentence defending his position on Iraq. I did not read or hear one thing from him justifying his fantasies over the last year. I don’t give a rat’s ass how he voted on the Iraq war resolution. I do care that this guy has remained completely deluded over three long years of disaster. Lieberman has gone over to Bush think 100%. No evidence. No argument. No plan. Just the assertion of a plan. Every shred of evidence we have is that staying the course as we have done so far makes things worse. The fact is, it is not a matter of withdrawal, or time table, or goals or anything. Lieberman has gone over to the Bush position that we have to go along with whatever BushCo wants to do, no matter what, or we are with the terrorists.]
So much needs to be done, but so little is actually getting done in Washington because our politics have become so partisan and polarized.
[Can Lieberman give any details about exactly WHERE this partisanship and polarization has come from? Lieberman essentially said that anyone who was against continuing the Bush non-policy on Iraq was helping the terrorists yesterday. OK, is that polarizing partisanshipm, or not?]
The forces of sense have the chance to attack this garbage now, and they need to take advantage of it. Lieberman is a Bushite now. Needs to be attacked mercilessly now. I cannot believe that I ever thought it would be better to put up with this nasty Lieberman person for the sake of winning a majority in the Senate. Forgive me for being late to realize. Glad I threw some bucks Lamont’s way.
One, thing, need to crush this Lamont as wild lefty, hippie Vietnam wildman stuff right now. I hope the beltway bums back people like Webb and Tester to counter this.
full test of this nonsense is here:
http://hotlineblog.nationaljou…..rmans.html
Need to crush Lieberman’s Unity fraud. Since it is exactly the same thing as BushCo, it will get two very dangerous birds with one stone.
Wow! I just received my copy of this book! I know what I’ll be doing tonight and tomorrow. I’m delighted that Mr. Dean and Mr. Greenwald will be here.
Jane -
Kevin Phillips is on my FDL Book Salon wish list.
Actually Hugh, Dr.Turtle called and started telling me all the things not to bring. I told him it was too late-I had already boiled all of my clothes down into a gelantinous state and funneled them into smoothie containers.
Alas.
Well, Hopie, a little bird tells me that as far as good Doc Turtle’s concerned, your wardrobe will be immaterial (possibly even superfluous).
HAWT DAWGIES! John Dean’s comin’ a-see us! Jane Hamsher, you are a wizard. My Amazon pkg arrived on Monday, and you’ll understand why I actually haven’t opened it yet. Okay, time to bust into it and get started on the read!
Congratulations on getting John Dean. That will be a great book club.
considering Cal Thomas comes from the ChristoFascist wing of the GOP, it’s awfully ironic that he would have the temerity to accuse Democrats of Taliban-anything … Cal would quite approve of the Taliban morality if only they were washed in the blood of the lamb…
Text circulating today of the UN Resolution:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenew…..173073.htm
HopeSpringsATurtle @ 46
me too me too
Jane, this really is a salon. I’ve wanted to join one for years. I’m reading Dean’s book now. It’s a valuable insight into what we’re up against and it’s very well done. Thanks.
Sharkbabe: Rented V last night (all the purchase-able copies are gone). It’s more powerful on the big screen than on my little 17″ TeeBee, but plenty powerful still. I don’t care what anyone says, this cautionary tale is aimed directly at us. Yeah, sure, it’s set in Europe and its political symbolism is pure England but two rather throw-away lines, one at the beginning, one near the end, lay the blame for their predicament on the US Civil War, which in the story raged for more than 20 years.
Living among the choir as we do, we’re steeped in the muck and misdeeds of these adolescent’s putsch. We can connect the stories and people and money and make a good guess as to where they’re headed. Not everyone can. Most non-junkies scoff at the notion there could be any kind of coup, but we know an invisible one has already taken place and John Dean is telling us, forcefully and with footnotes, what we already know in our guts: this is just the beginning if these guys aren’t stopped and exposed in a way that’s meaningful to the majority of Americans.
We see everything through a political filter, which is as it should be IMHO. We can see far too clearly where America’s current path might lead . It’s a faint path, fer shur – no real traffic on it in generations – but it’s visible, as are the other potential paths ahead. I see our role – the people, as in we, the – as the reins that steer the wagon toward a different path than the dangerous one we’re on.
How are we unAmerican?! How does Ned become Al-Qaeda?!
I’m so frustrated. I really need this vacation.
Well, I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here. I think the Main Sewerline Media’s hysterical outbursts and name calling of us is a wonderful thing. They, like their Repug paymasters are all FREAKIN DESPERATE! Their desperation was palpable on Wednesday after the Lamont win. Today they are overwhelmingly shrill and hysterical.
Why is this good for us? Well for one, it shows how successful we have been. All of the polls are trending Democrat, even the freakin FOX poll. Regular folks are not taking the MSM seriously anymore. The more shrill and hysterical they are about Lamont, the more it wakes people up about their other lies. The more Repugs jump on the Lieberman Train o’Doom, the more it shows how far to the right Joe is, and how beholden to lobbyists and corporations they all are.
We knew going into this that there would be an ugly backlash against our efforts. We were more successful than even the hopeful among us dared imagine. And the backlash is proof of that. So don’t worry…celebrate! Then get back to work, and kick the msm in the nads some more :)
Oh, and heya TRex!
BarbaraB @ 43
I think they’ve made a big mistake.
With the anti-incumbent mood, promising a Pol in every Pot just might win us BOTH Houses.
With the anti-incumbent mood, promising a Pol in every Pot just might win us BOTH Houses.
Ding ding ding ding
And it just occurd to me that Lieberman is dang well a dangerous provocateur who is at this very moment, reviving a wicked political cycle, helping to get some very bad political history to repeat itself. Lieberman was the first Democrat to give BushCo’s social security fraud Democratic cover. Well, Norquist recently said social security destruction was a loser because Democrats could not be bribed, threatened for bought to go along with wrecking it. And George Soros reminded us right here that Lieberman was the key Democrat to block a sensible Iraq resolution that might have prevented the disaster.
So, now look, Lieberman has stepped into the breach for Bushco again, on both the social security BushCo scam and Iraq and war or terror. The Democratic party has rejected him, so now he is apparently going to try to drag the more gullible DLC fools along with him. It may be a good thing, if non-reactionary forces can get a chance to explain to public how awful these people are. Face it, some of the DLC and BushCo are basically the same. Good chance to explain what bad influences these people are successfully with both social security and Iraq.
Lieberman is like a dang zombie. Politically dead, but walking the earth, mindless, sucking the brains out of weak stragglers like Kerrey.
wesgps’s – Welcome back. Hope you had a nice vacation.
I really think Joe is still in the “I believe in WMD’s” camp. Wish some reporter would ask him. I just watched the end of Newshour with Shields and Brooks. Shields spent his energy defending and brushing off Joe. This has to end, he is a parasite on a party that he no longer is a member of.
Mommybrain @ 58
spot on – and the reason to fight
I think that the only way to counter them is to mock the living shit out of them, pour on the sarcasm and snark until they are drowning in it. This will only drive them so say more and more repulsive things and further expose them as the morally and intellectually bankrupt cowards they are. Make the projection so obvious that a blind man can see it.
“Khan, I’m laughing at the ’superior’ intellect…”
I wonder if Zell Miller will be cutting any spots for Lieberman?
I missed the part where the Republican Party had elected, Congressional centrists.
Which of the Republican members of Congress, especially Senators, will we find standing with Bruce Fein or Kevin Phillips, much less extending a hug to hilary?
I cannot believe some of the stuff that’s going on. Liberman’s campaign turned into the purest Rovian circus imaginable, except it lacked the competence. What really amazes me is the complete emptiness of his positions. I don’t see one substantive argument he made on anything. Not one.
I hope the non-reactionary blogosphere really starts making some noise. Polite rational, big-tent, easy to understand noise, but very loud noise on how empty, incompetent and fraudulant LieberBush is.
wesgpc – and he’s getting input from Rove.
Mommybrain – did that landed eagle ever hatch an egg? *g*
Mary’s cropping up reminds me of imm and lhp. Okay, I know what imm’s been up to/against this week, but what about lhp?
I’ve got a few threads to catch up on, but have we heard from either imm or lhp today? Did lhp have another trial this week er sumpin’?
Jonesin’ for news of Baby Mittens . . .
OT – Great timing Georgie. Bush tries to grab funds from explosive detection research… Tell me again, who makes you feel safer?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200….._detection
#63: yes, that would be great. It would be interesting the find out if their is any earthly reason why Lieberman would believe such insane stuff as he has been saying about Iraq.
I don’t recall anything from lhp today.
I’ve loved John Dean since the Watergate hearings. Guy had GUTS. His stuff on Findlaw during the Bush Nightmare has been just outstanding.
And yes let’s strangle this Ned swiftboating NOW. I can understand Ned not wanting to even dignify this shit with a response – and a “response” per se would be a mistake. The Rove machine pulls a media switchblade, we respond with a media glock. It’s the only way. ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK.
I think someone just needs to be very reassuring with them when they are so worried.
Whisper something like: Don’t worry – Cheney says the American insurgency is in its death throes. You know you guys can count on HIM to get it right.
*ilson46201 @ 66
I certainly hope so.
new thread: “Where are the Grown-Ups”
I don’t recall anything from lhp today.
Or for the last several either, right, John? Maybe it’s her computer probs (in which case, she’s probably at least as frustrated as we are [*g*] over the sitch).
Maybe Bush could go to Connecticut and give Joe a neck rub. Having seen that picture earlier today, a Cheney neck rub might just be too dangerous.
Mary for now @ 75
Don’t we love Mary’s e.v.i.l. m.i.n.d., my people?
I agree with post #18; if you ever wondered how the German’s got to run the trains on time and how they managed to do just in-time processing of Jews at the gas chambers: read “IBM And The Holocaust”. A small hint: Tom Watson,(CEO of IBM)received the second highest Nazi award for the effort.
I’m really glad FDL is welcoming John Dean. Mr. Dean is a true American hero. I love this book. He’s doing great great work on behalf of all Americans. It all started with Nixon.
No time to sit on our hands. Nice job again Jane.
Mommybrain, I just got V from netflix but it first came to my cop ex’s house, I told her to watch it. She is much more conservative/conventional than I, and V does knife a cop or two, so I wasn’t sure what would be her reaction. Anyway she called me to gush about it – never such a movie response from her. Freakin loved it. You’re right, that movie is about us and destroying Cheney fascism, period. Despite its flaws, its spirit is so unique and compelling, I can’t get enough of it.
Mary for now @ 69
(climbing up mountain, peeking into giant nest) Nope, just a robonote Monday thanking me for my message and telling me how important I am to them. I feel appreciated but still uninformed. *g*
Sharkbabe @83 Amen, babe.
wesgpc’s votinglinks @ 71
Why would any neocon? A few have decided they were wrong, but mostly it’s like any religion. The reality of the Middle East is to neocons as fossils are to creationists. For True Believers, it’s just a test of faith. They actually think Bush is too moderate because he hasn’t turned Iran into a glass parking lot. Yet. These are very scary dudes, and IMHO they are all batsh*t crazy.
C&L has the clip of Dean with O’Reilly tonight. O’Reilly uses non-sequiturs which Dean patiently corrects to help Bill-O keep his eye on the ball. Bill-O just doesn’t get it.
So many great books to read. Jane just put John Dean’s latest at the top of my list to get as much digested as possible before Sunday. John Dean has become one of my favorites because he demonstrates that he really understands what has happened in right wing politics in our country whether it be in Worse than Watergate or in his understanding of Conservatives Without Conscience.
Dean? Greenwald? That’s a tremendous Sunday lineup. Christy & Jane once again create unique opportunities for communicating, Thank you so much!
Glen Greenwald’s Review:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..-a-review/
On Countdown with KO:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..onscience/
On TDS with Joh Stewart:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..ly-show-2/
On BilLIE O’Really(?)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..t-at-hand/
Hope I helped. Good luck John. Tough road.
Sharkbabe @
74
Does he ever!
Without Dean, Watergate might have been another whitewash.
He inspired a whole generation of whistleblowers and never should have done time.
The character studies he does in Conservatives Without Conscience are… well I hope he has good security.
Wow, man, John Dean. Excellent column on findlaw.com, devoted mainly to issues of national security and secrecy, with a special emphasis on the Bush administration’s penchant for the latter by asserting reasons based on the former. Dean obviously is the only one of the Watergate criminals who actually learned the lessons of Watergate. Colson and Liddy clearly didn’t.
The first Dean book I read was “Worse then Watergate.” Finally I finally read “Blind Ambition,” which brought back memories of me as a 6-year-old watching my parents watch Watergate on TV every day. I actually kind of remember Dean testifying on TV. I like Hunter Thompson’s line about his “vengeful” testimony and projecting “the authority of an IRS agent.” It’s all true. Dean was fighting for his life, against both the criminal authorities and Nixon.
Anyway, John Dean is an American patriot and, although he is a Goldwater Republican, I, as a liberal Democrat, would be happy to buy him a drink.
I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on, or what side you’re attacking…A rat is a rat is a rat. John Dean, 32 years later, you’re still a rat!
Jokercub @
93
‘We’d like to thank Chuck Colson for stopping by FDL on his way to church tonight’
;>)
I’m looking forward to this. I bought the book the first day. I’m only half way through it (actually, I put it down and haven’t got around to finishing it yet, but now I have a reason to.)
I do have to say, though, that I am troubled by the main premise of the book, which seems to say (perhaps I am oversimplifying) that the conservative movement, as it is now structured, exists to cater to the personality weakness of authoritarian follower/leader types. I have a number of reasons for not finding this a useful critique, but I’ll save it for now.
Howard Dean is the bravest, gentlest, warmest, most wonderful person I ever hope to vote for!