Vision Quest

The race is not always to the swiftboaters.Title: “How the Left Swiftboated America: The Liberal Media Conspiracy to Make You Think George Bush Was the Worst President in History”

Author: John Gibson

Rank: 533

Blurb: “The swiftboating of George W. Bush began in 2000 and continued throughout his presidency, involving his response to 9/11, the Iraq War, warrantless wiretapping, enhanced interrogation techniques, the Surge, uranium from Niger, the number of deaths in Iraq, the federal response to Katrina, and much, much more.”

Review: “I don’t recall ANY liberal media in America in my lifetime.”

Customers Also Bought: “Architects of Ruin: How big government liberals wrecked the global economy — and how they will do it again if no one stops them,” “The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is the Obsession with ‘Climate Change’ Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History?,” “Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them,” and other books whose publishers pay authors by the pound for titles.

Footnote: As has been noted elsewhere, a wingnut book accusing the Left of “swiftboating” is rather rich.

How the Left Swiftboated America [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

18 Comments

I ghostwrite books for money – I’ve written more than 25 on dating and relationships alone. My deepest desire is to land one of these ghostwriting jobs. I’m not sure why. I don’t think I hate myself, but it’s the only reason I can think of.

Wait… does this mean John Gibson thinks that what the Swift Boat Veterans for truth did to Kerry was dishonest and wrong… or does he think that the American Left is revealing the truth about G.W. Bush?

My brain is about to explode.

Nice guy:

It is hard for me to review this book objectively, because I knew John Gibson personally 15 years ago. To say the least, it was not a positive experience for me or my family. Knowing what I know, it is the height of irony that John Gibson, a man who caused so much pain for me and my family one Christmas, would write a book defending Christmas.

In 1989, John Gibson worked as a weekend anchorman at the local television station (KCRA channel 3) that my mother worked at in Sacramento, and she would occasionally invite him to have dinner with us (her, my sister, and me). This happened mayber 5 or 6 times, and then when Christmas came, she invited him to have Christmas dinner with us. He arrived drunk.

I remember how he spent our Christmas dinner just railing and yelling about all the people at the TV station he hated, ranting and raving and hitting the table. We ate in silence, hoping he wouldn’t get even angrier. After dinner, he wanted to watch TV, and insisted that my 14-year-old sister sit right next to him. After about five minutes with his hands all over her, and hugging her, she managed to get away, and my mother suggested that he go home. He got angry and left, but not before smashing a serving plate made of china that our grandmother had left us. Thankfully, that was the last I saw of him in person.

I don’t know if he is the same man today that he was then, though I have heard through professional contacts that he still has an alcohol and temper problem. When I sometimes see him get upset on the air with a guest, I hear the same tone of voice, and the same look in his eye that I remember from that night. He certainly didn’t give us a very nice Christmas, and this book has brought back memories me and my sister would rather forget.

@blogenfreude: Ya know, FOX does seem to hire a lot of angry types. Could it be that they are popular precisely because virtually everyone has or knows of a drunk, grabby “Uncle Ernie” and the viewership finds itself thinking “well, at least he’s made something of himself”.

This Gibson dude is a total douchenoodle, repugnant on all levels.

@blogenfreude:
Aside from the touchy grabby stuff, he sounds like a couple of Cons I know at work.

Major league incongruity (I learned that psych term yesterday.) I’ll bet John’s internal vision of himself shits gold, pisses oil and is so handsome, his mere presence makes ladies wet which is not so shockingly the opposite of reality.

It seems to be an all too common pattern for wingnuts. Angry and drunk/on meds (legal or otherwise) go together. I think they’re angry that the world doesn’t recognize their supposed brilliance, etc and they hit the bottle/meds to drown out when their subconscious is telling the truth that they aren’t who they “think” they are.

Not to say that everyone who is angry is a RW wing nut. I find that the angry libs are angry because the world isn’t the way they think it should be (I fall under this category.)

@blogenfreude: There’s my excuse to drop some trivia I learned the other day…

The Inhofe line about global-warming being a Weather Channel conspiracy is familiar enough. But the Weather Channel founder agrees that global warming is the “greatest scam in history“. That’s been out there a couple years, but I wasn’t aware of it.

And who is the Weather Channel founder? Meet John Coleman. Has he retired on his jackpot, free to instruct the world about its scientific follies?

No. John Coleman is the weatherman for KUSI in Sandy Eggo. KUSI is unaffiliated — no major network, not even a minor one. It’s a good enough gig for a TV weatherman, but not exactly the next step up for “Weather Channel founder.”

(Update: The 75-year-old Coleman calls KUSI his “retirement job.” Fair enough.)

@RomeGirl: Wait, they hire ghost-writers for relationship books? Why on earth do they need a ghost-writer?

P.S. How do I sign up for this gig of ghost-writing?

@RomeGirl: @SanFranLefty: Yes, how does one sign up for a ghost writing gig?

Years ago I actually applied for a job as speechwriter for the president of a Prominent Northwest University, who later became president of a Prominent Midwest University, and then decided to throw off his mortal coil this year. Smart man that he was, he hired somebody else.

@nojo: Years ago I actually wrote a four paragraph speech for the Head Honcho of my organization. Some of it was in Spanish, she actually delivered all of it and…they gave credit to my fucking boss. Getting paid to have someone else claim credit would be okay, unpaid not so much.

I write for a living, its all law-related, advice and detailed how-to guides, and FAQs, trying to translate a vast amount of complicated regulations into common language and practical instructions to show how the rules apply in real-life situations.

Its hard.

I work in the divide between the lawyers and policy wonks who write the regulations, and the regular old people asked to abide by them in the real world. Sometimes the divide is a vast chasm, unbridgeable, there are laws and regulations out there that are simply stupid, dumb beyond belief, impossible to adhere to in the real world.

But the people I write for are asking me “what do I do in this situation.”

My biggest production, a vast, 6-volume set on regulatory compliance, printed in-house by my employer, sells for $695.00. If you enroll in the 3-day course in which I lecture on it and try to explain it all in 18 hours, its $1,195, but you get the books with that price.

I am trying to convince the employer to let me start a huge project, a comprehensive regulatory compliance program, tied in to the business financial, inventory, record-keeping, and human resources systems, so that it will provide regulatory compliance guarantees, in every conceivable situation.

Customer wants to buy this, wants to use this financing, customer information is entered, finance program info is entered, product information is entered.

The program I envision determines what regulations apply, produces a list of all required documents, populates the documents with all necessary info, prints out the forms the law requires be given to the customer in paper form. Privacy notice, loan app, permission to run credit form, if denied credit, the FCRA and ECOA notices are generated, Privacy Rule, Safeguards Rule, and Red Flags rule compliance is assured, necessary forms to document all this are generated. The seller’s required documentation is all retained only in electronic form, customers sign a tablet, their hard copy is generated, the business record is electronic, and all is tied to record retention so they are then deleted at the appropriate times, 25 months, 3 years, 7 years later. Title forms, MVC forms, all generated and populated and ready for signature are generated. Along with a deal checklist with a list of all required actions and forms, to be checked off to ensure compliance with all requirements has been achieved.

Any of you guys know anyone who could write something like this?

I talk about how I hate my job, its dumb and boring, but thats because I have low self-esteem, and assume that if I can do it, it must be worthless shit.

In the end, doing this makes me feel useful, in a small way, and it makes me feel I earn my pay.

But it does nothing for my self-esteem, as you can see. The way I see it, I am a person whose work has value because of artificial rules, badly written, all part of a fucked up system, and in a perfect world, I should be completely unnecessary.

But when, for only maybe a total of 30 days last summer, I spent a day making a kick-ass thai chicken salad, and a kick-ass salsa, and clam chowder, and tabouleh, and then, I would talk to people, ask someone who never ate tabbouleh before to taste it, and watch their face light up as they said “this is good,” and they started coming in every other day for it, that filled my sould with joy.

I think I could get that joy raising some specialized crop (herbs, something like that), making wine, or spirits, even specializing in one single bottled sauce, condiment, soup, and marketing that, anything like that would work.

@Promnight:
It’s the way we humans are. Our brains are wired to gain satisfaction by doing with our hands and by completion.

When I work as an engineer and when the project software is done for release, I am satisfied as well as feel content that I delivered what I was supposed to (that feeling lasts till my inbox is littered with bug reports.) I get really angry when I’m stuck doing paperwork that won’t end.

From what I understand, Engineers and doctors are those who have the highest job satisfaction among professionals. Even so, I know many engineers and doctors still NEED to have hobbies (including myself.)

Have you thought of doing a little catering on the side? I don’t know if that’s a good idea based on today’s economy. On the other hand, I’m sure that there is a niche among your coworkers and family friends. You’ve probably thought of it already. Just throwing ideas out there.

New Years is coming up.

@ManchuCandidate: What I think about is the Ark, forming a community, living a somewhat simplified life, but with all the amenities we expect, just shared, in a community of people. Yes, a fucking commune. Get a head start on the self-sufficiency and united effort that will be needed to survive in the cannibal anarchy world thats coming.

@Promnight: What? You dropped the storefront gourgasm gig?

FCS

@Promnight: The farmer who ran the CSA I was part of has decided to leave Orygun for Northern Cal. He is keeping his land for now, but put out the word that if anyone is interested, it is veggie crop and livestock ready. Also has a large cherry orchard. He kept chickens and goats, raised veggies and fruit. There is a house there, and a spring that provides water. Could make a good base for the commune. Freaking anything will grow here. You could keep a boat at the ocean, an hour away. A co-worker’s husband does that and fishes at weekend.

@Promnight: et al: Have you seen Note by Note? About the building of a Steinway concert grand. Intensely interesting even though they don’t show you everything you want to see – eg. the lacquering. What I found most moving about it was the way the men and women loved their work and found an intense satisfaction in doing it. It speaks to how much we’ve lost in the mechanized world in which we live.

@Mistress Cynica: I threaten each year to establish a big veg garden here. We’ve got the room, god knows. I’d love to have goats but only as companions for dogs. Our doctor raises chickens. I see them whenever I go there.

@SanFranLefty: @Jamie Sommers: They are ebooks, or as the industry calls them, digital information products. It’s a big, stinky kettle of fish, but it keeps me in cigs and Chanel perfume. I get the jobs through Elance.

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