New instant book ...Dean, Palast, Kristof, Benjamin, Billionaires for Bush

[madfloridian]

I am ordering one of these.

http://mhpbooks.com/wwdn.html

Here are the opening paragraphs from Dean's comments from a poster at Kos last week:
SNIP..."Americans are a people unique in the world for their optimism, their faith, their ability to hope, and their belief that they can control their own fates. We are a relatively young country, uncynical by international standards, and though we've often been labeled by others as naïve, our capacity for hope and faith and optimism has also made us a magnet for people seeking hope and faith and control over their lives from all over the globe.

It horrifies me to see this strength of ours being squandered. It saddens me immeasurably to see the American spirit bending under the load of nonsense that passes for politics. It frightens me, too. I truly believe that much of America's power in the world comes from the fact that for so long, we've been able to inspire dreams of a better future in people around the world. Our source of power has been not our ability to bomb whole cities into oblivion, but our ability to peacefully captivate people's hearts and minds. It seemed to me that if we were failing to generate this power at home, then there was no way we could continue to do so overseas. The result was that we were seriously at risk of becoming a weak, second-rate nation."

Others
Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, and Greg Palast on voting reform ...
· Lewis Lapham and Nicholas Kristof on how to re-organize the Democratic
Party ...
· Harper's Magazine publisher John R. MacArthur on supporting labor by
fighting free trade
· Tax attorney Maud Newton (famous, by the way, for her literary
website) on tax reform...
· Biologist Sandra Steingraber on renewing the fight for the
environment...
· Martha Nussbaum on improving international relations...
· Cass Sunstein and Jamin Raskin on court reform...
· Columbia history professor Eric Foner on keeping a historical
perspective ...
· Feminist Robin Morgan and Esther Kaplan on countering the rise of
fundamentalism in our schools and courts ...
· Danny Schechter and feminst Jennifer Pozner on media reform...
· Earl Ofari Hutchinson on winning back the black fundamentalist vote...
· Leslie Cagan, who organized the giant 500,000 person demonstration
during the RNC in August, and Medea Benjamin, who disrupted President Bush's
RNC speech, on what activists can do now...
· Fiction writers Percival Everett, George Saunders, and Steve Almond,
and poet Alicia Ostriker, on the cultural implications, and how to
respond...
· Billionaires for Bush on how really rich people can work to keep their
money...
· and more. . .

[madfloridian]

1. More on the enthusiasm from the writers:

SNIP..."The project is the result of a round-the-clock effort that saw Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Greg Palast, Lewis Lapham, Nicholas Kristof and others working through the Thanksgiving holiday to write a series of passionate manifestos outlining a variety of new ideas for life in a post-11/2 world. The result is a powerful collection that also features economists environmentalists, media critics, feminists, anti-war activists, novelists, poets and satirists writing about what to do in their key areas of expertise.

"Our feeling was someone had to do something immediately," explains publisher Dennis Loy Johnson, who edited the book along with co-publisher Valerie Merians. "The marvelous energy that had gone into the election was turning into despair, which was only making the rise of the right all the more emphatic."

The quality of the contributions is remarkable, adds Merians. "This is no normal 'insta-book,'" she says. "The essays are extremely well written and thought out. We've organized them into a coherent game plan. We've even got an appendix of contact info."

"The best part is the heat," says Johnson. "It's really inspiring stuff. People were whooping down the phone line when we called them with the idea. They dropped everything to write all night."

[OneBlueSky]

2. I know the list of topics is incomplete, but I didn't see any mention . .

of THE most crucial issue facing us today, the one that both supercedes and encompasses all others . . . and that is Ending Corporate Governance, or Restoring Citizen Authority Over Corporations (and the Government) . . . until we engage that issue, everything else is just mental masturbation, imo . . .

[madfloridian]

3. I heard it was in there.

I ordered one tonight, will share when it comes. I know they passionately address a lot of issues.

[madfloridian]

4. Kick in case anyone wants to purchase.

Cost $12.00 and $5 shipping. A lot but not available elsewhere that I can see.

This reason for the book caught my eye:

SNIP...""Our feeling was someone had to do something immediately," explains publisher Dennis Loy Johnson, who edited the book along with co-publisher Valerie Merians. "The marvelous energy that had gone into the election was turning into despair, which was only making the rise of the right all the more emphatic..."