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Archive for the ‘Political Books’ Category

For Your Political Junkie Gift List: Dumbocracy

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

I’ve been meaning to recommend Marty Beckerman’s Dumbocracy for a few months now. But little things like presidential elections and a very sick mother have distracted me.

Beckerman has a well-developed distaste for extremists, as you tell from Dumbocracy’s subtitle: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right and Other American Idiots. But he somehow managed to spend lots of time with a wide variety of political lunatics and has some very funny (and often obscene) things to say about his experiences.

This book isn’t for the prudish or the faint-hearted. (Hunter Thompson once described Beckerman as a “morbid little bastard.” And a couple of Dumbocracy passages did make me cringe.) Nonetheless, it’s a very entertaining, informative, and unusual political read.

Unfair Censorship Of Plame’s Fair Game

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

The defendants in Valerie Plame Wilson’s lawsuit against the CIA for censoring her book, Fair Game, had better hope she never gets to trial.  I say that because I’ve heard her interviewed several times, and that woman will make one hell of a witness.

Moreover, asserting national security, in order to censor material that’s already in the public domain, sure sounds like revenge censorship to me.

And that brings me to my latest haiku:

Plame’s book censored by
Bush blackguards, who black out truths
Already revealed.

(You can find my Traitorgate song parody about Valerie Plame’s outing here.) [tags]Valerie Plame Wilson, Outing CIA Agent, Fair Game, Plame Censorship, Plame Lawsuit[/tags]

Fox on Bush

Monday, September 17th, 2007

In his new book, Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of a Mexican President, former Mexican President Vicente Fox had this to say about George W. Bush:

The cockiest guy I have ever met in my life.

I’m guessing he’s seen Bush in his “Mission Accomplished” gear. [tags]Mission Accomplished Humor, Vicente Fox, Mexico President, Political Memoirs, Cocky Bush, Revolution Of Hope[/tags]

Curb Your “Age Of Turbulence” Enthusiasm

Sunday, September 16th, 2007

Poor little innocent Alan Greenspan is shocked, SHOCKED, I TELL YOU, by the Bush administration’s budget deficits and loss of fiscal discipline. What a shame that the brilliant Greenspan was never in a position to do something it about it and maybe even prevent it.

Oh … wait. Never mind!

So are you planning to run out and buy Greenspan’s self-serving, history-rewriting The Age of Turbulence? There’s really no need to, because I’ve summed up the former Federal Reserve Chairman’s new book in a single haiku:

Curb Your Age Of Turbulence Enthusiasm
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Panning fiscal acts
He once endorsed, Greenspan feigns
Bystander status. [tags]Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman, Political Memoirs, Fiscal Discipline, Bush Administration, The Age Of Turbulence, Budget Deficits, Self-serving Memoir, Innocent Bystander, U.S. Budget Humor[/tags]  

Political Humor Anthology News

Monday, March 19th, 2007

Here’s some pretty cool news news! I’ve just sold two limericks and one haiku to the upcoming political humor anthology, Jest Patriotic (Let There Be Laughter Series): Hack This Limerick; Running From Mistakes; and Torture Bill Haiku.

So, who says crime … uh, I mean poetry … doesn’t pay?

The political humor anthology’s due out in May, but their money humor anthology Cash In On Laughter is already out. And I’m pleased to say that two of my money humor columns appear in that anthology, as well.

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And now some links, for your reading (and viewing) pleasure:
* Fox Presents: Are You Smarter Than Alberto Gonzales?
* Carnival of the Liberals
* Attorneygate Week Two
* Peter Pace To Star In Mastercard Ads (Don Davis)
* Ooh– Secret Inside Information
* The Talking Dog interviews Civil Rights lawyer H. Candace Gorman, who represents two North Africans detained at Guantanamo. [tags]Humor Anthologies, Money Humor Anthology, Political Humor Anthology[/tags]