Thunder From The Left...

[wyldwolf]

...conservative writers are not the muckrakers of the early 1900s, so many Ida Tarbells going after the oil trusts. No, they are mudslingers, chiefly partisan ideologues who do a type of reverse PR: instead of puffing up individuals (the Clintons), or groups (liberals), they try to incinerate their targets. Such books are talk radio and cable TV yell-fests brought to the page.

... But Joe Conason is straight out of the liberal muckraker tradition, a journalist (not a radio personality, a filmmaker, an actor, etc.) who sets out to expose corruption in big business and government. And unlike Moore and Franken, Conason doesn't heap on humor and exaggeration to make his points. He deplores the "spiteful, malignant discourse that became so common during the Clinton era..."

Nonetheless, Big Lies is being marketed as a corrective to all the successful right-wing attack books of the last few years. It is that, but it also is a rigorous and devastating portrait of the last three Republican administrations and the "crony capitalism" they have supported and encouraged.

... Though Conason thoroughly rakes over Enron and the Bushes' dealings with Ken Lay, he also describes earlier, relevant examples. Conason quotes David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, as describing Reagan's broad tax cuts as a "Trojan horse" to reduce the top income tax rate paid by the wealthiest families. "Working families saw their tax burden continue to rise, while the rich enjoyed tax breaks on capital gains, personal investments, estates, depreciation, and profits. Under Reagan's plan, a family earning $30,000 a year would suffer a slight increase in taxes, while a family with an annual income of $200,000 would enjoy a cut of 10 percent. There were even some special tax breaks for the owners of oil leases." Sound familiar?

The chapter on the Republicans' "family values" reads as if it was torn from the pages of the '50s-era expose of sin and sinners in the nation's capital...

more...

http://www.suntimes.com/output/books/sho-sunday-conason17.html

[chiburb]

1. You beat me to it..

VERY positive review, especially for a Hollinger-owned paper.

[StClone]

2. Just bought it!

On page 16 already.

Selective distillation of the methods of war the elites have wrought on their lessers for control of wealth and power via well-funded Republican and conservative propaganda. Well-written, toxic subject!