Al Qaeda or Democrat?

Who said the following, an Al Qaeda jihadist or a Democrat?

A) Bush is a liar who "intentionally deceived" America.
B) Bush has brought the U.S. "international disgrace."

(Answers: A; B.)

More protestors target second "Minutemen" book signing

Here are some of the brains trust that protested Jim Gilchrist and Jerome R. Corsi's book signing for Minutemen yesterday at the Borders in Mission Viejo, CA. (Thanks to World Ahead's VP Norman Book for the photo.) They remind me of the motley crew that greeted us the prior evening in Thousand Oaks.

Budapest pays tribute to Reagan

Three cheers to the city of Budapest for honoring President Reagan with a bust in Budapest City Park. This quote by the mayor says it well:

“President Reagan wished to be a second Roosevelt, but we can credit him as a second Churchill,” Budapest Mayor Demszky said. “As the late British Premier Minister defended the Western democracies from the Nazi regime, Reagan defended the West from the Soviet empire and helped to liberate Central Europe.”

Sony debuts new e-book reader

At $350 it's overpriced, but the new Sony Reader launched on Tuesday looks pretty slick and the price will surely come down over time. Harper Lee was noticeably absent from the launch event.

Frankfurt shows cultural relativism knows no bounds

The Frankfurt Book Fair each fall is the industry's most prolific event for foreign rights deals. Evidently the folks at Ausstellungs-und Messe-GmbH (AuM) who run the Fair thought it would be fun to have Turkey be the nation granted the annual "guest of honor" status next year. While Turkey has been a steadfast U.S. ally and NATO member, its track record on free speech is poor. Would Frankfurt have given Turkey this honor if the charges against Orhan Pamuk weren't hastily dropped earlier this year?

PW agrees there may be life outside of NYC

On the heels of naming David Nudo as its new publisher, PW is launching a new section dedicated to covering developments in independent publishing. This is a positive move for a publication that has far too often ignored publishers outside of the Big Apple. But let's hope that it results in reviewing more books produced by indies and not just an excuse to profile the Akashic Books of the world...

Protestors swarm "Minutemen" book signing in Thousand Oaks

Protestors showed up in force last night at the Borders in Thousand Oaks, CA, to rally against authors Jim Gilchrist and Jerome R. Corsi signing copies of their new book, Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders. Chanting slogans like "No free speech for racists" and waving signs proclaiming that "No human is illegal," the protestors made a loud spectacle but failed to deter Borders from holding the event.

Jerome Corsi (seated left); Jim Gilchrist; Kate Schwab, Borders regional marketing manager; and me at a heavily protested book signing for the World Ahead book Minutemen in Thousand Oaks, CA.

The police were keeping a close eye on the assembled mob of several dozen screaming activists as my wife and I entered in through the front door. Inside the scene was tranquil and the authors were chatting with the many happy customers who came to pick up copies of their book. We had the pleasure of meeting John and Barbara March, the parents of Deputy David March, who showed unbelievable grace given the circumstances, even when one store patron called them "fascists." I proudly accepted a button with their son's picture from them, which I wore on my shirt as we later exited past the insult-hurling crowd outside.

All in all, Borders did a great job and showed a commitment to support free speech. I applaud them for organizing this event, and for pressing forward with events tonight in Mission Viejo and tomorrow in San Diego. Let's hope the protestors stay home and allow people interested in meeting the authors to attend in peace.

Gilchrist, Corsi book signings in L.A. and San Diego

WorldNetDaily has an article today about Jim Gilchrist and Jerome Corsi's book tour in southern California.

"Help Mom" author debates elections on Fox

Click on the image above to watch streaming video of Katharine DeBrecht, author of Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed, on Fox earlier today.

New publisher at PW -- same old agenda?

David Nudo is leaving his spot as the ad exec. at the NYT to take over as publisher for Publishers Weekly, where he "will have overall business and editorial responsibility for the magazine." Nudo clearly articulates the gatekeeper role PW sees itself playing in the publishing industry:

"We want to make sure that all booksellers look to PW as the authority about what is going on in the business and what books they should be selling and why."

If PW's vision is to be an objective information broker for all booksellers, then I would hope Nudo commits to greater editorial balance than this publication has shown in times past.

S&S anonymous hatchet-job on Coulter

For only the second time in its esteemed history, Simon & Schuster is keeping the identity of an author secret. The first time was for a teenage drug addict's diary published in 1971. This time it's for an opus by four authors titled I Hate Ann Coulter. The reason, according to Page Six:

"None of us want our real names in the hands of gun-toting, abortion clinic-bombing, self-proclaimed 'wing nuts,' who follow Coulter," one of the scribes tells us.

When his finger's pointing, you know he's lying...

Did Clinton lose his temper on purpose?

Bill Kristol writes that it's possible that Clinton's outburst against Chris Wallace was calculated. That is certainly possible, and Kristol makes some good points, but ultimately I have to disagree.

Clinton is a man who has difficulty controlling his passions. Having met both Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey, I can tell you that what they have to say about this man's behavior when he's not in front of a TV camera is simply amazing. Clinton can be just as reckless and thoughtless as he is Machiavellian.

Furthermore, in terms of what he cares about, Bill Clinton is all about Bill Clinton. So my hunch is that when Wallace asked a tough question, Clinton snapped over what he perceived as an attack on "his legacy" and gave an unrehearsed, emotional response. That's not unlike his foolish finger-waving "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" episode from 8 years ago.

"Help Mom" author on Fox News this Monday

Look for Katharine DeBrecht, author of Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed, on Fox News Live with Bill Hemmer this Monday at 12:00 PM Eastern, 9:00 AM Pacific.

He was "obsessed" with OBL. Really.

Evidently it's not just the folks at Media Mutterers who have imbibed a little too much of the Clinton koolaid. It's also the Big Zipper himself.

Media Matters mad over Tucker Carlon's praise for "Help Mom"

Max Blumenthal, Eric Alterman, and their fellow Clintonistas over at Media Matters just made a feeble swipe at Tucker Carlson for his past praise of Katharine DeBrecht's Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed. Carlson told the author of the kids book Why Mommy is a Democrat that "kids ought to be immune from politics." Evidently that's a flip-flop because in 2005 Tucker told DeBrecht that he hoped her book sells well.

The problem with Media Mutterers' lame attempt at Gotcha! is that Carlson's complete quote undermines their allegation of hypocrisy:

Katherine DeBrecht, I can't stand politics in children's books. And I thought I wasn't going to like it, but actually it's a clever book, I have to say. Thanks a lot for coming on. I hope it sells. (Emphasis added for benefit of vision-impaired Clintonistas.)

So Carlson is consistent in his view that kids shouldn't be exposed to politics, but he admits that DeBrecht's clever book won him over. What's the matter with that? (Interested readers can check out this prior post for some context on the issue of politics and children's books.)

P.S. To the folks at MM, while I understand you've all sworn your allegiance to Darth Hillary, this is just silly. If you've got a bone to pick with Tucker Carlson, it ought to be for this lapse in judgment.

Harry's a hit at Club Gitmo

The Telegraph reports that Harry Potter stories are the most requested books by inmates housed at the Guantanamo Bay "gulag."

Religion of Peace? (continued)

To quote Jack Wheeler, the Muslim world's reaction to the Pope's speech last week has been Kafkaesque. From the Associated Press:

The Vatican has been seeking to defuse anger across the Muslim world that followed the pope's remarks about Islam last week in Germany. Benedict cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."(emphasis added)...

So what do the faithful do to disprove the Pope (who was reading a quote) and show the world that Muslims don't want to spread their faith by the sword?

At Islam's third-holiest shrine, the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, hundreds of worshippers hoisted black flags and banners that read, "Conquering Rome is the answer." Protesters chanted, "The army of Islam will return." ...

Hundreds of radical Islamists chanting "Down with the pope" rallied in several Pakistani cities...

"If I get hold of the pope, I will hang him," Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior MMA leader, told protesters in Islamabad, who carried placards reading "Terrorist, extremist Pope be hanged!" and "Down with Muslims' enemies!" ....

The demonstrations came a day after 1,000 clerics and religious leaders met in Lahore and called for the pope's removal and warned the West of consequences if it didn't change its stance regarding Islam...

Minutemen authors head to SoCal Borders (bookstores, that is)

Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist and WorldNetDaily columnist Jerome R. Corsi will be signing copies of their new book Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders at multiple Los Angeles and San Diego area Borders bookstores next week. If you live in southern California, you're invited to come by to meet the authors and listen to some of their amazing stories about what they've seen down on the border.

Monday, Sept. 25 - Thousand Oaks
Tuesday, Sept. 26 - Mission Viejo
Wednesday, Sept. 27 - San Diego (Carmel Mountain)

Libs: "Bush made him do it!"

Sen. Tom Harkin from Iowa blames Bush for the rant by 'Lil Castro, saying "I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies." The netroots over at Daily Kos are upset that CNN would even broadcast the speech and generate sympathy for Bush, while DUmmies are screaming that Dems who rebuked Chavez are "f---ing a-- whipped pansies." Which means they're probably happy that the NYT editorial pages ignored the matter, instead opting to run an editorial titled "Keep Christ Out of the Christmas Tree." (Seriously.)

Liberal Larry Chomstein over at the Blame Bush blog can retire. Liberals are satirizing themselves.

Tengo un libro sobre el Diablo

It appears that Noam Chomsky is not confined exclusively to the reading lists of freshman "world civ" classes after all -- 'Lil Castro thinks the libertarian socialist grammarian should also be required reading for UN diplomats. (Assuming Chavez can read, I would recommend he pick up a copy of this book, which almost never shows up on collegiate syllabi.)



Hugo Chavez, seen here holding an advanced copy of the 2008 Democratic National Platform.

Some thoughts on editorial bias in the publishing trades

Rush Limbaugh was giving the "drive by media" a hard time this morning because the NYT and Wash Post buried their stories about Hugo Chavez calling Bush the devil in his UN speech. Whether it was done out of concern of putting Democrats in the difficult position of having to defend Bush or wanting to minimize any "rally around the president" effect with voters, the libs clearly would've preferred that that this would-be 'Lil Castro not show his true colors.

The trade mags in the publishing industry aren't much better; their editorial bias is probably further to the left than the MSM. And it goes beyond my post yesterday chiding the Book Standard panting over Al Gore's new Penguin army. The biggest problem with the trades is one of omission. They prefer to ignore books advocating traditional values and instead highlight left-wing titles as somehow containing "fresh" and exciting content. When they do get around to reviewing a token conservative book, they utilize a breezy put down before racing onto the next work of lefty literary genius.

To wit: in Publishers Weekly's "Religion Bookline" email today, 2 of the 5 news articles are nothing more than open forums for expressing liberal points of view. (The other 3 articles are business stories and have no apparent point of view.) One of the 2 offenders in question is a softball-laden interview by reporter Donna Freitas with an author who he says the Religious Right has a "dangerous mindset;" the other article by G. Jeffrey MacDonald purports to reveal that global warming is a hot topic (pun intended) in the Christian market. I cite this not to pick on Freitas and MacDonald or even to object to the articles themselves, but instead to show how their editors are opting to sprinkle in left-wing points of view without any sense of balance, something that repeats itself week after week with PW.

This editorial bias with trades like PW, the B.S., and Kirkus has driven publishers in the fast-growing conservative and spiritual markets to turn to the New Media. World Ahead focuses its publicity efforts on bloggers and talk radio; Regnery CEO Marji Ross noted at BEA last spring that they do the same. The trades are forcing publishers of conservative and traditional values books to seek alternative ways of getting the word out, which I'd argue is not to the trades' -- or the industry's -- benefit. How about a little balance, guys?

Book Standard (heart) Al Gore

I'm not surprised that the breathless headline in the Book Standard's weekly newsletter is "Al Gore To Follow Up 'Inconvenient Truth With 'Assault on Reason'." (I'm also not surprised to learn that Al does not get along with reason.)

There is still no word, however, when the B.S. will investigate the iThenticate allegations against Ann Coulter.



Gore (left), pictured here wearing earth tones and a look-how-somber-I-am frown, will continue his assault on reason with a new book from publisher Penguin, not to be confused with Gore's penguin army (right).

Nelson goes shopping

There's further consolidation in the Christian publishing market -- Thomas Nelson will acquire Integrity Publishers, a company started by former Nelson president Byron Williamson. Earlier this year, Nelson itself was acquired by a private equity group.

This is an example of the free market relaying interesting information. While many in the mainstream media and the publishing industry fail to realize it, America is a religious and conservative country. As I wrote back in July, some publishing conglomerates are just now starting to wake up to this fact.

Religion of Peace?

Religion of Peace? is the title of a forthcoming book from World Ahead written by filmmaker Gregory Davis. It's also a convenient question to ask about Islam in light of the Muslim world's reaction to the Pope's academic speech last week in which he quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor who said (quoting Sky) "everything Mohammed brought was evil 'such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.' "

The Pope's views on Islam have been crystal clear for a long time. The Muslim world's mullahs and the West's liberal media (e.g. the NYT) are purposefully misquoting his speech for their own ends -- the former to strengthen their hand over the Arab Street, and the latter to continue their knee jerk left-wing attack on institutions supporting traditional values. It looks like they're getting what they hoped for:


Indonesian Muslim protesters hold up signs during a rally outside the Vatican embassy in Jakarta September 18, 2006. The sign on the right reads, 'Let's crucify Paus (Pope)'. (Dadang Tri/Reuters)

New Tolkien book to debut next year

Houghton Mifflin has bought the U.S. rights to a new J.R.R. Tolkien book called The Children of Húrin. Edited and compiled by his son, this will be the first new Tolkien release since Silmarillion was published posthumously in 1977. Look for this book to make a huge splash when it hits stores in April 2007.

All of the news that isn't fit to print

New York Magazine has an article recounting how President Bush personally asked the NYT's publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to not publish their exposé on the NSA's wiretapping program. While Bush may have appealed to their patriotism and even put the verbal squeeze on them, he didn't suppress their 1st Amendment rights or have them threatened, followed, or otherwise intimidated by hired muscle. (Take note, Bill & Hillary.)

One has to wonder how "Pinch" and Keller would've reacted if another G.W. had come to them with a similar request 230 years ago...

Granger: Lessons of September 11

Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-TX), author of World Ahead's recent release What's Right About America, has an excellent editorial in today's edition of the Wash Times.

Five years since 9/11

Today is the fifth anniversary of the worst attack ever on American soil. Let us pause to remember the victims and celebrate the heroes, but also remind ourselves that -- no matter how much we'd like to think otherwise -- evil is still present in our world today.