May 23, 2005

• MONDAY BOOK

  Fortunate Son
  by James Hatfield

  Actually, thanks to Netflix my supplier of awesome DVD’s-by-mail, this is also about the 2002 documentary Horns and Halos that tells the story of the attempt to publish the book, Fortunate Son, a biography of George W. Bush that offers an incisive look at Bush’s questionable military history, disastrous business ventures, and the issues surrounding the 2000 presidential election – but is especially noted for alleging Bush’s arrest for cocaine possession in 1972 and expunging of his record by family connections. The film is shot during the presidential campaign and by this time, the book has been recalled by St. Martin’s Press because its author, James Hatfield, has been discovered to be an ex-con. This is where Sander Hicks, young, charismatic, mohawk-coifed owner of Soft Skull Press, steps in. Operating out of a basement in the building where he is also the super in the Lower East Side of NYC, Hicks hooks up with Hatfield to make a run at publishing the book again. Jim Hatfield was really just a minor league biographer, but when he took on this powerful subject matter, it was like he brought all the Forces of Evil upon himself. The film really doesn’t go into the subject matter of the book much at all. It’s about a four-day period when Hatfield and Hicks are trying to pitch the book. Battling lawyers, the media, and bankruptcy, they try for one last splash at the huge Book Expo of America. Hatfield feels called upon to reveal his source for the cocaine story, who (amazingly) is Karl Rove, and all hell breaks loose. In the end, the whole fiasco of fighting the powers-that-be literally kills him. On July 18, 2001, Jim Hatfield was found dead of a drug overdose in a hotel room in Arkansas. He left notes for his family and friends that listed alcohol, financial problems and “Fortunate Son” as reasons for killing himself. Today Sander Hicks has a new publishing company, VoxPop, and is about to publish, “The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistleblowers, and the Cover-Up.” Read about it here. Here’s to controversy!
  

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  Deep Thought: “Sometimes, when I drive across the desert in the middle of the night, with no other cars around, I start imagining: What if there were no civilization out there? No cities, no factories, no people? And then I think: No people or factories? Then who made t his car? And this highway? And I get so confused I have to stick my head out the window into the driving rain – unless there’s lightning, because I could get struck on the head by a bolt.”
  Today I am grateful for: Orange – the color and the fruit
  Guess the Movie: “Don’t call me son. I’m a lawyer and an officer in the United States Navy. And you’re under arrest, you son of a bitch.” Answer: A Few Good Men, 1992. Winner: thenarrator.
  Insurgency is on the March
  by Steve Chapman
  “We feel right now that we have, as I mentioned, broken the back of the insurgency.”
  - Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler, Nov. 18, 2004, after the U.S.-led offensive against Fallujah
  Could it be that we’ve misclassified the insurgency in Iraq – that it’s an invertebrate, able to absorb bone-crushing blows because it has no bones to crush? It seems to be more like a dandelion, which, when smashed, only spreads more seeds. Seven months after U.S. forces leveled the enemy stronghold, the insurgents are causing as much trouble as ever. (Rest of article here.)
  End of Day: 8:48 pm
  + = At last a lovely weather day.
  - = Did I hear a rumor of a filibuster cave?

  • 11:45 am
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