Rating: 
Summary: GOP = Gated Only Please
Review: David Brock's "Blinded by the Right" gives an insider's view of what's being done "behind the curtain" by a veritable phalanx of "neo-conservative" societies, foundations, think tanks, newspapers, publishers, et al. Well written, the book is quite entertaining in a chilling "Star Chamber" sort of way. One must wonder how the underlying attitudes of misogyny, racism, and elitist classism would play if presented openly as the one and only "patriotic" American Way. Trouble is, the underlying philosophies (and the policies they promote) negate and/or corrupt nearly everything my twenty years in the American lit classroom spoke of and to. As for rational, meaningful debate in any election cycle, post Bork, -- forget about it. Politics from here to Armageddon in this media-drenched culture will be a loud and insulting Limbaugh-Springer carnival, relying mainly on smears and character assassination. It will be this way because the hugely wealthy echelon that funds it will accept no less than their entitlement to the lion's share. Curiously, McVeigh could be the overarching poster boy for this version of a home rule, anti-DC, WASP-only vision of a grand "Gated Community of America." Such is the toxicity poisoning the executive branch. Compassionate conservatism...sure thing.
Rating: 
Summary: No Matter How You Slice It, This Liar Is Telling The Truth!
Review: "If Brock says he was a liar when he wrote on behalf of the radical right, how do we know he's not lying now?" This is the question raised by the right wing's media windbags and their mindless minions who, by posing it, think that it will cast enough doubt upon the truth of Brock's confessions to blind us from the disgusting facts that he has exposed - namely, the UN-AMERICAN tactics used by them to further their UN-AMERICAN agenda. It reminds me of the strategy used by the Bush Mafia in their (ultimately failed) attempt to have "Fortunate Son" by J.W. Hatfield banned from America's bookstores because of its (never explicitly denied by Bush) revelation that G.W. snorted coke and partied hearty, among other things. Discredit the messenger and make him the issue - yeah, that's the ticket! In Hatfield's case, this was accomplished by saying that he was a convicted felon (true, but that doesn't make the fact of W's coke habit false!). However, the seemingly troubling question of the veracity of Brock's revelations in the present case actually reveals that what is written absolutely MUST be the truth. There are a total of 4 (logically, really only 2) possibilities here: Possibility 1 - Brock DID lie before and IS NOT lying now = book is true! This is what Brock says. Possibility 2 - Brock DID NOT lie before and IS lying now = book is true! If he is not now telling the truth, then it means that he is a liar and therefore we can be certain that he WAS indeed lying for the radical right! Possibility 3 - Brock DID lie before and IS lying now = book is true! If Brock lied before, then he indeed did what he says he did, which was lie on behalf of the radical right - in which case he could not now be lying. Lying now about lying before makes absolutely no sense at all. But if it is indeed true that he is not now telling the truth, then it again means that he is a liar and therefore we can be certain that he WAS lying for the radical right! Possibility 4 - Brock DID NOT lie before and IS NOT lying now = book is true! If he did not lie for the radical right, then he could not now be telling the truth. If he is now telling the truth, then he did indeed lie on behalf of the radical right. But if he is not now telling the truth, then it means that he is a liar and therefore we can once again be certain that he WAS lying for the radical right! So much for the tactic of trying to impugn Brock's truthfulness as a means to discredit the book!
Rating:
Summary: The Truth Will Always Set Us Free!
Review: Thank you David Brock for finally confirming what so many of us already believed was true.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but you have to wonder...
Review: Brock's book is a fascinating discussion of his experiences
dealing with the American right. Unfortunately, there's a fundamental problem with the book:
you have to ask yourself if a book which has, as one major
theme, a confession to massive lying in the past, can be
taken as accurate. Liberals like myself will want to think
that its all terribly terribly true -- that there was a
vast right wing conspiracy to destroy President Clinton -- but
but its still, well, debatable. I don't really want to say Brock is lying, but I just don't
know.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: Want to know where Rush, and the rest of the ultra right storm troopers get their information? This book is a must read for anyone who isn't aware of the "ultra right wing media" in this country. Read this book, and the go check out Fox News!
Rating: 
Summary: Blinded by the Right
Review: It looks like you are having to give both this book and the Stupid White Men book away, not surprising.
Rating: 
Summary: One weird guy
Review: This is a book by a guy who was made famous by a group of desperate, sleazy characters -- the ugly right wing of the republican party. This is also a book by a guy who betrayed those who buttered his bread, and is trying very hard to be embraced by the desperate, sleazy left wing of the democratic party. Brock reminds me of Michael Huffington -- wanted to be one of the in crowd but just couldn't manage it no matter how he sacrificed himself to their whims. So now, he's "out" and trying to find a new clique to latch onto. Sound familiar? Yep. It's called High School. So read this book if the ramblings of an immature craven trip your trigger. Or read it because it is yet another version of the first impeachment in the last 100 years. But I doubt it contains any more "truth" than his previous books.
Rating:
Summary: Babbling from the mouth of a fool.
Review: Brock's supposed 'turnaround' is questionable at best. His latest book lacks evidence or proof of any kind to support his, and Hillary's "vast right wing conspiracy" BS. Admittedly, I read this book with my own, Libertarian, bias. But, being a fan of neither the right or the left, this book, and Brock himself, simply lacks credibility.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Surprise is that Anyone is Surprised
Review: If this book is only ten percent true, then there are a lot of bad people presently in the second and third tiers of government. This includes all branches of government. For someone like me who practiced law for two decades and reveres judges, the lack of ethics and hunger for power of Clarence Thomas and Larry Silberman is shameful. There is no lie they would not tell, no rumor they would not diseminate, and no one they would hesitate to destroy for themselves and "the cause." To this, one can add Kenneth Starr and Ted Olson, men who have reuptations of being very thorough and have attained great respect, but may have chosen to lie and subvert the law for political purposes. Then, there are the Congressman, Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, Henry Hyde, and Dan Burton. Hypocrites all. They have had affairs, have destroyed marriages (including their own), and in Barr's case, has, it is contended by one of his wives, consented to and even paid for an abortion. Yet, they can get up in front of an audience or a TV camera and call Bill Clinton and Democrats in general immoral, unpatriotic, murderers, etc. without blinking an eye. I can only ask, who really is the immoral or amoral one? Who really is the danger to the country? A famous saying is that the last refuge of scoundrels is patriotism. (That worked for Ollie North.) Perhaps, in these times that can be modified to state: the last refuge of scoundrels is strict morality. But the reality is that deepdown we all knew that these right wing hitmen were and are sleezebags. What is now apparent is that they are not just driven by hate for any political view other than their own and by homophobia, but by power. Now, they have it and it is worth speculating what that will mean. Brock makes these points in a manner that appears convincing. He names names, dates, and places; thus it sounds true. One can probably believe that after twelve years of no factchecking by rightwing publications, he had the facts of this work checked by the publisher. However, on some occassions, Brock seemed to lapse back into his bad habits and give the reader some juicy tidbit about someone without stating the source or backing it up with evidence. Also, many of his sentences are quite long and difficult to understand. Nevertheless, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book for someone who is interested in the present political scene.
Rating:
Summary: mea culpa brock
Review: Blinded by the Right was a book that was hard to put down for a moderate/liberal devotee of fair play and and at least some degree of honesty in government and the fourth estate. It is ludicrous to attack Brock, as some have, for being unbelievable now since he has admitted to lying in the past. Blinded by the Right reads like the truth, a truth Brock has no credible reason for coloring. Independent thinkers who are not affiliated with movements or political parties should find the facts in the book highly illuminating and if they are serious about casting responsible votes, they will take a long hard look at the "brain trust" in the current administration and the forces and events that allowed that "trust" and its agenda to be placed in control of the free world.
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