01.05.06
The ‘The James Risen Book I Want Is Way Overpriced’ Blues
On my way home from work and my woebegotten adventures detailed below (along with a general pattern of Everything Takes At Least Four Times As Much Effort And Vexation As Usual), I swung by the U Bookstore to pick up a copy of James Risen’s new book, also referenced earlier.
But alas, the thin (maybe a couple hundred pages) hardcover was freakin’ $26!! I love the Free Press, and I reckon Mr. Risen don’t come all that cheap but, jeez, come on guys! I balked at such highway robbery and decided I’d wait for the revised paperback instead.
But while I was there I disovered some tasty tomes, including one from a publisher so small they have an MSN email address. Namely, Shock and Awe in Fort Worth by Sheryl Elam Tappan. Ms. Tappan is an “independent consultant” who, in 2003, “led Bechtel’s proposal team in the Army’s competition for the two new Iraq oil field contracts until [emphasis in the original] she discovered the competition was a sham and recommended Bechtel withdraw, which it did.” She’s evidently done this sort of “writing contract proposals for giant evil corporations” thing for 10 years.
The competition at issue was the make-good “open bidding” [sic] the Pentagon was forced to undertake after it was revealed that Haliburton was given the whole Iraq oilfield dealio in a secret (and, ahem, probably illegal) deal. The new bidding was handled by the Army Corps of Engineers’ office in Fort Worth, hence the title reference.
Weeell…Ms. Tappan reportedly names names, dishes the dirt, and (she says) “provides the hard evidence of favoritism” in the Halliburton/Pentagon nexus that has largely been left to inference from the (let’s face it) blatantly obvious. A quick skim indicates the book is mostly a blow-by-blow from Tappan’s perspective. It may be dry going (or not), but at 150 pages I can prolly stand enough of it to decide if the book is worth the cover price.
All the same — you know shit is real bad when a company as dirty and as previously-inside as freakin’ Bechtel is taking their ball home because the game is rigged!
I also discovered a new (I think) phenomenon at the U Bookstore. There were a few books with yellow dot-stickers on the spine — turns out they were used books. Weird! I helped myself to a couple: a $13 copy of Jefferson’s War by Joseph Wheelan (a history of the 1801-1805 war against the Barbary Pirates — basically the US’ first real experience with international covert action and anti-terrorist warfare, more or less — drawing almost entirely on original sources) and Companero by Jorge G. Casteneda (a 1997 bio of Che Guevara, who’s come up in another [huge] book I’m just starting to wade through, Ultimate Sacrifice — more on that one later, I’m sure.)
