A crazy "morning thought"...

I was reading another thread in GD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=39503&mesg_id=39503&page=
when it struck me how good the people on this site are at pullng almost any kind of political information together, how much we know and how much we can almost instantly find out.

Bev Harris has made really good use of this capability in various ways at various times.

Well, the thought occurred to me that all this information collection and processing capability could be put to amazingly effective use as a way of churning out "instant books, maybe even "instant documentaries." Just imagine a collaborative project on the BFEE. We put together a chapter outline, volunteers rapidly assemble information for each chapter, somebody writes each chapter, a project editor reworks as necessary for narrative flow, and we run the whole thing through a print-on-demand publisher. Authorship is credited to the Truth Consortium (or whatever we might call ourselves). We sell through Amazon and every other liberal outlet we can think of. Profits go to liberal causes, and maybe get divided out among the contributors.

We could have a Yellowcake book out in about 2 weeks, I bet.

So is this totally nuts?

What would be the first book?

The Bush Administration's National Security Credibility Gap

Documenting ALL the lies, starting with the yellowcake, and including all the others: the aluminum tubes, the Iraq-al Qaeda links, the Halliburton conflicts of interest, the PNAC agenda, the Osama and Saddam snipe hunts. Tie it all the way back to 9-11. Tie that all the way back to the selection of 2000 and the reighn of George the First.

How 'bout first a book on the WMD lies (projected title Let Them Eat Yellowcake) and then later a "remake" of "The Forbidden Truth" (Afghanistan from the Reagan admin to the present)?

the loons on the right were doing that about Bill Clinton and that's the way people regarded them ... as loons.

While I agree that this needs to get out there, I would recommend that any authors who do this try to ensure integrity in their works.

process. It's OK to get information from an unreliable source, but not to use it unless you verify it with more credible sources. This whole project could and should be conducted within the constraints of journalistic ethical standards.

but you're forgetting that a vast majority of Americans don't READ! They get their news from 60 second snippets and in the end I believe we'd just be preaching to the choir. We have to reach the masses, and until the major networks and cable show an interest in airing the truth, we are collectively screwed. Good thought though, but I think we'd (DU'ers) be the only one buying the books.

for anyone who wants info for purposes such as debating FReepers. Get that stuff out & around in cheap editions & I think it would make a difference. Don't people buy books in college towns anymore? Let's arm people on our side with the information they need to start making monkeys out of the opposition.

I love the idea, Jackpine Radical! I'm not a great writer but I'd love to help with the searches and editing.

N reason not to assemble them into a book, though. I mean, should we tell Will Pitt & Bev Harris their writing efforts are for naught?

The right still finds it useful to put out stuff by the likes of Coulter & Goldberg. Why shouldnt we hop on the bandwagon?

Another point is that if the collaborators either take small or no pay, the effort would produce significant funds for liberal causes, such as maybe buying TV ads for carefully selected placements. Maybe explianing on MTV why young people should vote for the Dem candidate.

For a rough idea of how much money there is in this, suppose that we sell 25k copies of a book for $10. Printing & advertising is realistically about $6/book, leaving $100k for us to pay ourselves for our time & buy that ad.

I think it's entirely fair for the workers on a project like this to make reasonable wages when they put in significant amounts of time, but for the major profits--if any--to go for idealistic purposes.

The whole thing should be structured as a self-organizing, learning organization without centralized authority, but with expert guidance.

After about 8 seconds, most people ...

this attempt at a brainstorming session before it has a chance to get dangerous.

Little books, maybe "Golden Books" easily read. Marketing is the key. A series. Start with the latest Yellowcake, get their attention then move on to the really good stuff. Drawings included for the reading challenge.

Kinda like those little Watchtower tracts the Witnesses are always shoving under your door.

Hey, maybe that's the secret to spreading them.