Family of Secrets

Making Waves at Alternet

Alternet just published a new article by Russ Baker called “Obama Should Worry About the Bush Family Tentacles Undermining His Plans.” The piece has quickly become the most e-mailed essay on the website.

We encourage readers to continue e-mailing Baker’s article, and to start a discussion on how our ambitious new President can most effectively escape the pressures detailed in Family of Secrets.

Feedback From the Blogs

With newspapers cutting back on their book review sections, much of the best feedback on Family of Secrets is coming from personal blogs.

At Blog4Brains.com, Stan Nodvik reviews the book, calling it “a must-read for those interested in preserving our democracy and its history.” The website Strangely Blogged calls Baker’s book “a useful read, especially for those who have not looked hard at the Bushes before.” And Undernews, the blog of The Progressive Review, says that “as we say goodbye to George Bush (at least until some prosecutor files charges against him), there is no better way to observe the occasion than to read Russ Baker’s new book, Family of Secrets.”

Blaxploitation, GOP Style

Russ Baker has a new article up at Huffington Post about the Bushes’ “lemon diversity,” and the Republicans’ latest cynical attempt to share in President Obama’s historical accomplishment. Timely reading.

Washington Post Chat

Yesterday, Russ Baker answered questions about the Bush legacy for readers of The Washington Post:

Minneapolis: Hi Russ — Thanks for taking questions today. Maybe it’s just me, but I not only have “Bush fatigue,” I have “Bush goodbye fatigue.” Have we always had these endless valedictories and post-mortems when a president leaves office, or is this a special case?

Russ Baker: Well, how surprising is it, really, that the empty goodbye exercise seems to warrant more energy than digging into the real events of the administration itself? We are a country that loves its spectacles. This is nothing new.

Russ also appeared on Reuters TV for a news segment on the end of Bush’s presidency. You can watch that segment here.

GRITtv with Laura Flanders

Watch Russ Baker, Jeff Chang, and Janeane Garofalo discuss the best and worst of Bush-era media coverage with Laura Flanders of GRITtv:

GRITtv airs Mon-Thurs (4 times a day!) at 8 & 1 Eastern, 5 & 10 Pacific, on Free Speech TV (DISH Network ch. 9415).

RB on the Radio

You can now listen to Christopher Lydon’s conversation with Russ Baker at Open Source radio, or download it as a podcast.

In the Post

This weekend, Family of Secrets was reviewed by The Washington Post — itself a major character in the book. Critic Jamie Malanowski feels that “Baker exceeds his grasp,” but the Post will allow the author to speak for himself. On Thursday, January 15 at 2pm, Russ Baker will answer questions about the Bush/Cheney legacy and the Bush family political dynasty at washingtonpost.com. Readers can begin submitting questions and comments immediately.

New Baker HuffPost Essay, and More Coverage

Russ Baker has a new essay up at The Huffington Post about the USS George H.W. Bush, the Navy aircraft carrier that will be christened on Saturday, January 10th.

This week, Russ also appeared on Judith Regan’s show on Sirius Satellite Radio, taped an interview with Reuters Television for a special program on the Bush legacy, and did a drive-time conversation with Boston’s WBZ.

Common Dreams just excerpted the “Shock and…Oil?” chapter from Family of Secrets at their website. And Frederick Clarkson at Religion Dispatches detailed the ways that FoS “reveals how faith is like a covert operation for the Bush family.” (Please Digg these articles, share them on Facebook, and e-mail them to your friends. Your help is invaluable.)

Grassroots efforts and word of mouth are paying off: Earlier this week, the book hit #150 on Amazon.com’s book list, and was #8 among political books. Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire blog noted that the book is “rising on the bestseller lists.” Stay tuned…

Plenty of New Coverage

Yesterday, Russ Baker appeared on the Thom Hartmann Program, and that interview can be listened to in full.

The New York Observer sent reporter Leon Neyfakh to cover the Family of Secrets book release party earlier this week. Neyfakh asked partygoers and friends of the book about its likely reception in the mainstream media. Dan Rather, Judith Regan, and the author himself offered their opinions.

As for that mainstream media reception…Tim Rutten of The Los Angeles Times fired the opening salvo in what is sure to provoke an ongoing conversation among critics and historians about this new book. He blasted the book as “preposterous,” before declaring a personal bias:

I regard the belief that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone as an important indicium of mental health.

According to an ABC News poll conducted in 2003 in conjunction with a Peter Jennings special report, seven in 10 Americans think the assassination of John F. Kennedy was the result of a plot. (And in 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations found a “probable conspiracy” but did not identify specific perpetrators.) With that in mind, Rutten is making a pretty serious assertion about our country’s sanity.

The Thom Hartmann Program

Russ Baker will be talking about Family of Secrets on Air America’s nationally-syndicated Thom Hartmann Program today at 1pm. Listen at AirAmerica.com.