Obscured

A colleague notes that Doug Feith's book came out today only to be totally buried beneath all the coverage of the Petraeus/Crooker hearings. Thus, Feith's book sales have become yet another casualty of the war he did so much to bring about. It's a bit like rain on your wedding day.

Meanwhile, my book's official release isn't 'till April 25 but apparently Amazon is now shipping orders and some people even have it in their hands. If you read a copy, send me some email and let me know what you think -- I'm obviously eager to post self-aggrandizing emails, but your questions, comments, concerns, and disagreements are also welcome and can be grappled with in this very forum.

Comments

I got my copy today at my office via Amazon. I can't read the whole thing at work, but I did read the preface during a smoke break. And you're right: Charlie Brown really should get his own football. Idiot.

Posted by Dave | April 8, 2008 7:09 PM

I mean, Charlie Brown's an idiot, not you, Matt.

Posted by Dave | April 8, 2008 7:11 PM

Did Feith's publisher include that great "blurb" by Tommy Franks?

Posted by RKU | April 8, 2008 7:11 PM

i mean, in terms of insecurity this post kinda takes the biscuit, eh?

Posted by europhobe | April 8, 2008 7:18 PM

europhobe, it's called a "shameless plug," and it's a act with a long and honorable tradition.

Posted by Tyro | April 8, 2008 7:20 PM

And as I'm reading this Lucy starts to play Alanis...

Posted by Rob | April 8, 2008 7:25 PM

Tyro is perfectly correct

Still, if this blog starts, er, promoting the book as assiduously as Andrew Sullivan did for his book, the blog will perpetuate a less honorable tradition.

Posted by Warren Terra | April 8, 2008 7:34 PM

Will there be a satellite blog like Jonah has for Liberal Fascism?

Posted by P O'Neill | April 8, 2008 7:35 PM

P O'Neil---

That's Ezra's blog

Posted by Rob | April 8, 2008 7:40 PM

Nah, it'll help the little weiner. NPR has him on Morning Edition all week starting today and people who tuned in to hear the preview for the hearings or the recap tomorrow, will hear Feith.

Posted by Sanjay | April 8, 2008 7:43 PM

Are you planning to have a kindle/e-book version published? I'll buy all sorts of crap if I can read it on my Kindle.

Posted by Fyodor | April 8, 2008 7:49 PM

"I'm obviously eager to post self-aggrandizing emails"

I possess a brain that is the envy of physicists, women faint when they catch glimpses of my rugged profile, and I drift off to sleep each night atop a massive pile of money.

What you were looking for?

Posted by Taisa | April 8, 2008 8:04 PM

Ygoldberg.

Posted by berger | April 8, 2008 8:06 PM

Hey Matt, you know how amused you are by the neocon dread of the terrorists being "emboldened" etc by our "surrender". Me too. Now try this - imagine their scenario for "victory". We prop up a puppet Iraqi govt for decades at huge blood & treasure costs, and surely Al Qaeda will hang their heads and admit "The infidel's will is too strong for us - let's pack it in". I'd like to see you expand this exercise - it's FUN!

Posted by tokorode | April 8, 2008 8:10 PM

My husband and I were watching the Feith interview on 60 minutes, and immediately afterward my husband looked at me and said, "That's the type of fucking asshole during Vietnam---who had no idea what he's was talking about, and no skin in the game---who kept me and my buddies in Vietnam."

My husband has never made a comment like this in the entire time we've known each other (12 years); he's not very political, but he's a history buff, and yes, he was a Vietnam Vet.

Douglas Feith and the rest of the PNAC are not good policy makers---they are a disaster. So too is the entire Senate for not doing their jobs. Where is the oversight? Where is the prudence?

Fu#! the politics. We want ANSWERS.

Posted by AKBY | April 8, 2008 8:19 PM

NPR has him on Morning Edition all week starting today

You're kidding. This is why I don't bother with NPR any more.

Posted by mq | April 8, 2008 8:38 PM

If it's as flat, boring and misdirected as your blog is, I'm sure it'll be right along side Feith's book.

"yet another casualty of the war he did so much to bring about"

Coming from a guy who fucking supported this war at the beginning. What a fucking joke.

Posted by volum | April 8, 2008 8:42 PM

The "Matt's a boring moron" posts would be far more useful if they'd take the time to point to an example of a person (preferably with a blog) they consider interesting and brilliant.

Posted by DJ | April 8, 2008 9:07 PM

is there going to be an audiobook version?

Posted by Prasanth Manthena | April 8, 2008 9:20 PM

It's a bit like rain on your wedding day.

No, it's more like a free ride when you've already paid.

Posted by Just Dropping By | April 8, 2008 9:27 PM

Doug Feith is one of those useless pricks who deserves a Greek myth-style punishment. He should spend eternity drinking from a bottomless ocean of piss.

Then again he'd probably start to enjoy the taste after an hour or so. He is, after all, a Repiglican.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | April 8, 2008 9:33 PM

The only review of the book that I've seen thus far has a line in it that your publishers should consider putting in ads: "This unfortunate little book has about as much gravitas as the hole in a donut, perhaps even less."

Posted by Cole | April 8, 2008 9:50 PM

Congratulations on the book, Matt. I've only been reading your blog for about a year, but find your writing very insightful, and am looking forward to buying and reading your book.

Cheers.

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Posted by Emma | April 8, 2008 9:59 PM

There will eventually be a kindle version, but who knows when. No plans for an audiobook. And don't be fooled by blackcentury.com. It has nothing to do with Matt's book.

Posted by Mr. Know It All | April 8, 2008 10:20 PM

Ol one eye has read yer book young master an he's a bit dissapointed. It didn't seem to me to be that well argued. I mean, sure infant fascism and socialism sucked from adjacent teats off the same sow, but to actually claim that the beliefs of Hitler and Moussolini have anythin meaningful in common with modern american liberalism is totally cracked. Ye kneed to hie back to Harvard, young fella fer some refresher courses in the historical arts.

Posted by ol one eye | April 8, 2008 10:22 PM

Feith was on 60 Minutes and the reporter failed to ask him about his 1996 strategy paper, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm".

No folks, the paper was not written for the American realm, the paper was written for then Prime Minister Benj Netanyahu and the security of Israel's realm. 60 Minutes is a joke. They had one of the architects for the war and failed to ask him about his attachment to a foreign nation that happened to be threatened by Saddam Hussein. Until the press can discuss this matter, we will be in endless wars not in America's interest.

Posted by max bootlicker | April 8, 2008 10:58 PM

"60 Minutes" has always been a joke. I can't remember one single "investigative report" I've ever watched on them that wasn't complete frickin' bullshit or handled so badly that it was incomprehensible. The show ALWAYS has an agenda and it's generally favorable to the powers that be.

They did cover Sibel Edmonds, I understand, but clearly that went nowhere. Not to mention that she recently decided to tell any major broadcast new organization her whole story - name names and everything - regardless of the legal impact on her - as long as they agreed to broadcast the whole thing without any editing - and not one single US news organization has taken her up on it. Not one. Here is a woman with detailed knowledge of major treason on the part of senior elected US politicians - and not one single news organization wants to know. Not even Josh Marshall, the "All Republican Corruption All The Time" blog, despite her having specific evidence that senior Republican politicians have committed outright treason.

"I've only been reading your blog for about a year, but find your writing very insightful, and am looking forward to buying and reading your book."

You're still new here. Or maybe you're only 12 years old. You'll learn.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | April 9, 2008 12:07 AM

The only review of the book that I've seen thus far has a line in it that your publishers should consider putting in ads: "This unfortunate little book has about as much gravitas as the hole in a donut, perhaps even less."

Where's that review? I think we're trying to market it as as the non-boring liberal foreign policy book, so I'll admit it is perhaps not as gravitasfull as some other tomes out there.

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | April 9, 2008 12:43 AM

The problem with making up bad reviews of books by authors like Matt is that young 'uns these days are so post-ironic and over it all that they want to read the negative reviews so they get some new snark to use preemptively at parties. And so they ask for links and, of course, you don't have a link to give 'cause you're a wingnut and lie as naturally as breathing.

Posted by NBarnes | April 9, 2008 12:57 AM

Well, speaking as one of Matt's oldest regulars, I have to say that in my view, donut holes frequently display the type of high seriousness the old Romans described as "gravitas." Delenda est Donuto.

Posted by rea | April 9, 2008 6:50 AM

That's arguably ironic, pr at least an intriguing turn of events, and therefore nothing like rain on your wedding day. Dammit Matt!

Posted by aleks | April 9, 2008 7:10 AM

A black hole in a donut would have plenty of gravitas.

Posted by Glenn | April 9, 2008 10:02 AM

Matt, you asked, where's the review with the donut hole analogy?

It's a customer review, not on editorial review, on Amazon.

Posted by AKBY | April 9, 2008 10:18 AM

There is no lack of proof that we are all screwed beyond any reasonable hope of redemption. But my favorite instance is that this guy Feith argued that the appropriate response to 9-11 would be to bomb -- wait for it -- PARAGUAY! And he is still employed. And now you tell me he wrote a book, and somebody published it.

Posted by roac | April 9, 2008 10:29 AM

"NPR has him on Morning Edition all week starting today and people who tuned in to hear the preview for the hearings or the recap tomorrow, will hear Feith."-Posted by Sanjay

I don't think that NPR is doing him any favors. He really does sound like an idiot. Even the softball questions they ask him require long pauses and circumlocution. His "non-denial denials" are so bad he might as well respond "I'd like to issue a non-denial denial to that."

Posted by Njorl | April 9, 2008 11:10 AM

The "Matt's a boring moron" posts would be far more useful if they'd take the time to point to an example of a person (preferably with a blog) they consider interesting and brilliant.

I never said he was boring or a moron, but among others IOZ, the Cunning Realist guy, Daniel Larison, and David Kaiser are all more astute, more interesting (to me, anyway), and -- this is central, I think -- come at things from a broader life experience than Yglesias.

For instance, none of the people I mentioned EVER swallowed the idiotic fantasy that invading Iraq would be a good idea. Yglesias did, much as he'd like to play it down.

Posted by sglover | April 9, 2008 2:15 PM

Unless you're sending emails to yourself, Matt, how can they be self-aggrandizing? Admittedly reflexive uses of the self-notion are difficult. As Kant noted, there are three transcendant categories: God, the universe and the self. Perhaps all emails really are from your Self. If they really are.

Posted by Dick Mulliken | April 9, 2008 3:47 PM

en passant, I have a strong hunch that Feith suffers from a disorder called pseudologia fantastica. This is a subtype of impostererism or the As If personality where there is an extremely compelling parody of rationality. You have to listen Very Closely to detect that it's all blather. Pesudologia Fantasicists have become CEOs of major companies and even managed to fool other scientists in physics, etc.

Posted by Dick Mulliken | April 9, 2008 4:00 PM

Njorl -

Agreed. Feith couldn't have come off worse on this morning's NPR, can't believe he'd subject himself to an entire week of this.

Posted by TW | April 9, 2008 4:00 PM

I got my copy (of yours, not Feith's) a few days ago from Amazon, and also saw it in a local Barnes and Noble. Haven't let myself start reading it yet, though, because I'm trying to finish something else first. Hopefully this weekend!

Posted by Kat with a K | April 17, 2008 1:28 PM