Announcing:FDL Books--and My Next Project

by emptywheel

Jane Hamsher does nothing if not think big. So she's taken upon herself to start FDL books--a blogs to book publishing team to bring the best of the blogs to bookstores and beyond.

And I am flattered, humbled, and overwhelmed to announce that the first book from FDL books will be my narrative of the Plame Scandal. The book will be blogosphere-funded (with a bare bones budget, I promise!) and Jane has just started fundraising today.

This will be an opportunity for me to take the work I've done here--with the really tremendous contributions of TNH's commentors--and spread it to a larger audience. Our goal is to finish the book in time for the trial (barring a Libby pardon, of course), which will give those just tuning in a way to become well-informed on the Plame scandal quickly.

Comments

[Jim E.]

Congratulations!

[Jeff]

Let me be the first to congratulate you here! Nicely done.

[Jeff]

Damn, make that second.

[emptywheel]

And I apologize for the b...b...b...b...bad alliteration in that first sentence. Must eliminate crap like that, quick!

[crab nebula]

Hamsher is a film producer, this is exactly what producers do. Her boldness is welcome; I think the best voices of the left blogosphere should be pushed more aggressively in the traditional media.

[mainsailset]

Jane's picked a winner again! Great news for all around.

[Petey]

Muchos congratulatos.

[Tom Maguire]

Congratulations.

Any bets on whether you will end up filing an amicus brief asking for a delay in the trial?

[William Ockham]

Congratulations! Let me know if you need any technical (computer) help.

[emptypockets]

I'd like the next one to be a coffee table book with large glossy photos titled, "George W. Bush: The Disaster Years"

We can each give a chapter on our favorite abomination since 2001.

[njr]

Thank you for your time... and bare bones my foot... if you need more help to keep dinner on the table, let us know.
And Fellow Readers, get thyselves and thy warm plastic cards over to FDL to get this off the ground NOW.

[SaltinWound]

This is fantastic news. I just made my contribution over at firedoglake.

[CLK]

EMPTYWHEEL nailed the Plame leak investigation-still hoping the investigation leads to trial, not pardon. My donation has been made. Do you think ABC will make a TV movie of EMPTYWHEEL's upcoming book?

[JohnLopresti]

The pictures of dogs should be better than web resolution. For example there is a technology company that makes each book easily identifiable by a cover image pen drawing of a rare or photogenic animal; the owner of that company's degree, I believe, is comparative religion, Harvard; heard him speak once. I was thinking more the chapter colophons. When studying perl sometimes I thought O'Reilly was oversimplifying a Good Thing by making a theme graphic.

You probably know the production story of the Greenwald book; I liked the idea that he and his publisher fairly decided to rent an apartment and write it in a few weeks' time.

Thinking book was where your research was headed, I pasted the following from your June 29, 2006 post; but you probably have all this in your computer. It has been obvious from your extensive near instantaneous replies to the Rove drones recently that you have this organized, besides Knowing It.

the outline:

Anatomy of a White House Smear
by emptywheel
3.1
The Background--Niger Claims and Power Struggles: 2002-2003
Data Collection and Pre-Leak Leaking: March to July 2003
Let the Leaking Begin: June 2003

3.2
Sunday July 6: Dick Takes Notes
Monday July 7: Priming Ari
Wednesday July 9: The Trip Report Goes Public
Thursday July 10: And On the Fourth Day the Cabal Rests
Friday July 11: The Sword Falling
Saturday July 12: Dick Writes More Talking Points
July 13: And the Cabal Said Let Us Rest Twice in One Week
July 14: The Real Damage Done
Summary (Novak column)

3.3
Delayed Realization and Playing Dumb: July to September 2003
The Fix Is In: September 26 to October 8 2003
Refuse to Recuse: October to December 2003

3.4
Libby's Strategery
Rove's Strategery
New Subpoenas
The Grand Jury Witnesses

3.5
The Chronology
Royce and Phelps--a Shadow of Novak?
Tim Russert's Cocktail Weenies
Glenn Kessler's Successful Carve-Out
Walter Pincus' Non-Resident Privilege
Matt Cooper's Contigent First Amendment
Judy's Protection Racket (But Not of the First Amendment)

3.6
The Stenographers
Impugning Witnesses
Source Protection Reversing the Flow of Information
Coaching Witnesses

3.7
The Indictment
Libby's Legal and Fundraising Team
The New Evidence
Discovery

Section 3.7 published to web June 29, 2006

I think there is some parallelism needed in some of those captions, but it is all simple copy and paste, all your words, even the 'strategy' in 3.4. We have gone a lot farther in the past nine weeks.
J

[mickey]

My donation's in too. The answer may be blowin' in the wind, but you've kept us watching the clouds for a long time now. Here's hoping it pays off!

Thanks for all your amazing work...

[mk]

EW -- super news. My donation will be in tomorrow -- but please please let me know if there is anything I can do to help in any other way. I am a writer/editor; my husband was a copy editor for 20-plus years and is now a writer; my daughter in NYC copy edits and proofs manuscripts freelance; and my other daughter does graphic design and layout in NYC. If any of our skils would be useful, please let me know.

[ecoast]

EW - Congratulations.
Jane couldn't have picked a better writer to start off the FDL Books brand and build on it. My donation will be on its way.

[mk]

especially good at spelling. "skils" indeed.

[emptywheel]

Shhh! John, that's my secret. Or was it a little obvious?

There'll be a few new twists, I promise.

And thanks to you all--for your kindness now, and contributions to this site.

[Boston Boomer]

Congratulations Marcy! You are the greatest. I've never seen anything like the way you have dissected the Plame case step by step. I can't wait to read it in book form. I don't have much money, but I'll support the cause with a small donation.

Ann

[pontificator]

Congrats, EW!

What Jennifer Nix and Glenn Greenewald did with "How Would a Patriot Act?" was really extraordinary, and I can't wait to see it repeated here!

[ExcuseMeExcuseMe]

EW

I hope that sometimes, in the quiet, you think about how you have created change in our world, and just how huge a difference you are making.

Not all of us get to make a mark on the world, and I hope you think about your part and relish it.

[jonnybutter]

Awesome, EW (I prefer to call you that!). Big congrats.

[orionATL]

congratulations.

this is going to be fun to read.

[janinsanfran]

Great news. Not my subject, but figuring out how to use print media politically is, so I'm watching the progress of your book (and Greenwald's) with fascination.

[kim]

Congratulations! I'd thought I might see a large book from you sometime after the trial reviewing the Plame saga, but this sounds like a good place to start.

[emal]

Congratulations!

From a longtime tnh lurker and avid reader/fan of yours...hope the book will be out just in time for Fitzma eerrrr I mean Christmas.

[verplanck colvin]

Wow. This is just what I needed: a summary of posts in a single narrative.

The blogosphere is really coming of age.

Congrats, and good luck.

[kainah]

Congratulations, emptywheel. Can't wait to read it. I wish the FDL post looking for donations hadn't made it sound like they were only looking for abt 700 people who could give $100 each. I assumed you'd be happy with my piddly little $10, anyway. But you might want to suggest that they change the wording a bit!

Anyway, I know it will be great. When can we pre-order to start it up those charts?

[Ardant]

ew - What ExcuseMe said. I haven't had a hero since Willie Mays. Over the last year I've come to know what a true hero and patriot is. I look forward to your continued brilliance.

[Steve]

Marcy, congratulations and best of luck on the new project.

I wonder if my reaction will be similar to that from reading Greenwald's, which I thought was a great book but left me mildly disappointed because, as a regular reader of his blog, I kinda felt like I had read it all before. I guess if that holds true, it's less of a criticism than it is a tribute to all the spectacular work you've done in the blogosphere on this story.

I also hope the book will be published in a second edition, with a special Fitzmas epilogue!

[al-Scooter]

I just want to thank you and Jennifer and Jane for taking this project on and for affording all of us the opportunity to share a little in its provenance.

[oldtree]

should libby dole be pardoned, the "s" will easily be added to the word "trial" for it is certain we will see new legal actions taken before the elections. should we have elections

[jwp]

EW,

You are a pamphleteer for our time.

Not content to record analysis after the fact, you engage in the life of our times.

Ever heard of any such folks?

You go!

[emptywheel]

Steve

Well, I hope to add a few surprises. But if I'm going to do that, I'd better get to work!!

[pontificator]

Libby trial news:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14705954

[irene]

ew-- yay, you!

from a long time lurker... your collection of plame writing has been something to behold. this is wonderful news. for everyone!

[dlake]

Congrats. I know the name Jane H. but, can't place where I know it from.

[freepatriot]

all right emptywheel

glad to see that your innertubes gig is finally merging with main stream media

enjoy your opportunity to present scooter's treason in the first accurate record

and don't forget PollyUSA

polly covers the small stuff like white on rive (links, articles, etc)

thanks for taking the chance to put what we have learned here down on paper for the permanent record

[freepatriot]

yo, dlake

you might know Jane H as Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake dot com backslash

or you might know Jane H from YearlyKOS

she's "the girl" on the panel

since DailyKOS is the most common denominator in this whole innertubes experiment, I'm sure that this is all a part of Markos' evil plan

All Hail The Mighty emptywheel

[emptywheel]

freepatriot

Oh trust me, I haven't forgotten the contributions of polly.

[eCAHNomics]

Congratulations.

Here's a suggestion. Set a general framework that all of these machinations occurred within. My guess: being an ideologue is all about not wanting real information, but rather purging those who would frustrate one's agenda by providing real information. I've thought that about Plame since learning of her work on Iran's WMDs. Now that we know she was in charge of the CIA group that wasn't finding what Shooter wanted in Iraq, getting rid of her became more imperative. So for Shooter, it was killing two birds with one stone--Wilson & Plame.

Subsidiary evidence of this hypothesis: Goss's purge of anyone who knew anything at CIA. Furthered when Negroponte took over & even got rid of Goss. (Is there an untold story there or do we know why, but I missed it?)

Tertiary evidence: Israel in Lebanon. Israel had no idea how deeply entrenched & well trained Hizballah had become. Where was the vaunted (when did vaunted become a dirty word?) Mossad, Shin Bet? My guess is purged by the neocons who were ideologically driven and wanted no one to stand in their way.

My only reservations about this hypothesis is that it hangs together too well, explains too much behavior.

[Katie Jensen]

Nobody does it better...I can't wait to buy copies for all the folks who I have encouraged to visit this site but haven't made it. Will also make a contribution with the next paycheck. It only took one visit at this site to see that you had the facts.

Thank you so much for the work you do.