This is review from DailyKos, the leading progressive blog:
Book Review: The Audacity of Help Hotlist
by DarkSyde
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Sun Oct 11, 2009 at 08:00:16 AM PDT
The Audacity of Help: Obama’s Economic Plan and the Remaking of America
By John Wasik, Bloomberg 2009
Paperback, 202 Pages, $16.95 New
John Wasik is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. His prior book, The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome took what at first glance was a wonky and potentially dry topic and turned it into an engaging series of anecdotes and narratives neatly integrated into an informed, comprehensive story. Audacity follows right along in that vein, performing a minor literary miracle in the process by transforming the language of bailout and stimulus legislation from text so mind numbingly dull it would knock out any reader forced to slog through it faster than a 10mg Valium and Tequila chaser, to a series of exceptionally well organized and interesting vignettes that will entertain the reader while leaving behind a detailed grasp of the subject matter superior to many of the politicians who vote on it.
The book briskly reviews voodoo trickle-down economics and deregulation, and the general scope of the wreckage conservative economic policies and corporate lobbyists made of the thriving nation handed over to them in January 2001, before introducing the steps since taken by the President and Congress to clean up along with who wins and who loses. The chapters are neatly organized by topic and intent like “Rebuilding Infrastructure,” or Job Creators and the Green Collar Bonus”. Wasik then smartly summarizes the various bills and spending plans in each category like this:
CLEAN-ENERGY FINANCE INITIATIVE
What Was Promised: Obama promised to launch a clean-energy finance initiative to leverage 100 billion dollars in private sector …
What Congress Passed: Congress created a raft of incentives for clean-energy producers, including the following: …
The concise summaries are in turn followed by expert analysis entitled “Who Benefits the Most”. And that’s where the high quality writing and detailed research really shines through. Wasik minces no words, spares no political sacred cows, and takes no partisan sides. If the GOP, blue-dogs, lobbyists, pork and earmarks, or reversals or political stumbles waters down the legislation or fails to get it passed, Wasik tells you in no uncertain terms and frames it in what it means, or might portend, for you.
The topics are well footnoted and indexed, making the book extremely useful as a reference to shoot down those endlessly circulated emails winguts like to send out brimming with half truths and outright whoppers about some alleged legislative outrage du jour. The book mercifully stops along the way as necessary to develop useful definitions and explanations that are too often assumed by other authors, or lost to the programming limitations of commercial radio and cable news. For example, if you want to understand the challenges and benefits of a smart power grid and how the Obama administration is planning to create them, it’s probably useful to know the basics of a traditional dumb grid before tackling what the key features of smart one would be. I doubt very much if most politicians — especially the antiscience goons — comprehend it as well as you will after reading this book, making Audacity of Help a fine addition to any home library or office, not to mention a great stocking stuffer in the holidays ahead for the political junkie in your life.
Tags: DailyKos, Green Deal, jobs, Obama