Book II: Seeds of Collapse
The second book of The Truth (With Jokes) details various examples of Republican misrule, each chapter being devoted to a different example.
"A Great Political Issue" describes the Terri Schiavo incident, in which Republicans politicized her case—overruling family courts and making dubious claims about her condition—only to offend a large swath of the American public by their intrusion in what even many conservatives saw as a private matter.
"The Tom DeLay Saipan Sex Tour and Jack Abramoff Casino Getaway" describes two primary examples of congressional Republican corruption:
- First, Franken recounts the findings of a 20/20 episode detailing labor conditions on the island of Saipan in the Marianas Islands. In addition to sub-minimum wages and horrible working conditions, guest workers from China are also forced into performing live sex acts, and forced to have abortions when they become pregnant. Efforts to investigate sweatshops on Saipan are blocked by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay.
- In the other example, lobbyist Jack Abramoff rips off the Tigua native American tribe, first by fomenting Religious Right support for shutting down the Speaking Rock casino in El Paso, Texas, a major source of income for the tribe, then by claiming to help them keep their casino open by slipping amendments into bills in the House and Senate to keep the casino open.
"Social Security: Franni vs. Bush" describes Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security. Franken delves into the details as to why Social Security was, as Bush claimed, in financial dire straits, and then debunks all such given reasons. The rest of the chapter describes Bush's attempt to convince the American public to support his plan. It cites a Cato Institute piece, "Achieving a 'Leninist' Strategy", to assert that Bush's strategy for privatizing Social Security was ironically inspired by Russian Soviet Communist leader Vladimir Lenin!
The last three chapters of Book II describe the Iraq War. "Plan of Attack: Attack the Planning" describes the events leading to the war, particularly the Bush administration's refusal to either adequately plan for the war or listen to independent organizations that contradicted the party line that the war would be a quick and easy venture. "Mission Redacted" describes the efforts of corporations and private contractors to profit from the war reconstruction effort. "Werewolves of Washington" touches briefly on the administration's opinion on torture, and the apathy towards the number of people killed, both American troops and Iraqi civilians. It ends with an exhortation to vote out the people responsible in the 2006 elections.
A common thread touched on in the last three chapters is the story of Ahmed Chalabi, who had been hand-picked by Bush's Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, to run the new Iraqi regime. His attempt at an anti-Ba'athist uprising failed to gain popular support, and eventually Chalabi decided instead to attempt to gain power as a local warlord.
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Famous quotes containing the words book, seeds and/or collapse:
“‘Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Our children evaluate themselves based on the opinions we have of them. When we use harsh words, biting comments, and a sarcastic tone of voice, we plant the seeds of self-doubt in their developing minds.... Children who receive a steady diet of these types of messages end up feeling powerless, inadequate, and unimportant. They start to believe that they are bad, and that they can never do enough.”
—Stephanie Martson (20th century)
“I confidently predict the collapse of capitalism and the beginning of history. Something will go wrong in the machinery that converts money into money, the banking system will collapse totally, and we will be left having to barter to stay alive. Those who can dig in their garden will have a better chance than the rest. I’ll be all right; I’ve got a few veg.”
—Margaret Drabble (b. 1939)