Third batch. Maybe it's time to start picking out the obvious, the bottomless pit of Bush league politics, plus a few books on Israel and the Middle East, since they have so much in common. This is about the half-way point -- still adding to the list, so it's hard to be certain.

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SSG David Bellavia: House to House: An Epic Memoir of War (2007, Free Press): Reportedly a detailed, relentless, guilt-free assault on Fallujah, the author a "real American hero" with 5 confirmed kills and not the least bit of respect or sympathy for the other side. I suspect I'd find this book horrifying. But at least it has the ring of truth, unlike Michael Yon: Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New "Greatest Generation" of American Soldiers Is Turning Defeat and Disaster Into Victory and Hope.

Sidney Blumenthal: The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party (2008, Union Square Press): Essay collection, carrying on from his previous How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime. Author best known for defending Clinton from all corners, including when he had it coming. I rarely read him at Salon, so don't see much value in permanently binding him in hardcover. I am, however, more intrigued by the new reprint of his 1985 book: The Rise of the Counter-Establishment: The Conservative Ascent to Political Power. Only an establishment liberal like Blumenthal could see the neofascists half-way through the Reagan reign as a political counterculture.

David Brock/Paul Waldman: Free Ride: John McCain and the Media (paperback, 2008, Anchor): Following Matt Welch's McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, a quickie, with more on the way.

Rachel Bronson: Thicker Than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia (2007, Oxford University Press): Reportedly one of the more balanced histories of Saudi Arabia and its relationship with the US -- she contrasts it with Rober Baer's Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude and Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties. The Saudis make for easy targets with their medieval theology, vast oil wealth, and nuanced pro-America/anti-Israel foreign policy.

Vincent Bugliosi: The Prosecution of George W Bush for Murder (2008, Vanguard Press): I'd be happy to nab Bush on this or any other charge, anything to drive him from power, but I'd think the clearer case would be for fraud, as Elizabeth de la Vega has shown.

Christopher Catherwood/Joe DiVanna: The Merchants of Fear: Why They Want Us to Be Afraid (2008, Lyons Press): Hint: Isn't that Bush and Cheney on the cover? The authors find a long history of fearmongering for political gains. Catherwood previously wrote: Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq; A Brief History of the Middle East: From Abraham to Arafat; A God Divided: Understanding the Differences Betwen Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

Christopher Cerf/Victor Navasky: Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak (paperback, 2008, Simon & Schuster). Salon called this "an upper-middle-brow bathroom book," a couple hundred pages of direct quotes from the people who got us into this war -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Rice are all on the cover -- and those who cheered them on -- looks like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly too. The authors previously wrote the more generic: The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation.

Lou Dubose/Jake Bernstein: Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency (2006, Random House): Dubose co-wrote two Molly Ivins books on Bush, here adding a laundry list of dirt on the VP. There must be a dozen or more similar books. One thing I'm struck by is the recurrent use of "hijacking" in books about the Bush regime. It's a graphic verb, but what actually happened was more like a big con job, which works to no small extent because the conned were willing to go along. Now that they realize they've been had, they can take some comfort in metaphors that emphasize their victimhood. But the more interesting question is what made them so gullible in the first place. Other examples, not all from the left: Jonathan Chait: The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics; Philip Gold: Take Back the Right: How the Neocons and the Religious Right Have Hijacked the Conservative Movement; Ariana Huffington: Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe; Peter Irons: War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution; Robert F Kennedy Jr: Crimes Against Nature: How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy; Robert Scheer: The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America; Paul Sperry: Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism; Richard Viguerie: Conservatives Betrayed: How George W Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.

Mickey Edwards: Reclaiming Conservatism: How a Great American Political Movement Got Lost -- and How It Can Find Its Way Back (2008, Oxford University Press): Former Republican congressman, one of a growing growing crowd of conservatives trying to salvage something from the debacle -- cf. Andrew Sullivan's The Conservative Soul: Fundamentalism, Freedom, and the Future of the Right; David Frum's Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win; Newt Gingrich: Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works; many more. One exceptional thing about Edwards' book is the unanimous praise he gets from Amazon reviewers -- mostly true believers, no doubt, but including a favorable blurb from the relatively sane Sean Wilentz.

Larry Everest: Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the US Global Agenda (2003, Common Courage Press): Writer for Revolutionary Worker rehearses the history of US/UK oil politics -- and, well, you only need one guess as to what Iraq was all about.

Justin Frank: Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (2004; revised paperback, 2007, Harper): I'm very wary of anyone trying to reduce political decisionmaking to psychological factors, but the more the Bush regime's acts come to reflect the personality of the leader, the more clear it is that he has a few screws loose.

Brandon Friedman: The War I Always Wanted: The Illusion of Glory and the Reality of War (2007, Zenith Press): Lieutenant, 101st Airborne, in Afghanistan, having the time of his life. Spent some time in Iraq, too. Says: "Americans cannot comprehend what the Iraqi people have been through for the last five, 15 or 35 years." There are hundreds of war memoirs out by now -- I rarely give them a glance, and won't bother with a list.

Jonah Goldberg: Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (2008, Doubleday): Seems like it should be a joke, but this book has improbably wound up on top of bestseller lists. The title isn't very clear: is "liberal" an adjective here? or just an expletive? The argument seems to be transitive: that liberals are fascists, and vice versa. (Chapter titles include "Hitler: Man of the Left" and "Brave New Village: Hillary Clinton and the Meaning of Liberal Fascism"). The point may be to trivialize the word "fascist" as a political epithet. That obviously benefits conservatives like Goldberg more than anyone else.

Jeff Halper: An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel (paperback, 2008, Pluto Press): An activist, especially in opposing Israel's demolition of Palestinian houses, Halper wrote a remarkable essay on the Israeli occupation's "matrix of control" showing that it goes far beyond such models as South Africa's bantustans.

Russ Hoyle: Going to War: How Misinformation, Disinformation, and Arrogance Led America Into Iraq (2008, Thomas Dunne): Stop me if you've heard this one before. At 544 pages may even have something you don't know already.

Deal W Hudson: Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (2008, Threshold Editions): On the political rise of the religious right.

Ariana Huffington: Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe (and What You Need to Know to End the Madness) (2008, Knopf): At least she snagged a good title this time. I still find it hard to take her seriously, but the Amazon reviews are pretty evenly divided between 5 and 1 stars -- one of the latter called the book "a vile cesspool of hate."

Bryan D Jones/Walter Williams: The Politics of Bad Ideas: The Great Tax Cut Delusion and the Decline of Good Government in America (paperback, 2008, Longman): Fiscal responsibility lecture centering around ill-advised tax cuts.

Robert Kagan: Dangerous Nation: America's Foreign Policy from Its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (paperback, 2007, Vintage): Right-wing historian, scion of a family of public menaces, but his title is true enough. Argues that even at the time of the American Revolution we were headed for empire, a tack we've never strayed much from. While this is consistent with neoconservative ambitions, it also seems like a warning to the rest of the world. Ends in 1898 with the Spanish-American War, just when most studies of American imperialism are getting warmed up. A second volums is in the works, bound to be massive. Meanwhile, Kagan has also written: The Return of History and the End of Dreams. First three names to offer "advance praise": John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, Richard Holbrooke.

Gilles Kepel/Jean-Pierre Milelli, eds: Al Qaeda in Its Own Words (2008, Belknap Press): It's a dirty job, but Kepel has proven to be the most broadly learned and sensible of experts. Several competing editions, not worth mentioning.

David Kuo: Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (2006; paperback, 2007, Free Press): Somewhere well down on my pending list of questions about the Bush regime is whether their "faith-based" initiatives were ever meant to be anything more than patronage favors for evangelical supporters (in other words, everyday graft). Of course, it helped to con a few believers, and Kuo was one of them.

Gregory Levey: Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned From the Israeli Government -- A Memoir (2008, Free Press): Former speechwriter, first for the Israeli UN delegation, then for Ariel Sharon. Nice work if you can get it, but ultimately a little weird.

Paul Levy: The Madness of George W Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis (2006, AuthorHouse): May just be more psychobabble, but the intriguing word here is "collective" with its suggestion that we are participants in Bush's madness. Book cover is unnervingly schizo.

Eric Lichtblau: Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice (2008, Pantheon): Probably good as far as it goes -- author received a Pulitzer for his reporting on NSA's wiretap program -- but an even bigger subtitle would be The Remaking of American Injustice (of course, then the title should be Bush's Crimes -- good idea for a sequel).

Allan J Lichtman: White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement (2008, Atlantic Monthly Press): Big history of the conservative movement, with two idiosyncrasies: goes back to WWI rather than WWII or later, and characterizes the movement as protestant.

Marc Lynch: Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (paperback, 2007, Columbia University Press): Author does a good job of covering Arabic media, blogging as Abu Aardvark.

Saree Makdisi: Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (2008, WW Norton): Focuses on the little things of the occupation, the things that affect Palestinians every day.

Mike Marqusee: If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew (2008, Verso): American-born journalist, based in UK, has previously written on Bob Dylan, Muhammad Ali, and cricket. Traces his family history leading to his leftist turn against Zionism. This follows other notable anti-Zionist books: Michel Warschawski: Toward an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society; Joel Kovel: Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine.

Aaron David Miller: The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (2008, Bantam): Miller has some sort of insider status allowing him to focus on America's role, which may or may not be useful in trying to sort out the many things that have gone wrong.

Gabriel Piterberg: The Returns of Zionism: Myths, Politics and Scholarship in Israel (paperback, 2008, Verso): History of early Zionist thought, placing it within the context of European nationalism and colonialism predominant at the time. Looking forward to Arno Mayer book on this same subject: Ploughshares Into Swords: From Zionism to Israel, scheduled for June 9.

Norman Podhoretz: World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism (2007, Doubleday): When all the other neocons give up, Podhoretz is the one most likely to stick to the fight. Don't know whether that's because he's the purest of ideologists, or he's just stuck deepest in the rut of hatred. His conceptual coup here is to call the Cold War World War III, raising it to a level of intentionality it never enjoyed, one that can be safely indulged in now that it is over. The Cold War at least had some practical value legitimizing capital against labor in the class struggle. This new one, however, has no such side angles. Folks like Podhoretz promote it just because war is the only thing that gives their miserable lives meaning.

Bill Press: Trainwreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too Soon) (2008, Wiley): Author of How the Republicans Stole Religion: Why the Religious Right is Wrong about Faith & Politics and What We Can Do to Make it Right, with its "Last Supper" tableau on the cover; also Bush Must Go: The Top Ten Reasons Why George Bush Doesn't Deserve a Second Term, and Spin This!: All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth. People who write books like that rarely have anything new to say, but the Republicans' painful collision with reality, and with their own mortality, is a subject worth digging deeper into. Otherwise we risk getting wrapped up in premature gloating.

Matthew Rothschild: You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression (paperback, 2007, New Press): Numerous examples of rights you think you have being trampled on by those in power.

Ryan Sager: The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party (2006, Wiley): Focuses on the two most extreme misfits in the big and increasingly tattered Republican coalition.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S Sanchez: Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story (2008, Harper): One more for the war crimes tribunal, along with similar briefs by Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer, Douglas Feith, George Tenet, and so on down the line -- the great thing about American publishing is that sooner or later we'll be able to collect the full set, even from the functionally illiterate. Sanchez got some press for deviating from the party line. That'll come in handy at his trial.

Philippe Sands: Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values (2008, Palgrave Macmillan): This is one area where my initial cynicism precludes me from getting interested enough to dig deeper, although I'm curious about the chapter on 24. Author of Lawless World: The Whistle-Blowing Account of How Bush and Blair Are Taking the Law Into Their Own Hands, a worthwhile book I bought but haven't gotten to.

Cliff Schechter: The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't (2008, PoliPoint Press): Cover photo is the well-worn shot where McCain buries his face into Bush's bosom, with Bush raising his right hand like a country preacher welcoming the sinner back to the flock. Only 200 pages, just enough to scratch the dirt.

J Peter Scoblic: US Versus Them: How a Half-Century of Conservatism Has Undermined America's Security (2008, Viking): Starts with Reagan, establishing a mind set that has proven durably successful at finding new enemies whenever old ones wane.

Jeff Sharlet: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (2008, Harper): Has something to do with religion and power in America, probably something unseemly.

David Sirota: The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt That's Scaring Wall Street and Washington (2008, Crown): Activist-oriented blogger. I bought his Hostile Takover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government -- and How We Take It Back for the thoroughness of its laundry lists, but haven't done more than skim it.

Rupert Smith: The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World (paperback, 2008, Vintage Books): British General, background includes Northern Ireland, 1991 Gulf War, Bosnia. Turns out force doesn't work very well in struggles that are basically political. In his intro, he puts it thus: "war no longer exists" -- in effect, the idea that was war no longer has any utility. Does not deny that armed mobs wreaking destruction still exist -- just that they have no utility.

Michael Standaert: Skipping Towards Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire (paperback, 2006, Soft Skull Press): LaHaye's 15 Left Behind novels have sold over 70 million copies. I think this stuff is too nuts to get involved with, but if you're so inclined, there's this; also Glenn Shuck: Marks of the Beast: The Left Behind Novels and the Struggle for Evangelical Identity. The novels also figure in Amy Johnson Frykholm: Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America.

Craig Unger: The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America's Future (2007, Scribner): Inevitable follow up to the author's House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties, the guilt-by-association exposé Michael Moore had some fun with in Fahrenheit 9/11. While Unger may have uncovered a new tidbit or two, the "Untold" in the new title is way over the top. That the Busheviks still imperil America is sadly true, but it's not for lack of documentation.

Martin Van Creveld: Defending Israel: A Strategic Plan for Peace and Security (paperback, 2005, St Martin's Griffin): Famous Israeli military theoretician approaches the task of defending Israel from the Palestinians. Basic approach is to withdraw settlements in order to separate the populations and establish defensible borders. In looking this up I also ran across John Hagee's In Defense of Israel, which is another kettle of fish, another of his armageddon epiphanies -- other titles include: Beginning of the End: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Coming Antichrist; From Daniel to Doomsday: The Countdown Has Begun; Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude to War; and Final Dawn Over Jerusalem: The World's Future Hangs in the Balance With the Battle for the Holy City. With Hagee's endorsement, McCain is likely to be the worst enemy of more than just Hamas.

Robert Vitalis: America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier (2006, Stanford University Press): Seems likely to be more critical than Rachel Bronson's Thicker Than Oil, especially regarding Saudi Aramco. Cover is kind of amusing, with an American flag design, the red stripes green, the stars replaced with a Saudi flag, facing from right to left.

Timothy P Weber: On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend (2004, Baker Academic): I come from a long line of prairie intellectuals (farmers whose learning began with the Bible and ended in the Book of Revelations) so this isn't new to me (I remember my grandfather plumbing me for information on Israel to check whether the second coming was near), but it still strikes me as batty. It's easier for me to believe that what turns the evangelicals on about Israel is the gore, but then I think back to my grandfather, or for that matter to David Lloyd George, who explained his support for Zionism because he hoped it might expedite the second coming. This digs into Tim LaHaye and John Hagee, the whole ball of wax.

Mel White: Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right (2006, Tarcher): Pastor, spent many years inside the movement, fell out over homosexuality, which he previously detailed in Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America.