Amazabombed?

March 28, 2004 2:20 PM

Would you call Googlebombing on Amazon Amazabombing? Ask Bill Frist, since whatever you call it, it just happened to him.
posted by XQUZYPHYR (28 comments total)

Reviewer: A reader from the real america
"I am troubled that someone would sell a book, trading on their service as a government insider with access to our nation's most valuable intelligence, in order to profit from the suffering that this nation endured on September 11, 2001."

- Bill Frist, hypocrite and Senator, on Richard Clarke.

The republican smear machine is certainly in high gear.

oh the humanity!
posted by mcsweetie at 2:21 PM on March 28, 2004

I guess this is different from Richard Clarke selling his book....'cos Clarke's not elected.

Hmmm.
posted by dash_slot- at 2:24 PM on March 28, 2004

This delighted me more than anything I've seen all day. Thanks, XQ!
posted by jonson at 2:26 PM on March 28, 2004

Looks like we have Atrios to thank (insert scare quotes are your discretion) for this one.
posted by punishinglemur at 2:29 PM on March 28, 2004

I believe that's a simple crapflood they pulled on that, not a keyword bombing.
posted by mathowie at 2:30 PM on March 28, 2004

If that guy is the only doctor in the congress, I will wait for a second opion before accepting what he has to say.
posted by Postroad at 2:31 PM on March 28, 2004

AT your discretion, damnit.
posted by punishinglemur at 2:32 PM on March 28, 2004

Also, seems like really dumb partisan schoolyard antics that doesn't help anyone and makes atrios look like a buffoon.
posted by mathowie at 2:34 PM on March 28, 2004

seems like really dumb partisan schoolyard antics that doesn't help anyone

They started it Matt. They went after Clinton...

nyah nyah
posted by BlueTrain at 2:38 PM on March 28, 2004

I disagree. Seems like really funny partisan schoolyard antics to me. Also, Atrios didn't actually suggest that anyone else post the same review, although it's not suprising that people would do so after reading his post.
posted by uosuaq at 2:47 PM on March 28, 2004

You take one of those nyahs back!
posted by squirrel at 2:48 PM on March 28, 2004

The other thing that's getting lost in this is that Frist didn't really profit from that book. He donated the profits to charity. And while I'd like to believe him, I think Hesiod's argument (which is what Atrios linked to in the first place) gets kind of weak and debatable:

UPDATE: Frist claims that he donated the profits from this book to charity. Which is fine. But it doesn't change the point of my post.

Frist certainly capitalized on the anthrax attacks and 9/11 to write this book in 2002, and raise his political profile. Perhaps for a run for President in 2008.

But, it turned out to be very "profitable" for him in the shorter term because he became Bush's choice for Majority Leader when Trent Lott went down in flames. Did this book cause that to happen? Not on its own, no.

But, it certainly didn't hurt, and probably had at least a marginal impact on making Frist an attractive alternative to Lott.

Thus, one can "profit" from a book in more ways than one.

posted by jbrjake at 3:12 PM on March 28, 2004

If he wrote off any of those charitable contributions on his taxes then that isn't a good enough escape anyway.

On the other hand, those reviews certainly were helpful...
posted by Space Coyote at 3:41 PM on March 28, 2004

Space Cowboy: So, not only should he give the money away, but he should pay taxes on it first? Why? If you raised $1000 for charity, would it "not count" as charitable giving unless you paid ~$350 of it straight to the government? Writing off charitable donations doesn't put more money in your pocket, it puts money that would go to the government in the charity's pocket instead.
posted by techgnollogic at 3:54 PM on March 28, 2004

The point isn't that he shouldn't donate to charity. The point is that even if he does donate the money, he's still "trading on [his] service as a government insider" for his own benefit, if he writes off the contributions on his taxes.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 4:40 PM on March 28, 2004

He should put on sackcloth and beat himself with a stick, then we'd respect him.
posted by Blue Stone at 4:45 PM on March 28, 2004

How fucking hard is it to get someone's nickname right, anyway?
posted by Space Coyote at 4:55 PM on March 28, 2004

Amazabombing is the reason Radiohead's OK Computer is 4½ instead of 5 stars.
posted by abcde at 5:00 PM on March 28, 2004

The point isn't that he shouldn't donate to charity. The point is that even if he does donate the money, he's still "trading on [his] service as a government insider" for his own benefit, if he writes off the contributions on his taxes.

It seems that some people don't understand what "writing off the contributions" means. You do not accrue any tax benefits by donating any of your income to charity. Rather, the money you donate to charity is considered not to be part of your income in the first place.... it's as though it never passed through your hands. This is a simplified example, but if you made $25,000 and donate $5000 to charity, then, as far as the IRS was concerned, you only had $20,000 in income that year. It's as though that $5000 never existed for you and went directly to the charity.

A couple things, though, after House Speaker Jim Wright was forced to resign in 1990, or so, because of a book scandal, some elected officials may decide not to take any income from their books while in office because it opens up those officials to charges of impropriety (say by demanding that supporters all buy a copy of his book, making the purchase of the book effectively a bribe).

However, many, many government staffers and advisors have for years published books based on their experiences, from Paul O'Neill (noone accused him of being in it for the money), Secretaries of State Alexander Haig and George Shultz, and, let's not forget Condoleeza Rice.
posted by deanc at 6:07 PM on March 28, 2004

I was dissapointed it didn't have more about cats.


Hahaha. For those of you who don't know, Frist adopted Kitties from shelters when he was in med school, and performed 'expirements' on them, in order to help him learn anatomy or something. (He said the competition of med school was getting to him).

So when Frist says he's killing kittens, he's not looking at nude pics of Jessica Alba
posted by delmoi at 6:57 PM on March 28, 2004

Somebody get Space Coyote a Kleenex, please.
posted by techgnollogic at 7:12 PM on March 28, 2004

Also take a look at the Richard Clarke page on Amazon, which is similarly bombed...

...this time not by smartasses, but by yahoos calling Bush's counterterrorism czar a liar.

In both cases it would probably be best for people to read the book before writing a review.
posted by inksyndicate at 9:23 PM on March 28, 2004

Man, this is great. All the news shows all day today were about Clarke's testimony. He really rode that other old hound faced senator out on the rails. The Frist Amazon attack is a clever bit of mischief. I'm all for it.
posted by vito90 at 9:31 PM on March 28, 2004

Somebody get techgnollogic some bifocals, please.
posted by soyjoy at 10:13 PM on March 28, 2004

I am a bit puzzled. Did Frist actually make the comment attributed to him in this "Amazabomb"?
posted by DBAPaul at 10:14 AM on March 29, 2004

never mind I found it [sigh]
posted by DBAPaul at 10:17 AM on March 29, 2004

Also, seems like really dumb partisan schoolyard antics that doesn't help anyone

I agree. Entertaining, perhaps, but it drags discussion of important issues down to a who-can-shout-louder level, which we have enough of already.

The charming citizens of LGF pulled a similar stunt with the comments on Chomsky's new blog, which no longer has comments turned on as a result.
posted by boredomjockey at 10:26 PM on March 29, 2004

Does that mean colorless green footballs sleep furiously?
posted by nasim at 11:06 PM on March 29, 2004