Here's a good story, and a plug for more progressive publishing, jerome

My wife and I run Ig Publishing, an independent press based in Brooklyn, NY that publishes liberal/progressive nonfiction. Being loyal readers of Daily Kos, we discovered, early in 2005, a series of diaries on the site called Confessions of a Former Dittohead. The Confessions series detailed one man's transformation from a Rush Limbaugh-loving,gay-hating, pro-tax cutting, anti-abortion "dittohead" into a liberal Democrat. The diaries really struck a chord with us, and we thought that they would make an excellent book, so we got in touch with the author, whose name is Jim Derych, and now, a little over a year later, CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER DITTOHEAD, the book, is in stores.

Opening with Jim's introduction to Rush by his father, CONFESSIONS details how over a thirteen-year period and a "thousand small cuts," Jim moved away from the lies and distortions of Rush Limbaugh and the Republican Party to become a liberal Democrat. The book shares the personal genesis of Jim's transformation--including the moving "Amy's Story," about a friend of Jim's who had an abortion as a teenager and was abandoned by her friends and family, as well as Jim's college roommate, who tells Jim years later that he is gay and that he delayed his coming out because of "people like you"--and the political seeds of his change in thinking , including a comical encounter with the Young Republicans, his reaction to the torture scandals and the Iraq War, and his realization that tax cuts don't help the economy. The book also provides a fascinating "insider" account on how dittoheads think on the major political, economic and social issues of the day. Included are chapters on evolution, judicial activism, the military, personal responsibility, as well as a description of the "right-wing reasoning chip," which dittoheads use to filter information they receive from the "liberal media." As the country remains politically polarized, CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER DITTOHEAD provides a rare glimpse into the Republican mind, revealing how conservatives think, and what liberals and progressives can do to change that thinking. Markos himself called CONFESSIONS "one of the most important political books of the year." With the success of books like Markos' and Jerome's Crashing the Gate and Glenn Greenwald's How Would a Patriot Act?, the power of tthe blogosphere is obvious, which is a good thing for this country, in that the blogs give voice to "average citizens," and these voices are now being heard above the din of the "non-liberal" media. (It is interesting that all three of these books came out at exactly the same time--can you say zeitgeist?) Jim's story is one of an "average" American--by day, he is a certified financial planner in Memphis, TN--who examined the negative effect that his beliefs were having on his friends and his country, and changed as a result. If only more people in this country could be introspective in this way. Anyway, thanks for reading this far, and I hope you'll want to get the book for yourself. Jim's starting on a book tour next week, so hopefully you can catch him when he comes to your town. With Glenn Greenwald's book now at #1 on Amazon, wouldn't it be amazing if How Would A Patriot Act?, Crashing the Gate and Confessions of a Former Dittohead, three "blog" books, came to occupy the top three slots on Amazon?