I received my copy in the mail yesterday, having pre-ordered it what seems like ages ago. A signed copy, sure to be worth millions $10.95 fifty years from now. The story of the Franken-Coleman Minnesota Senate race, as told with panache by Carl Eeman (aka WineRev) over the course of 245 days in more than 157 Daily Kos diaries, is now in print.
It's available from Amazon, or directly from the publisher, Melange Press.
Here's an excerpt from the forward, by the Orange Satan himself, Kos:
... And while the Associated Press and local media ran their predictably
dull copy, reducing the election contest into a boring bureaucratic process,
Eeman infused his reports with so much personality and life they seemed
to burst at the seams...
What Eeman did was true journalism, no matter what traditional media
naysayers might derisvely say about online citizen reporting...
But for Eeman, reporting the facts was just the foundation...What
seemed like chaotic chatter was really a vibrant, organic working
example of open source journalism, with the back-and-forth interplay
between the various writers and commenters helping build the
narratives that succinctly distilled an incredibly complex process
into something understandable to the lay reader.
And, in case you missed it, here's the first paragraph of the very first diary:
The Coleman-Franken recount state machinery is gearing up. Both sides
are lining up lawyers for each of the 100+ recount sites (87 counties
+ multiple sites in larger cities).
His last diary on the subject was published July 8th, 2009:
After 245 days, flanked by former Vice President Mondale and Senior
Senator Amy Klobuchar, on Tuesday, July 7 at 12:16pm EDT Alan Stuart
Franken stood in the well of the United States Senate and raised his
right hand. It took Vice President Joseph Biden about 28 seconds to
recite the words of the oath of office. Al Franken, his hand on a
Bible that once belonged to his mentor Paul Wellstone, responded
simply, "I do."
From lightsaber dueling lawyers to lutefisk Winerev made the Senate race come alive.
Three cheers for WineRev, and may he be equally inspired in any future
endeavors!