I've settled on a general framework for the research phase of Operation EchoLand, divided into two Projects: The current one, Project Gnomon, is a gathering process of names, official titles, and dates the offices were held. The end result of the current project will be the Gnomon, which will be an organized list of the gathered information, once verified and reconciled, which I will share with Daily Kos.
After that is completed, I will begin Project Pumpkin Patch, which will involve research into each and every name in the Gnomon, utilizing Deep Web database searches, Library of Congress searches, Federal Register searches, standard Google searches, Lexis Nexis & other news database searches, and possibly more involved investigative methods in cases where I smell something.
The result of Project Pumpkin Patch will be the Kleptonomicon: A vast database of information on the individual players of the Bush regime, containing bibliographies of every news article I've found that mentions a given person, memos and other officially archived writings by them, history of promotions and salaries within the regime, event timelines, and as many other relevant factors as I determine going forward. The Gnomon will be a partial index for the Kleptonomicon, but the latter will include people who never held any official title - contractors, propaganda figures, etc.
I will share one out of ten completed profiles with Daily Kos, but it is my intention to sell the whole Kleptonomicon online as a file download for other researchers and activists to use. I haven't investigated prevailing prices for such things, but I assume I'd be selling it relatively cheaply - like $5 or less. Given the amount of work likely to have been invested in it by then - indeed, I've already invested quite a bit and am not even at the point of beginning Project Pumpkin Patch yet - I think a modest number of people would find it quite worthwhile, since it's work they themselves wouldn't have to do.
From there, I will use the Kleptonomicon to trace out the major events, relationships, and patterns in the regime over the course of its rule, and develop an integrated timeline that will subsequently lead to the narrative outline of the history. This is all very general, but I can fill in the details as I go.
Regarding my recent diary, Naming An Empire, I would like to thank everyone who participated in my collaborative brainstorm to come up with a name for the Bushian state. I haven't settled on anything, and don't need to for quite a while, but I am at least leaning toward coining an adjective for the regime state and its unique politics: Texic. This would be historically robust, since it describes a geographical and cultural pedigree while distinguishing it from Texas itself. This is an important distinction, like "Germanic" vs. "German."
I am also leaning toward using the word "Axis" in describing the political arrangement of the regime, since it was an alliance of corrupt Big Business, extremist religion, and fascist foreign policy elements: Agendas with widely varying attitudes and objectives that did not always coincide. As I noted in the comment discussion to the Naming An Empire diary, I'm toying with including Axis in my name for the Bushian state - e.g., "Texic Axis" - but am not totally satisfied with this idea. "Texic Kingdom" has many advantages. Again, I have not reached a verdict.
There is no schedule to any part of Operation EchoLand: I approach these tasks according to my convenience, which gives me tremendous flexibility to do things right and not cut corners. Unfortunately, that means I can't give any kind of date projections on when I expect any given part to be begun or completed. At best, I can lay out what needs to be done and where I am at any given point. From now on, I'll include succinct status updates at the end of each of these diaries.
Status 3/7/2010:
Current Project: Gnomon
Completed tasks:
- LOC archives: Nominations submitted to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, 2001-2008
- Parsed 2004 Plum Book
Current task: Parse 2008 Plum Book
Future tasks in this Project:
- Finish LOC nomination archives.
- Trawl Wikipedia for board memberships and independent agency postings.
- Parse Federal Yellow Books 2001-2008, inclusive.
- Eliminate redundancies in Gnomon.
- Find full names.
- Find all job titles held for each name and inclusive dates.
- Post Gnomon to Daily Kos, in however many parts are necessary.
Future Projects:
...
(TBD)
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Past installments in this series:
Operation EchoLand, Diary 7: Cheney's OVP - Fleet Game Afoot
Book Project Diary 6: Operation EchoLand
Book Project Diary 5: Your Mama Named You What?
Book Project Diary 4: Jackpot
Book Project Diary 3: Carly Fiorina Pals Around With Halliburton Executives
Book Project Diary 2: Feeling Like A Schmuck
Book Project Diary 1: Awed By The Magnitude