Flame-throwing political books from the right and the left

Judging by the political books hitting the summer shelves, we are gearing up for the next civil war. Or maybe an uncivil war. The titles -- from both the left and the right -- are rude, self-righteous and inflammatory. Let the summer's literary flame throwing begin!

If you believe the conservatives, we have a president engaged in a war on the United States. We have a secular-socialist administration destroying the nation we love. And we have a call for rebellion in the red states.

If you believe the liberals, we have Republicans going insane after their White House defeat. We have the right wing deploying Taliban jihadist tactics to blast America back to the stone age when manly men ruled, women were submissive and religion silenced the voices of science.

Yes, it could be a long, hot summer. But when does a swat from the left cancel out a snipe from the right? When do we reach a state of political imbecility where only the noise exists -- and all thought and reason have drained away? You judge. Here are the titles.

FLAMETHROWING FROM THE LEFT

OVER THE CLIFF

How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane

By John Amato and David Neiwert

PoliPoint. 284 pp. Paperback, $16.95

The gist: In November 2008, the right wing lost its mind and has yet to recover: Extremists prowl the land, fill the airwaves, preaching that America is doomed under Barack Obama.

In its own words: "The American Right's descent into madness, embodied in its takeover by right-wing populists, was more than a problem just for serious conservatives who understood that it would ultimately prove to be their destruction. The very nature of the insanity that was being unleashed posed a larger problem for the nation at large -- namely, the implicit threat of violence and extremist unrest, represented most vividly by the revival of the militia movement."

COMMON NONSENSE

Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance