Playing With a Full Deck

"A high school teacher, fed up with the Bush administration's popular playing cards featuring Saddam Hussein, 'Chemical Ali' and other most-wanted Iraqis, is now selling her own deck, 'Operation Hidden Agenda,'" writes Kim Curtis. "Kathy Eder's 55 playing cards show pictures of President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others along with quotes, mostly from journalists, questioning the rationale for the U.S.-led war. The backs feature a 1983 photograph of Rumsfeld shaking Sadaam Hussein's hand." Unable to find a publisher, Eder published the cards herself, and they've been selling well, even though many retailers have refused to carry them. "She imitated some of the best marketing minds in the country," said bookstore owner Don Gardner, who says sales of the cards at his store are "running neck-and-neck" with the latest Harry Potter book.