Rating: 
Summary: The Howard Dean of the Literary World
Review: In general I thought this book was mildly entertaining, but was far from the best book currently available in its genre. Moore makes a number of valid points, but seldom provides a good argument. While I tend to agree with him on the vast majority of the ideas he lays out here, he offers little in the way of hard facts (the kind that may actually convince someone 'on the fence' to agree with him) to back them up. This is unfortunate, because there is no shortage of information available that could do just that. For a good (if slightly drier) example, I suggest you read Joe Conason's "Big Lies".
One could argue that this was not Moore's intention- that he is primarily acting as an angry funny-man and pitching his material to those who already agree with him. This is very likely the truth. However, in my personal opinion, Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" makes more and better points, while being infinitely funnier.
Put simply, Moore is an adequate writer and producer, but far from the best in his field.
Rating: 
Summary: Get the Facts straight
Review: I almost wept when I saw the utter stupidity in some of the comments of the readers in this review thread...America has got to wake up. Yes you, redneck, YOU are the cause for all this. America is grossly consuming and the world is our slave labour, but of course we are so blissfully unaware of it that we support a monkey who wasn't elected who bombs countries ruled by dictators WE installed. Its true, America is the threat, america is the threat to FREEDOM, seen by the numerous times we allowed dictators we placed in power to rape a few cites over again then give them foreign aid. Later, of course, we send our 'boys' to bomb their civilian centers in firey holocausts surpassing anything september 11 was, tenfold. Then one of them dies to a native gunmen defending his land against imerialist invasion and we hold friggin CELEBRATIONS for them. Yeah, open your eyes America, nothing is as good as it ever seems, because in the dark reality which is this world America is hated because America has done the wrong things time and time again. Down with the system! Conservatives reading this, yes, take the pill. The red pill, get out of the matrix you tangle yourself in and read this book.Note that much of what I said does not come from this book, because I belive Moore wants to live and not say what I just said: the truth.
Aidos
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Summary: Neatly done, Michael. Required reading for US citizens.
Review: We Americans are such an incredible group of human beings. That has always been obvious. This was true even before there was a George Washington, let alone a George of the more recent variety. It takes a Michael Moore to explain it so plainly what makes us so special. Believe it or not, THAT is what 'Dude, Where's My Country?' is really about. Perhaps the title is unfortunate and the more appropriate title might have been, "Dude Where's OUR Country?"
It is clear that the folks who rip this book haven't really read it, at least not completely. It's true, he thinks George Bush II is the worst president in our lifetime, and he gives very solid evidence of why that is. If you choose not to believe, that's OK. But then again, you don't have to believe in gravity either. And believe this: there are plenty of nut cases that would just as readily have us disbelieve Isaac Newton just so that we could ignore the awful truths about our current adminstration's harmful philosophy and beliefs which are so clearly laid out in this book. Wake up and read this book with an open mind, as others have suggested here at Amazon. Democracy can only survive with people keeping their options open. Once those doors are closed, then you have something else; and then freedom becomes merely a word, and not a reality.
Rating: 
Summary: Mike's Angry!
Review: Eight years back, Michael Moore wrote "Downsize This: Random Threats from an Unarmed American." In those days, despite the much-better economy, there was still a lot to complain about. Mike went on and on about hypocrisy of the Religious Right, evil corporations dominating the world, and even a few of Clinton's more embarrassing moments.
Now, times have changed. A terrible error in the Florida ballot system caused an even more terrible Texas governor to become President. The White House is once again dominated by conservatives. Mike's mad! And you don't want to see Michael Moore when he's mad!
As this book opens, Mike wastes no time attacking G.W. Bush. Unfortunately, Mike's rage takes over, and as a result, the first chapter or so is not his funniest work. But don't you worry, it gets better!
This book is not just an attack on Bush. His corporate cronies, oil contractors and right-wing propagandists are also targets. Come to think about it, everybody who's done wrong gets the Moore treatment. As a matter of fact, in one chapter, "Oil's Well that Ends Well," all of humanity is indicted for its lack of foresight.
Sadly, Mike's anger prevents this book from being his funniest work, but what inadequacies in the humor department are made up for by being a very compelling book. By the end of the book, Mike has made clear his message: it's up to us to stop Bush! Only we, the American voters, have that power.
Whatever you are: Democrat, Republican, Green, Liberatarian, Independent, or otherwise, I urge you to read this book!
Rating:
Summary: I respect Moore a lot
Review: At least this man has the guts to actually state his opinion of something so we don't get some watered down pieace of crap. Several things are better about this book than "Stuid White men" He does a much betterjob here of making sure he cites all of his sources.
He has toned down the retoric quite a bit. The thing I do not like about this book are numerous
The whole "Letter from God Part"-its funny but its still wrong
The Bush bashing-Moore and I have this much in common, we ae not Bush fans. But if you are going to blame Bush for something talk abut the ever weakening immigation laws or the old of control Federal spending. You know things we can actually see as opposed to stuff we just have to take Moore's word on. Overall-I liked this book much more than I liked "Stupid White Men" but it still needs improvment. It will make you think and make you laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Dude, Where's Your Sense of Humor?
Review: I've been an intermittent Michael Moore fan since Roger & Me first came out. I generally agree with his politics and what he has to say, but sometimes I just can't stomach the way he chooses to say it. In Dude, Where's My Country, Moore tries to be satirist, investigative journalist, and the conscience of America, all at once. Pick one, Michael. There is nothing measured or subtle about Moore's writing. He uses all capitals, exclamation points, underlines, and italics in abundance. If I did not already agree with him, I doubt that I would have been swayed by his rhetoric. If the audience for Dude is supposed to be people who already think that Bush & Co. are a menace to society, then it is not necessary to bombard us with yet more evidence of their dastardliness. If the book is meant to convince people that the Bush administration is guilty of anything and everything, then a calmer and more reasoned tone would be helpful. I enjoyed Moore's Downsize This and Stupid White Men, but in Dude, he has lost his sense of humor and has resorted to ranting. And by the way, what's with the baseball cap?
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Coming into this after reading Downsize this and Stupid White Men, I was hoping for another hilarious satire, but had a major let down. This book is no where near the caliber of his earlier books, seeming rather pieced together and forced; No real flow too it. I hope that any further works will show improvment.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as his others, but still relevant and funny
Review: In this humorous and insightful book, Michael Moore mounts his trusty steed to once again do battle with the evil forces that are out to destroy the average American: corrupt corporate leaders, extreme right-wing propagandists, and the unelected regime of George W. Bush. In doing this, Moore makes many very important points about the instruments of power and duplicity in the United States. Why is it that the media won't directly question George W. Bush about his and his father's well-documented business relationships with the Saudi royal family and the Bin Laden family? Why did the United States declare war on Afghanistan and Iraq when it was actually attacked by Saudi Arabia? (The attacks of September 11th, 2001 were organized and executed almost entirely by Saudis and not by Iraqis or Afghanis.) Why does corporate criminal Kenneth Lay (former CEO of Enron) get to dictate our nation's energy policy for us in secret meetings with Dick Cheney? Moore also points out that the terms "liberal" and "conservative" are very misleading in America. Polls consistently demonstrate that regardless of their political affiliation, most Americans hold very progressive views about privacy, health care, the environment, and foreign policy to name a few. Unfortunately, many Americans are consistently duped into voting against their own values by hate politics and by fear, both of which are generated by the army of right-wing propagandists and media outlets that unofficially support America's plutocratic leaders and the Bush Regime. But Moore views this contradiction with surprising optimism and concludes that since the current right-wing political machine does not represent the values of most Americans, then it is up to us to take back our country. The place to begin, according to Moore is to develop a better understanding of how we have been mislead and manipulated to vote away our interests out of fear. Once we recognize that what he have at the moment is not actually our country, then it is only a simple matter of reaching out and taking it back. Another hillarious but sadly accurate section of this book is the chapter that deals with how one should talk to a conservative friend or family member about the important issues of our time. More points out that the first and most important thing to do is to assure the conservative individual that no one is out to take his or her money. While this chapter is funny and in many ways insiteful, unfortunately it fails to address the problem of discussing important issues with American conservative most of whom are enamored with themes but deeply opposed to facts. If one takes, the occupation of Iraq for example, most conservatives justify it on the basis of unelected President Bush's initial explanation that Iraq posed a threat to the United States because it possessed weapons of mass destruction and links to al Quaeda. But when the news, and even the unelected president eventually admitted that neither claim was true, the vast majority of American conservatives simply didn't care and instead justified the war on their sense that unelected President Bush is a "decisive" man who takes a "principaled stand" on vital issues. In other words, when American conservatives are faced with the fact that their unelected president lied and as a result, hundreds of Americans are getting killed and the country is going bankrupt, they simply switch to fluff mode: "He seems strong and principaled. We like him!" This doesn't mean that conservatives are stupid, but they do have a tendency to oversimplify things in much the same way that the majority of Germans in the 30s and 40s prefered to blame all of their problems on targeted ethnic groups instead of undertaking a meaningful analysis of what went wrong in their country. For this reason, Moore's suggestions on how to talk to conservatives are humorous but unfortunately uneffective. Having been exposed to some of Moore's earlier works including "Downsize This", "Stupid White Men", and "Bowling for Columbine", I found this book to be a tiny bit disappointing. Maybe it's just my imagination, but "Dude Where's My Country" seemed a bit more formulaic then some of Moore's other works and also seemed less effective than books such as Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." I also wish that Moore had made a much stronger argument about the Bush Regime's complicity with Saudi Arabia, the country that declared war on the United States on September 11th, 2001 but was given a permission slip to avoid accountability and retribution by both the Bush Regime and the corporate media. Sure, there are a lot of information gaps here thanks to government and media censorship, but Moore could still have made a stronger, clearer case based on the information that is available. These issues aside, this still remains an excellent and important book. Of course right-wing extremists will automatically dismiss Moore's arguments and the facts that he has marshaled here, but I suspect that the majority of Americans will find this book disturbing, compelling, and surprisingly hopeful. After all, this IS our country, not the exclusive feeding ground of the Bush family and of Kenneth Lay. And to anyone who says, "Yes but Clinton was guilty too," so what. Clinton is not the president right now, and when he was the president, he did not do so much, to destroy the lives of so many, to profit so very few.
Rating: 
Summary: Beating about the bush
Review: I hold no brief for the Bush administration, but reading this book was a painful experience. Let me give you a flavor. Mr. Moore has discovered that there is no such thing as a terrorist threat to the civilized world. The 9/11 atrocity was a put-up job most likely carried out by the Saudi Air Force. You see, Bush Snr. is friends with the Saudi ambassador. Obvious, isn't it? Anyway, 9/11 was nothing to do with any terrorist threat, because that is a phantom conjured up by American big business and the notoriously right-wing American media as part of their plan to rule the world. It goes without saying that the cunning / moronic usurper Dubya is in it up to his beady eyeballs. This is button-pushing by numbers, not political argument. The humor is something else. I chuckled at the part where our hero learns how the IRA is dedicated to peace, reconciliation and mom's apple pie - he took a vacation there and their front men told him. The IRA still has a ton of Semtex stashed away six years after the Good Friday agreement, but what the heck, it's years since they used it to blow up two children in a random attack on this (largely Irish Catholic) town. On the strength of one flying visit, Mr. Moore assures us that they've 'moved on'. Oh, good. The reality - and I don't need to dine with the boyos to find out - is that if they thought there was any mileage in it, they would be back terror bombing tomorrow. They have a shrewd notion by now that they are not up against the Russian steamroller. What causes terrorism to continue is terrorists; of course it helps to have fans halfway around the world dropping dollars in the box (see posting on Jan. 30 which several people found 'helpful'). Unlike Mr. Moore, I can't quite trust fascists and their useful eejits, not even on someone else's behalf. Also, I like political writing to go beyond nudges and winks, and to attempt a rational argument. I always thought I was a liberal but I guess that rules me out.
Rating:
Summary: Unconventional Political Science in Favor of the Democrats
Review: "Dude Where's My Country" is not your average political science book by any means. And Michael Moore is not your average political scientist, as you may have found out from reading his previous hit "Stupid White Men...". The thing that is easy to like about Mike Moore is his humor. This book is quite simply one of the easiest books to read on the subject. It's light, it's satirical, and it's very personal. "Dude Where's My Country" is far from being flawless, however. While he brings up very good points in his endless rants against the rightwing society of corrupt businessmen, his style becomes a little redundant, and you may begin to realize that the only thing really keeping you interested is the stuff that isn't exactly politics. However, I should not be one to forego the amount of political information that really is inside of this book. There happens to be one chapter where he simply laments about a futuristic world where the lack of oil has caused an insane amount of people to die. Needless to say, it's rather dumb. But other than that, left-wingers that really want to know more about the Bush administration will be delighted to take in these heavy dosages of character assassination (though in a completely justifiable format). Moore doesn't hold any punches, and that's what a lot of people are going to love about this book.
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