Rating: 
Summary: Among Ivins' Angrier Works
Review: I don't mean to suggest that Ivins doesn't have a lot to be angry about, but frankly, I'm too heartsick to read too many more books like this. The book has a lot of important facts, and it's well researched. But without Ivins' trademark humor, which is lacking here, it makes it a difficult pill to swallow. I know it's difficult to make light of Bush's policies, especially when they've hurt so many people. But there are books that do it, like Al Franken's Lies, Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? and Jason Johnson's I Hate Bush and So Do You. I don't want to knock the book for not being funnier, but I warn you not to read it with a weak stomach.
Rating: 
Summary: Necessary and Scary
Review: Essential reading right now; proof of the nerve Molly's hitting in this book is the torrent of right-wing invective posing as reviews on this site. (These "impartial critics" might stop their verbose, illiterate yowling long enough to take a couple of style tips from the clean, clear prose on display in BUSHWACKED.) Most readers will be familiar, to a depressing degree, with the litany of lies, misconducts and deceptions chronicled here. Useful, though, to see them dissected so straighforwardly. Read it and weep, then get thee to the voting booth!
Rating:
Summary: Funny, smart, and inspirational
Review: Not only have I read this, but I have also attended a book signing given by her. I recommend this book, and I recommend seeing her in person. She's a feisty woman whose book documents some other feisty Americans, and she's trying to get us to be feisty. Her interviews lead to information about the choices those in charge have made affecting these Americans. Her only real complaint with Americans themselves is the great disconnect she's witnessed that prevents ordinary people from understanding how decisions made far away affect them. Ivins spells it out in no uncertain terms. Practically a companion volume to Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's My Country?", which I also recommend.
Rating:
Summary: An Important Book
Review: Though this book is characterized by the sardonic wit and style Molly Ivins' readers have grown to expect, it is not always enjoyable. In fact, for me parts of it were difficult to read, for it reveals the pain lots of folks have suffered because of the policies of the current administration. However, it is important for us to know the facts about what is happening in and to our country. And what is written in this book is based on fact; twenty-two and a half pages of documentation follow the text. I hope everyone who plans to vote in the next election will read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: Well written,and very revealing about King George of Arabia.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth Hurts!!!
Review: I posted a review at the beginning of this review cycle, advising folks that this is a must-read book for anyone who intends on voting in the next prez election (especially if you are undecided). I find the rightwing's silence (on the talk-show circuit) about this book to speak volumes about the irrefutable facts in Bushwhacked. They, I am sure, would rather this book go silently into oblivion so they aren't asked to address the points raised in the book.If you have read the reviews of the people here who give Bushwhacked one star, you will notice that they are not commenting on the CONTENT of the book, just the book-reviewers views about the content. That, in itself, should tell you how angry they are that someone actually wrote a book that is readable, funny (at times, although the content is sobering), and TRUE. The light of truth, if allowed to shine on the Bush policies of the last 2 1/2 years (is that all? it seems as if its a lifetime), will out the current administration for what they are -- profiteers of the worst sort, who do not care what their policies do to the average citizen or the land that we all must share (including the global community).
Rating:
Summary: Molly Ivins lets Dubya's record speak for itself.
Review: Molly Ivins has given us a wonderful account of the job Bush II has done so far. It's not good. The book is good, not the job Bush II is doing. Bush and his administration should be doing hard time, not wrecking our country. Molly has the facts the "liberal" media can't or won't report accurately. The wolf is in the henhouse but he thinks we're to stupid to realise he's not a chicken. BUSHWACKED is great reading, though very troubling. Buy the book for yourself and for everyone on your holiday shopping list. Then get out the vote. Let's not have BUSHWACKED II.
Rating:
Summary: BUSHWHACKED a welcome eye opener
Review: I have the advantage of knowing one of the ordinary (is there such a thing?) people whose story is outlined in this book. I find it interesting that the right wing people who have written reviews use such terms as 'wacko' and 'rabid' and all such inflamatory and emotional terms to describe the book they are supposedly giving rational reviews about. They give no useful arguments to genuinely counter the the solid and complete documentation and genuine journalistic research laid down in these stories. Therefore the reviews which are most helpful are the ones which rationally state why they think the book is valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Rapidly dismantling the government safety net
Review: First, it needs to be pointed out that while still sardonic, this is a much more serious and journalistic/supported work by Molly Ivins, as is her earlier collaboration "Shrub", in part due to its coauthor Lou DuBose of the "Texas Observer". Ivins is always solid, but when challenging skilled professional, ruthless, and exceedingly dangerous liars it helps to have watertight research and facts. They are here, unlike the ongoing smokescreen that they reveal and repudiate. I knew beginning this book that it would plunge me into great depression -- however, I also knew it was my civic responsibility, and that as a parent, to read this because it is evident that this country is under attack and that the government and freedoms that have made us great and the envy of the world are under an ongoing barrage from the Bush Administration. Ivins and Dubose state it succinctly and eloquently when they note that Mussolini defined fascism as a merger of corporate and government interests -- an identical pattern is clearly at work in the US today -- right down to similar propaganda clouding the judgement of the average citizen. Deja vu -- or the more apt German translation. This is a frightening, as well as disturbing study. It is comprehensive in terms of the close alliance of the Bush family and foreign interests, the attacks on food safety, education, the criminal justice system, worker safety, the environment, and the entire government safety net. I don't believe Ivin's assertion that Bush's religious posturing is ideological, I think it is a smokescreen, but she and Dubose are definitely on target that his antipathy toward government and support of corporate hegemony are nearly religious in fervor. The mendacity, inequities, cruelness, and stupidity of what is going on in this administration -- largely unchallenged, much less checked -- are comprehensively examined. This is a very important book. To those who would not read it I would caution that the average German probably felt similarly stymied during the 1930's; they, like us were essentially good people whose failure to pay attention and to resist enabled colossal evil to control their society. We are naive to dismiss the possibility that it could similarly occur here.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Many New Liberal Titles
Review: If you are only going to read one of the many new liberal titles out these days, read this one. Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose have written a book that attacks the Bush administration from a new and different direction. Their aim is to explain how the President's policies affect ordinary people, so they go into areas that authors like Al Franken and Joe Conason don't. I enjoyed those contributions to this genre too, but this is a book that might might convince an independent or a Republican to vote for the Democratic ticket in 2004. Liberals should give it to their apolitical friends at Christmas time. By the time they're done, they'll be mad too.
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