Rating: 
Summary: Bush Stupid?! How Shocking...
Review: Well, anyone who has seen this guy speak or do anything could have called this, but finally we have an insider's account of just how dopey our President really is. I have to wonder what Mr. O'Neill has been threatened with since this book was released, because he has softened some of his harshest criticism. At the least, though, we know this - Bush was lying about the Iraq war, since he and his people were planning it since day one. Also, he himself didn't understand why the rich were getting another big tax cut. And, finally, we see who's really calling the shots in this administration. It's bad enough that the guy who was voted President isn't in there, but it's even worse that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are the real leaders in this administration. No one voted for them to run the show. If you needed more reasons to vote for a Democrat in 2004, check out this book.
Rating:
Summary: O'Neill's Revenge
Review: Former Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O' Neill's appearance turned out to be significantly more illuminating than anyone could possibly have expected. Notwithstanding, his description of the President as a "disengaged" simpleton with the attention span of a preschooler, he provided a great deal of new information that could suggest future indictments. Take for example, the fact that O'Neill can produce documents to substantiate that the Administration had concrete plans to rebuild Iraq even prior to 9-11. With revelations like this, who can still cling to the sorry fable that Iraq posed a real threat to America's national security or, worse, that the invasion was a necessary component in the war on terror?O' Neill's description of Bush give us the first real glimpse of how the President is coddled and manipulated by his two closest advisors, Cheney and Rove. His anecdote of how Bush resisted the second round of tax cuts, but was cajoled into "signing on" to accommodate his White House frat brothers, further amplifies the grim situation at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Bush emerges looking like a well-intended moron who is completely out of his depth, incapable of grasping the issues and unable to fend-off the menacing influences that surround him. Far from being the stalwart, decisive leader who operates on "gut instinct" ( a myth that pandering Bob Woodward tried to invent) Bush is appearing more and more like the empty suit that was predicted before the election. The documentation that O' Neill provides is serious business. It verifies that at least 60 oil companies were colluding with government officials on the dividing up of Iraqi oil reserves even prior to 9-11. As many suspected, America's energy giants have been directly involved in writing policy from the very beginning. (Can anyone still doubt that the Calif. energy crisis was not manufactured in Cheney's office?) Once the decision to invade Iraq was made in America's board rooms, it probably took little effort enlist politicians to the cause. Undoubtedly, it took even less to enroll our cheerleading media, always "at-the- ready" to serve their corporate benefactors. (In the latest edition of Z Magazine, the details of how Iraqi oil revenues are being illegally diverted from the Central Bank of Iraq into the Federal Reserve, infers that the Fed was also involved in endorsing the plan to remove Saddam. The fact that the Fed is keeping interest rates artificially low indicates their tacit support of the policies of aggression) All in all, the O'Neill appearance on 60 Minutes provided a fair amount of damning testimony against the current administration. It looks as though the number of groups and people that were either directly involved in the planning for the war, or privy to the plot to remove Saddam by force is truly staggering. It suggests that what took place among America's conservative elite may have been tantamount to "a vast right wing conspiracy". Now, how foolish is that?
Rating:
Summary: Read it first, don't just be as blind as Bush is.
Review: This book which was released on Tuesday got a lot of press on Monday and I'll admit it, I caved. I don't usually buy a book just because it's received a lot of press. I fact, I usually avoid books that get a lot of press unless I intended on buying them before the press occurred. In this case I bowed to the pressure and bought the book the afternoon it came out. Am I glad I did. Unless you were under a rock on Monday it was hard to not hear about this one. Written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Ron Suskind, the main source for this book was former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill who was fired by Bush after serving only two years. When asked to participate in this book O'Neill asked the Treasury Department for "copies of every document that had ever crossed his desk." They responded by giving him several hundred CD-ROMs containing over 19,000 documents, individually photocopied/scanned onto the discs. O'Neill also handed over his notes and personal journal and calendar that contained 7,630 entries. With all of that data available to the author there is now way to belief that any of this book is made up. (According to the back dj flap, the original documents are available at the author's Web site but I couldn't find them.) Since O'Neill was the Treasury Secretary, much of the book focuses on the Bush administration's domestic monetary policy, which is actually made interesting. The explanation of the fight behind the original Bush tax cut is brilliantly explained and made clear. O'Neill also give deep insight into other issues including the much reported Bush intention, almost from day one of his presidency, to invade Iraq, the Kyoto treaty on global warming, O'Neill's much publicized trip to Africa with U2's Bono, and how he dealt with the horrors of 9/11 and freezing the accounts of terrorist organizations. Although it is the single most quoted line from the book I think it bares repeating here just in case you've not already heard it. When it came to cabinet meetings Bush "was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people". Reading the description of the cabinet meeting that lead to that conclusion is worth the price of the book. Anyone who reads this book and still believes that they can vote to re-elect Bush in good conscious seriously needs to have their feelings for their country and fellow man questioned.
Rating: 
Summary: BY THE WAY .....
Review: According to Henry Kissenger, there was a Congressional Resolution to have a regime change in Iraq in 1998. This isn't a new concept folks.... And if terrorist want to attack us again, all they need to do is read this book! Thanks to Oneil and Suskin, we have an onscene amount of classified documentation right here in plain view!!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Real Price
Review: Much hype has already been spun about "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill". Let's cut through the media hype and the current Administration's attempts to spin attention away from this book. Simply put, this book is THE must read book of winter. Paul O'Neill, former Treasure secretary, served in the Nixon and Ford Adminstations, and had experience with the Reagan and Bush 1 presidencies as well, tells his tale honestly, straigthforwardly, and with much documentation. He tells of an Adminstration that is run entirely on conservative ideology and not sound governmental ideas; of how VP Cheney has more power and control than any of us realize. This is the book that many of us have been wanting to read, and coming from a true insider, makes it more powerful than ever. One of my fears in reading this book would be that events would be sensationalized or over-dramaticized. But that doesn't happen in this book. The President comes across as an amicable, relaxed, and somewhat passive man in his own Presidency. I'm not a Bush lover by any means, but I felt like I got to know a different side to him, a more human side, than that's ever presented publicly. The Price of Loyalty is a book that everyone in this country should read, and learn about the true process of governing currently happening in our government.
Rating:
Summary: Shocked and amused
Review: I'm amused that someone who has not read the book would write a review and shocked that 30 out of 68 shoppers would find it helpful!! The reviewer said:
"Honestly, I haven't gotten the book myself ...the Bush Administration planning for war before 9/11, tax-cut, etc... We, the citizens of United States NEVER know such things like this." He is probably too young to remember Clinton's statement in Feb 1998: "One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
And his Secretary of State: "the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." And didn't the congress even pass an Iraqi Freedom Act in 98, making it the duty of the administration to plan for Hussein's ouster? Officials say that O'Neill's smoking gun, the memo: 'Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq,' was written in the Clinton administration.
It may be worth your reading time if you remember that it came from a disgruntled fired employee who has since said he would like to take some of it back, and that he will vote for Bush rather than any of the Dem wannabe's.
Rating:
Summary: Smell the coffee-- Don't Drink the Kool Aid!
Review: Just a word for the spooky Hitler youth who think Mr. O'Neill should not have exercised his right to free speech; you could move to China, or some other country where free speech is not tolerated. Apply now. This is America, and so far, nothing that he wrote has endangered anyone, except people in the US who want to believe this administration's fairytales. Thank God he hired an actual writer to make sense of lots of info. Thank God we are in a country where this book can be published, and we can engage in constructive dialogue. Thank God for ex-golden boy beltway insiders who get canned for trying to be fiscally responsible with my hard earned tax $$! I am thankful that Mr. O'Neill put his fanny on the line, so that American people can get some facts, or something other than the party line. It is clear from the book and his interviews that O'Neill understands that his first duty is to the People of these United States of America. How refreshing.
Rating:
Summary: A very satisfying read
Review: Ron Suskind has done a nice job of putting you right there, in the Bush Whitehouse meetings. Suskind is a reporter first and foremost, (he wrote the memoir of the getto kid from DC who went to Brown) . The pages turn effortlessly. O'Neill comes off as a guy who is immensely capable, used to being taken seriously, and just not able to believe that decisions of great national importance will be made by "kids rolling around on the White House lawn," That's his quote, and it expresses his sense of of the lack of process, and the tyrany of ideology that rules in the Bush Whitehouse. We have to keep in mind that Suskind is married to a Kennedy, and so may have an democrat's axe to grind, but I found the book convincing and disturbing. I think Bush and friends are just rolling the dice on the war, and on the deficit they are creating. They are leaving us (and our grandchildren) to pick up the pieces, and pay the trillion dollar bills.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: I don't believe for a minute that the author or Paul O'Neill have any reason whatsoever to lie or distort Mr. O'Neill's experiences in Cabinet meetings and one-on-one's with the President. It's gratifying to have in print what I already knew... that idealogues and special interests (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, and big corporations) set economic, national security and environmental policies in the U.S in spite of the having had top-notch advice from highly experienced government officials like O'Neill, Greenspan and Christine Whitman. Bush doesn't care about facts. He cares about being re-elected, and he'll lie, cheat and steal to make that happen. Americans will pay for these shoddy policies for years to come. Read this book and find out why. Although O'Neill appears to be back-peddeling in the media on some of his harsh statements, I think the reason for that is clear. Today's administration is capable of putting all kinds of pressure and threats on whistle-blowers like O'Neill. They've already launched an investigation to see if secret documents had been used. Funny how it didn't take them very long to launch an investigation on O'Neill, but it took them forever to try to decide how to, or whether to proceed with an investigation over the illegal leak of a CIA operative's name, Valerie Plame, by two senior administration officials, to Robert Novak of the Chicago Sun Times. Obviously, in retaliation over Novak breaking the story that her husband, Joe Wilson, reported to the CIA that there was no evidence that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger after Cheney had asked the CIA to look into it. Of course, the report never seemed to have made it back to Cheney or Bush. You know the rest. Read this book and draw your own conclusions. It's worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Why?
Review: I truly cannot understand Mr. Paul O'Neill. Interesting how a bitter man who was fired decides to reveal his insight in a book released on an election year. It simply seems like sensationalism to me, and I truly question the validity of his claims (anyone remember what former Reagan aide Regan did?). People have jumped all over this to slam Bush because it lends a bit of credibility to their attacks. However, it isn't a very credible piece of work at all. Paul O'Neill has been backtracking like crazy and he seems to be alone in his opinions. A bitter man who didn't agree with Bush writes a book full of sensationalism and the press jumps all over it. Big surprise.
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