Rating: Summary: Treason!! Review: How dare him to question the Commander In Chief? This is Treason! Read the line he wrote, "the president is like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people." The president is his superior in this time of WAR and he is saying that he is blind? This is definitely treason!!
Rating: Summary: Thrown Out of Yankee Stadium Review: Several years ago during my floating phase, I was thrown out of Yankee Stadium for drunkenly shouting deserved insults at Paul O'Neill. Now I see he's making a splash with some book about being loyal to the former owner of my favorite ballclub, the Texas Rangers. I must confess, I've never been a big fan of Paul O'Neill and I like him even less now that I've read some of this silly book. A book he didn't even write (surprise), by the way. There are no witty clubhouse stories and nothing at all about girls or hotel rooms. Just some ranting and raving about loyalty and being a stand up guy and a lot of childish sobbing. Not very interesting at all. Really. HHD.
Rating: Summary: Will the real writer please stand up Review: Before finishing this book I heard O'Neil say it was really his co-writer (the writer who approached him about writing it) who wrote it and read the financial documents and papers. He said it wasn't even really his book. I was shocked at how he could say one thing in one interview and then another a few days later. As far as I am concerned he and his book lost all credibility.
Rating: Summary: WHAT IS THE PRICE OF LOYALTY? Review: I am outraged that a member of the President's Cabinet former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill and a member of the National Security Council could walk away with 19,000 government documents after being fired . Now he is being treated as a hero when he should be in jail! This same Cabinet member has attacked President Bush in a just-released book, The Price of Loyalty, for wanting to depose Saddam Hussein from the beginning, insinuating that the President is a liar. The truth is: Saddam was using the Syrian government to move terrorists' money and WMDs out of Iraq. They began while Clinton was in office. the goal of regime change in Iraq had already been the official policy of the United States since 1998 when President Clinton made his heaviest missile strikes on Baghdad during Operation Desert Fox. President Bush's choice to move on Iraq was the right decision. Our national security was at stake as was that of Israel. Remember, Hussein gave the order to launch 39 SCUDS at Israel during the first Persian Gulf War. He paid $25,000 to each Palestinian family who gave a child as a suicide bomber. The biggest smuggling Operation in the world was going on with Syria and French and Russians. As Syria was buying Iraqi Oil and a 50% discount in violation of international law.
Rating: Summary: Loyalty Redefined Review: A definite eye-opener and exercise in objectivity for those that can complete this book without being baited by their own pre-perceptions and political affiliations. I am one that read this book cover to cover with an objective posture and open mind. Unfortunately, I fear that mass media publicity has not been covered by those that have had an opportunity to complete the book. We are missing MANY opportunities we can learn and apply....for one, our thought processes and the need to "inquire" should not represent insubordination. Nor should we feel intimidated to follow mainstream thought if our visions and values are derived from our integrity to do what is right. The book does not bash Bush, it presents a realistic picture of O'Neil's perception of Bush. What is well documented and shared are many models of process that O'Neil (as well as Greenspan)utilized to keep from being entrenched in 'yester-year' quick fix plans when our economy is so volatile to change. It's nice to see that O'Neil did not operate from "anticipation" and "optimistic perceptions" but hard core facts/figures. Why is it so hard to understand that when the news isn't good, no one wants to hear it? Fiscal prudence, process and the ability to create legislative policy that is 'blind to affiliation' is essential but almost impossible to achieve. I recommend that anyone wishing to make a difference in the quality of their lives and others, read this book. It's not the politics, not the who did what to whom....it's the thought provoking processes that wake up your mind and clean out the cobwebs that make reading this book stimulating. You might want to review your basic accounting princples and definitions first as some of the content requires a stick-to-learn-as-you go' pace. I applaud O'Neil. After his departure from Treasury, I do wonder about his willingness to participate in consultant type positions to other members of Bush's cabinet.(?????) He certainly didn't need the $. Just another thought provoking stimulus to those that have yet to read the book.
Rating: Summary: Lord, can conservatives read at all? Or only spin? Review: What stuns me with all the one-star reviews is the fact that they so clearly haven't read the book. This book isn't about Paul O'Neill: it is about the blind dedication of people inside the Bush White House to policies that are determined by politics and not by data and information. O'Neill emerges as someone who carefully sifts information, takes a naturally conservative approach to issues, and does not like to recommend any policy that is based on speculation or insufficient evidence. The book shows that a number of White House insiders or heads of government institutions (notably Alan Greenspan at the Fed) are not very comfortable with the ideologues currently running the White House. Lost in a lot of the attention that O'Neill is getting is the fact that other White House folk have also spoken off record. Reading the book--and I generally find it is easier to talk about something you have actually read instead of something you merely make up in your head--it is pretty certain that Alan Greenspan was also interviewed for the book and is one of those who spoke off the record. I would also bet that Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the EPA (another one who wanted policy to be based on verified data), was another. It is absolutely definite that either Colin Powell or several members of the State Department (unquestionably with his blessing) cooperated in the making of the book. Possibly other nonideologues like Condileeza Rice or one of her aides talked with Suskind. The mistake that many are making is assuming that O'Neill is merely doing this out of revenge. It is almost impossible to support that theory after reading the book. I think the is one of the most important books that has been published in the past two years on any subject. The Bush White House has largely been an impenetrable bastion. Now we have a vivid picture of the inner workings of the White House as presented by multiple insiders, most speaking off the record because they are still working for Bush. But O'Neill and the massive amount of documentation he provided for Suskind has performed a huge public service. I don't think anyone should consider voting for George W. Bush in 2004 unless they have read this book first.
Rating: Summary: Gotcha! Review: Paul O'Neill was one of them, an insider, Treasury Secretary, seat on the National Security Council, a rich white guy, a member of the club. His revelations that Bush et al were planning to invade Iraq before the last strains of "Hail To The Chief" faded at the Inaugural Ball hardly come as a shock but they do ring true. His motives for coming clean were probably more retributive than conscience cleansing-he was fired for opposing tax cuts, he was dissed and "The Price Of Loyalty" is pay-back; Republicans have a fine tradition of consuming their own. So Mr. O'Neill may be a tainted witness but there is plenty of extrinsic evidence to back him up, like the independent (granted, left-leaning) Carnegie Endowment for International Peace study that charges that the Bush administration "systematically misrepresented" the Iraqi threat, causing Colin Powell to get on his bicycle and back-pedal furiously from the dog and pony show he put on at the United Nations last February. There was no "smoking gun", our Secretary of State now admits; like the fact that the military team charged with searching for WMD's is no longer searching and has in fact been recalled. They weren't going to find what never existed. Mr. O'Neill only confirms what we already knew. If Ron Suskind's "The Price Of Loyalty" fuels the outrage that is long overdue than if will have proven invaluable.
Rating: Summary: A Reader Review: Dipper Lips rants on about a book he [she] has never read. The posting is dated on January 13, yet the book was not released until the 14th. Such antediluvians who try to think with their undeveloped brains should be kept in the insane asylum of their dimwittedness, rather than be permitted to rant among the learned.
Rating: Summary: Re: David Dutra Review: I wish that amazon had some method of weeding out ridiculous political dogma from these reveiws. This doesn't help their own customers to choose a product based purely on content. Mr Dutra is foolish to claim to have read this book as it was released today(01/14/04), and if he purchased it on Amazon it surely wouldn't have been hand delivered within hours, let alone have time to read it. From the tone of his post I doubt he ventures very far from the confines of his own political prison cell. I challenge you Mr Dutra to at least restrain your rhetoric for chat rooms and news groups. You are obviously much like your own President, devoid of any intellectual curiosity. Sorry for the rant and I hope to see some more useful posts once people have a chance to read it.
Rating: Summary: The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush in the White House Review: Secretary O'Neill has to have been (still is) one of the most naive CEO's in the country. Obviously he was not versed in the principles of the Project for the New American Century espoused and signed onto by his fellow cabinet members, Cheney & Rumsfeld. In '97 they laid out their plans for preemptive war, focusing on Iraq but realize it would not be popular at that time. It suddenly became "popular" after 9/11. Getting it through Congress was easy by emphazising WMD-the Democrats caved in on that one. But what the hell, the American people favor this war which has now killed almost 500 American, 2K wounded and countless Iraquis. It's not my kids nor Rumsfelds et al. Richard Perle would call this a "manageable risk" Isn't that what they volunteered for? Hey, we got the NFL playoffs going on, realty TV shows. What a country! I can't wait to see the patriotic display at the Super Bowl. I get goosebumps thinking about it!
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