Rating: 
Summary: If we couldn't laugh about BushCo, we'd cry...
Review: Let's hear it for Yankee ingenuity! And let's hear it for the good folks at Chickenhead Productions who came up with this funny book. Chickenhead's website, www.whitehouse.org, looks frighteningly like the officially authorized, so-called "real thing"--until you start reading it.I'm hoping that this book will soon be an artifact of a benighted, bulging-deficit, perpetual-war lost era, like the books on Dan Quayle (or worse yet, penned by his wife) that also are part of my collection of books on American politics.
Rating:
Summary: If we couldn't laugh about BushCo, we'd cry...
Review: Let's hear it for Yankee ingenuity! And let's hear it for the good folks at Chickenhead Productions who came up with this funny book. Chickenhead's website, www.whitehouse.org, looks frighteningly like the officially authorized, so-called "real thing"--until you start reading it. I'm hoping that this book will soon be an artifact of a benighted, bulging-deficit, perpetual-war lost era, like the books on Dan Quayle (or worse yet, penned by his wife) that also are part of my collection of books on American politics.
Rating:
Summary: Thank You Cheney
Review: The media attention around Cheney's attempted legal action against whitehouse.org and banning of the website by a grade school drove me to the hilarious website and I was instantly hooked. The sharp, biting wit of the whitehouse.org site is captured beautifully in this book and the print medium allows the authors to add new depth to their unrelenting ridicule of Bush and his cronies. Even Bush supporters will find it hard to suppress the sudden fits of laughter that certain passages in this book provoke. More than just funny, the book is a frighteningly poignant examination of the monetary agendas and warped sense of ethics that infest the executive branch.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you Dick Cheney!
Review: The media attention around Dick Cheney's attempted legal action against whitehouse.org drove me to the hilarious website and I was instantly hooked. The sharp, biting wit of the whitehouse.org site is captured beautifully in this book and the print medium allows the authors to add new depth to their unrelenting ridicule of Bush and his cronies. Even Bush supporters will find it hard to suppress the sudden fits of laughter that certain passages in this book provoke. More than just funny, however, the book is a frighteningly poignant examination of the monetary agendas and warped sense of ethics that infest the executive branch. Regardless of your political affiliations, pick up a copy of the White House Inc. Employee Handbook for some perversely unique, highly inventive, absolutely hilarious and unceasingly brutal comedy.
Rating: 
Summary: Take basic premise, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat
Review: This is the sort of book that illustrates the difficulty of switching from one medium to another. Just as radio star Laura Schlessinger made a terrible television host, Whitehouse.org's hilarious site fails when turned into a book-length parody of an employee manual. There are two reasons this book falls flat. The first is that there isn't enough original humor, so the authors keep flogging the same ideas over and over and over and over and over and over and over. They have to, they have 150 pages to fill. But that doesn't mean I enjoy reading the same joke appearing in as many cameos as there are subsections. Okay, I get it, White House denizens are there to make as much money however they can. Faith-based departments everywhere. It's not that I don't agree, it's just that it's enough, already. Worse, one of the overly-repeated themes is "Republicans are sexists and racists." The authors don't just flog this idea, they are so over the top in expressing it that I began to wonder if there was a bit of "hee hee, we can say this racist and sexist stuff and claim we're really making fun of George Bush because it's something we think HE would have said when the mikes are off." And it's the same jokes, over and over: Latinos parking the cars, blacks on (or being kicked off) welfare, Arabs are all terrorists, women should put out for their bosses. Satire is supposed to act as a magnifying glass, highlighting the ugly pores and nasal hair, but this book unintentionally draws attention back to the writers themselves. Are they actually more xenophobic than they think the Administration is? Between these two flaws of overrepetition and over-the-top, this book, which should have been as side-splittingly funny as the website, never even got me to smile. Each chapter was a chore to complete. After reading 2/3 of it, I finally gave up; this is probably the first political humor title I ever gave up on.
Rating:
Summary: Take basic premise, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat
Review: This is the sort of book that illustrates the difficulty of switching from one medium to another. Just as radio star Laura Schlessinger made a terrible television host, Whitehouse.org's hilarious site fails when turned into a book-length parody of an employee manual. There are two reasons this book falls flat. The first is that there isn't enough original humor, so the authors keep flogging the same ideas over and over and over and over and over and over and over. They have to, they have 150 pages to fill. But that doesn't mean I enjoy reading the same joke appearing in as many cameos as there are subsections. Okay, I get it, White House denizens are there to make as much money however they can. Faith-based departments everywhere. It's not that I don't agree, it's just that it's enough, already. Worse, one of the overly-repeated themes is "Republicans are sexists and racists." The authors don't just flog this idea, they are so over the top in expressing it that I began to wonder if there was a bit of "hee hee, we can say this racist and sexist stuff and claim we're really making fun of George Bush because it's something we think HE would have said when the mikes are off." And it's the same jokes, over and over: Latinos parking the cars, blacks on (or being kicked off) welfare, Arabs are all terrorists, women should put out for their bosses. Satire is supposed to act as a magnifying glass, highlighting the ugly pores and nasal hair, but this book unintentionally draws attention back to the writers themselves. Are they actually more xenophobic than they think the Administration is? Between these two flaws of overrepetition and over-the-top, this book, which should have been as side-splittingly funny as the website, never even got me to smile. Each chapter was a chore to complete. After reading 2/3 of it, I finally gave up; this is probably the first political humor title I ever gave up on.
Rating:
Summary: Is whitehouse.org ready for a book?
Review: This was a less accomplished political satire than I'd hoped, and I'll admit my expectations were high based on the website. I thought the "worker bee" could have gone farther and been more entertaining and zanier. The content on the site is superior, and it's possible that the authors aren't ready yet for good content to translate to an entire book.
Rating:
Summary: Is whitehouse.org ready for a book?
Review: This was a less accomplished political satire than I'd hoped, and I'll admit my expectations were high based on the website. I thought the "worker bee" could have gone farther and been more entertaining and zanier. The content on the site is superior, and it's possible that the authors aren't ready yet for good content to translate to an entire book.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, TRUTH that will set you free!
Review: While this material is from the always-funny website WHITEHOUSE.org, which is the location of the best parody site on the entire net (with the possible exception of its "sister site," LANDOVER BAPTIST), the truths "exposed" in this delightful book will have you rolling on the floor in an alarming mixture of hilarity and horror. You'll learn so much about the least President in American history (with the possible exception of his dad) it will make you wonder how they can sell it for a measly twelve bucks. It's the best value in humor and history you'll find at Amazon or anywhere. Funnier than the fate of rotten Ronnie and even a little more side-splitting than the astonishing debt piled up by those "SPEND, SPEND, SPEND" (as long as it's not their fat-cat friends money) RepubliCan'ts. Give this wonderful book to friends, lovers, the mailman, everybody you can think of. Yes, it's THAT good! Then get Molly Ivans new book. While not quite as funny, it has the distinction of unvarnished truth. Which makes the Crimes Against Humanity of the Bush Administration(s) all the more scary. Also see MoveOn.org for REAL democracy in action.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, TRUTH that will set you free!
Review: While this material is from the always-funny website WHITEHOUSE.org, which is the location of the best parody site on the entire net (with the possible exception of its "sister site," LANDOVER BAPTIST), the truths "exposed" in this delightful book will have you rolling on the floor in an alarming mixture of hilarity and horror. You'll learn so much about the least President in American history (with the possible exception of his dad) it will make you wonder how they can sell it for a measly twelve bucks. It's the best value in humor and history you'll find at Amazon or anywhere. Funnier than the fate of rotten Ronnie and even a little more side-splitting than the astonishing debt piled up by those "SPEND, SPEND, SPEND" (as long as it's not their fat-cat friends money) RepubliCan'ts. Give this wonderful book to friends, lovers, the mailman, everybody you can think of. Yes, it's THAT good! Then get Molly Ivans new book. While not quite as funny, it has the distinction of unvarnished truth. Which makes the Crimes Against Humanity of the Bush Administration(s) all the more scary. Also see MoveOn.org for REAL democracy in action.
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