Rating: 
Summary: A powerful and depressing indictment of Bush's policies
Review: Of the growing spate of liberal books to appear in the past few months, BUSHWHACKED by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose is my favorite of the bunch. It also holds the odd distinction of being one of the most thoroughly depressing books I have ever read. No matter how low one's opinion of George W. Bush, it will be lowered through reading this book.Many of the recent books on Bush and the Right have focused on the habit and strategy of intentionally misrepresenting positions held by those on the right. They are, in effect, apologias for liberalism and honesty in politics. This book is instead a direct examination of George W. Bush's policies and plans, and what they see scares them and me. As they write near the end of the book, "The six most fatal words in the language are rapidly becoming 'The Bush administration has a plan . . . " (p. 295). Ivins and Dubose don't discuss the Bush policies in abstract, but in terms of how they affect real live human beings. They argue "this country no longer works for the benefit of most of the people in it" (p. 293) and they are determined to explain precisely why. What is most informative about the book is not just the discussion of the more familiar failures of the Bush administration, but overlooked or under considered facets of their policies. For instance, in Texas they have already undergone school reform of the kind promoted by Bush in the No Child Left Behind act. In fact, as they demonstrate, it is a perfect recipe for leaving vast numbers of children behind, as high schools out of self-protection refuse to promote underachieving students past ninth grade, in many instances keeping them there until they turn eighteen and are no expected to stay in school. Or consider the vast number of students in Texas who now graduate by taking the G.E.D as a way of avoiding the exams. All education in Texas is now focused on preparing those students who have a fighting chance of passing the major exam, and shunting those with no prayer of doing so off to the side. The result, in other words, of the No Child Left Behind equivalent has been disastrous, and now this is national policy as well. As they demonstrate, with a minimal financial investment in schools, the federal government has maximum input, and not in a constructive way. I found this chapter to be one of the scariest in the book. The book is an unrelenting recitation of horrors. 500,000 poor Americans who Bush cut off from the federal program providing some support in paying heating bills in the winter. Instituting faith based programs as a means of allowing religious institutions that would otherwise fail credentialing requirements to offer their services to individuals whose needs they are poorly equipped to meet. Consistently sending ideologues instead of public policy experts to every imaginable international meeting. In one such conference, the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the U.S. delegates attempted to strike language that "would have included female genital mutilation, forced child marriage, and 'honor' killings as human-rights violations" (p. 262). Ivins and Dubose go on to cover the effects of his court policies, the Patriot Acts, his naked espousal of fundamentalist religion, his tax policies, his environmental policy, the EPA, his unilateralist foreign policy, his food policy . . . the list goes on and on and on, a veritable parade of horrors. My assessment of President Bush before reading this book is that he could very well be considered one of the very worst presidents in American history. Now, thanks to Ivins and Dubose, I think he is not only our worst president ever, but that one could make a powerful case for his being arguably the most destructive American to ever live. I consider this book to be essential reading, but working through it won't be much fun.
Rating:
Summary: If Only This Were the News
Review: Don't you hate it when facts get in the way of perfectly good rhetoric? I'm sure that the Bush Administration does, and I'm sure that Molly doesn't if her book is any indication. What Ivins does in this book is completely dismantle the rhetoric upon which the entire Bush Presidency has been built by stating fact after fact after fact. This is the sort of journalism you can't get from the newspaper anymore because there is "no market for it." It is the sort of thing you can only get from books (which for some reason there IS a market for, maybe liberals read while conservatives watch the O'Reilly Factor, I don't know). If you read one book before the election in 2004 this should be the one. No intellectually honest person could vote for Bush after reading this book. This is beyond the usual rhetoric, conservative or liberal. It isn't an attack on Bush's person but a revelation of Bush's policies and how they are ruining the lives of hardworking Americans.
Rating:
Summary: Cassandra Redux
Review: Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam, the mythological ruler of Troy. She was given the gift of prophecy and the curse of not being believed. In their previous book, "Shrub," Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, our Cassandra twins, told America about a pampered preppy named George W. Bush. They warned that he was bad news as governor of Texas, and he would be bad news for America. He helped big bidness (business in Texan), and he hurt little people almost by reflex. He transformed a six billion dollar state surplus into a ten billion dollar deficit. Though Gore won the popular vote, not enough Americans listened to Ivins' and Dubose's plea to offset the Florida fiasco and the Nader vote. The consequence, saw in hand, postures on the book cover. Will "Bushwhacked," Ivins' and Dubose's latest screed, help unseat "Dubya?" Ivins and Dubose dress up this story of an ill got presidency with a bunch of Texas humor; it makes the bitter story they tell more palatable.
In poignant detail, Ivins and Dubose describe the lives of common people across the United States--in Philadelphia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oregon, Wyoming as well as Texas. They are extensions of what the authors warned in 2000: the denial of basic services to the needy; environmental deregulations that threaten the health and livelihoods of everyday Americans; the denial of justice to little people fighting major corporations; massive deficits balanced on the backs of the poor. All are Texas problems gone national under Dubya. And they document the international consequences of the Bush presidency. Even the one thing that Ivins and Dubose credited then Governor Bush with, a penchant for education reform, is shown to be a canard in "Bushwacked." The authors show there was no reform; the numbers were cooked; under performing students were ushered out of the system. The "Texas Miracle" was, in truth, the "Texas Shame" (pp.78-79). Ivins and Dubose enumerate a litany of what has happened during the Bush presidency. They write that he has acted as president as if he governed by mandate. They talk of policies that have run up massive deficits and alienated long time friends (p. 266). They show how he speaks in platitudes. He attends photo ops for vocational training programs, then cuts funding for them (p. 286). He goes to mines to honor brave trapped miners, then seeks to cut funding for the agency that saved their lives (p.291). He praises our soldiers, then tries to conceal medical benefits from them (p. 285). He praises police, fire and emergency workers, then cuts funding for those programs. While praising work, he tries to get overtime pay for millions cut. Meanwhile, he bequeaths a 337 billion dollar tax break to his wealthy friends (p. 272). The book is about the consequence of greed. Not only does bidness desire too much, they do not mind creating human misery to get it. In poignant stories about "real" lives the authors describe lives that are harmed so that corporations can extract a few more dollars from the earth too cheaply. In the arid West, they describe how mining and gas companies tip a delicate natural balance away from sustainability (p. 158). Make no mistake about it, Ivins and Dubose state that this presidency is of big bidness, for big bidness, and by big bidness (p. 287-88). To conceal this duplicity Bush slathers on a good old batch of jingoistic patriotism. The authors offer a quote from one Boots Cooper, a boyhood friend of the late Texas humorist John Henry Faulk. Upon being frightened and then injured as he flees a harmless Chicken Snake, Boots offers John Henry's mother an explanation of self imposed fear: "Ma'am there is some things that'll scare ya so bad that you'll hurt yourself." (p. 277). It is on this basis that the authors embark to explain the PATRIOT ACT and the recent wave of fear in America. The authors also talk about the dangers that Bush poses to the judiciary in nominating extremists like Priscilla Owen to federal judgeships (pp.230-33). And Ivins and Dubose clever explanation of the situation in the Middle East based on Bush's apocalyptic belief system is worth considering (pp.222-23). There is much here for the reader to feast upon whether your interest is domestic policy, terrorism, the Iraq War, the judiciary, big bidness, the environment, the economy. But it might be instructive to end with part of a quote from the principle, President George W. Bush, at the beginning of Chapter 16 of "Bushwhacked" entitled "The State of the Union." "I am the commander-- see... I do not need to explain to anyone why I say things" (p.276). The full text of the quote is on page 276. Ivins and Dubose borrow it from Bob Woodward's book "Bush At War."
Rating:
Summary: Which regime to change?
Review: Let's hold a contest. Which man should be awarded the title of "Greatest Hater of America"? Bin Laden? Khaddaffi? Chirac? Sorry, none of the above. The man who hates Americans the most, and shows it in his actions, is the incumbent president, George W. Bush. According to Ivins and Dubose, Bush has no equal in the damage he's done to education, the environment, food safety . . . the list seems endless. The authors have produced a catalog of social and economic transgressions attributable to Bush and his cronies. More than six thousand people, twice the toll of the WTC, die each year in workplace-related accidents. These deaths were preventable, but allowed to happen through lack of inspectors, poor enforcement or emasculated legislation all the result of the Bush regime. Ivins and Dubose catalog the transgressions against American society perpetrated by the Bush regime. These authors aren't lofty ideologues, savaging the Republican minority president in favour of Democratic hopefuls. Instead, their aim is the exposure of Bush policies on people we usually can't see. Elderly residents of un- or poorly-heated apartments. Working people led down a deceptive path toward unfulfilled retirement schemes. Hungry children in American school lunchrooms being fed tainted turkey sandwiches. The team took to America's streets, coffee shops and fast-food outlets. What they found makes depressing reading. They relate how fish-plant workers, driven by assembly-line processing speeds suffer permanent limb damage. None of these people should be enduring these privations, as the authors make clear. It is also clear that but one person can set those offensives right - you. The ironies contained here surpass easy count or description. One of the most glaring is the role of judges in interpreting the law and constitution. For decades, American conservatives have railed against courts "making law from the bench". Under the Bush regime, it is just such "justices" that are being elevated to lifetime appointments in Appeals Courts, once established to ease the burden on the Supreme Court. Even when the regime is finally toppled, those figures will continue affecting legislation for many years to come. Their positions designed to circumvent political interference, they show the Bush legacy won't equal the "thousand year Reich", but will extend far into your lifetime. As you read this book, you begin to wonder if the authors hesitate to describe the regime's foreign policy. As they express it, the complexities of the regime's foreign affairs elude simple narration. Once holding the concept of "nation building" in contempt, Bush, leaning on "the most radical and chilling foreign policy statement ever made" is now embarked on a unilateral adventure in just that area. In summary, they see Bush's dealings with other nations as moving from "incoherent" to "silly". The folly of a "war on terrorism" has been demonstrated by Bush dropping bin Laden from the most wanted to the most ignored. Ivins and Dubose acknowledge America will be struck again, with no amount of bombast or rhetoric deflecting it. Although the authors declare their distaste of overuse of the term "fascist", they cannot avoid the obvious. Bush's gratification of corporate greed and imposition of tax burden on those least able to bear it force the comparison. Quoting Mussolini [sorry, kiddies, but we older folks know who that is] they remind us that this regime is "the merger of state and corporate power". If Americans can justify regime change in other countries, certainly there's no excuse for not exercising that action at home. Indeed, that's the conclusion of this book - talk to one neighbour, one friend, one relative. Show the need for change and have them pass the word. It's possible. More importantly, it's necessary. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading
Review: Many facts highlighted by this book, put into recent historical context, add detail to the conceptual impact of Republican control of various branches of government. For instance, I wasn't aware of the background on the gutting of Superfund during the Gingrich years in congress, and then Bush's decision to let it run out of money. Whereas Franken is best listened to on tape, because his timing is so good, there's really nothing special about the audio version of this. Probably better to just read it.
Rating: 
Summary: I must be a liberal
Review: I don't know of anyone who is completely liberal, or completely conservative, and the same goes for Republican or Democrat - except perhaps the ideologues who still support Bush. I admit I started reading this last fall, but never finished until yesterday when I found a paperback copy left on the coffee table by my daughter, who will vote in her first presidential election this year. When I asked what she thought of the book she said: "I just can't understand how someone who was a failure at everything he tried could become president - or even be nominated." I guess that says it all, something is very wrong with the political system, or perhaps 2000 was just a freak of nature, a failure of logic, or an uninterested electorate.
The writing is not compelling, but the information makes up for any shortcomings. Of course one would have to be hoplessly naive to believe every word, but the evidence is already substantially out there and "Bushwacked" has just consolidated much of it in one place.
If everyone who really cares about the direction these ideologues have taken us in the last few years reads this book, then George Bush will be in Crawford, Texas by January 2005, and not on one of his innumerable "vacations".One can only hope that there is a larger than normal voter turnout in November, that alone would cause a Democratic landslide. As a matter of policy the Republicans depend on low turnout to have a chance at victory.
Rating:
Summary: Like Governor, Like President
Review: Now, this book is many things-an illuminating muckraker, a disturbing ripping of the veil of secrecy, an exposé of the chicanery beneath Bush's public face, a revelation of the extreme religious fundamentalism that drives his partisan policies-but "hilarious" it isn't. On the contrary, "Bushwhacked" is scary in its examples of how Bush, both as Texas governor and as U.S. president, has promulgated a long series of destructive policies and is little more than a mouthpiece for self-serving, would-be aristocrats such as Karl Rove. While "Bushwhacked" is not rich with the wit that characterizes Ivins' typical newspaper columns, her ironic turn of phrase cannot be totally suppressed and does surface from time to time. For the most part, however, this book is deadly serious, but that is not to say that it is preachy. The authors neither lecture nor pontificate but rather set forth example upon example of real people who have lost their part of "the American dream" as the direct result of Bush's governmental policies and practices. The shame of it all is that Bush brought no surprises with him to the White House. Many of his presidential policies had already been implemented at state level while he was governor of Texas, and many of those policies were so disastrous that even the conservative Texas legislature overturned them when Bush left the state. Are Ivins and Dubose practicing "Bushbashing" as today's neo-conservatives phrase it? How simple it is to create belittling labels with which to condemn others. Such labels keep one from having to consider issues at all, don't they? As I would expect from discerning researchers such as these authors, neither stoops to such ad hominem attacks. On the contrary, they merely set forth factual occurrences in the political history of George W. Bush (and several of his advisors) and permit the reader to draw his own conclusions as to the morality, ethics and constitutionality of each scenario. And, unlike those who depend on emotive attack and innuendo to make their case, Ivins and Dubose document their sources chapter by chapter. In fact, there are no fewer than 22 pages of sources listed! There is also a detailed index in the back for those who may be using this book as a source for their own studies of particular topics or persons. So we see that the book is (1) factual, (2) based on demonstrable historical events, and (3) well documented. But how valuable is it in the long run? What happens to its value when Bush is no longer in office? To profit most from its revelations, read it before the next presidential elections. Yet, do not feel that it becomes irrelevant after those elections either. Policies, judicial appointments, treaties made (and broken) now will affect the history of the United States long into the future. Both supporters and opponents of the Bush presidency must acknowledge that his actions have had, are having, and will continue to have a telling impact not only on the USA but also on the entire world. The information in "Bushwhacked," disturbing as it may be, is of permanent value to all who profess to be informed citizens of this nation or of the world. The book is fully worth its purchase price and, much more importantly, it is worth the time out of your life span that you devote to reading it.
Rating:
Summary: A government of big corporations and right-wing ideologues
Review: The authors of 'Bushwacked' pose the right question: who benefits from the Bush policies? Their answer is: big corporations (Enron) and right-wingers (e.g. P. Owen).
Their examples of the policies are clearly illustrated by cleverly chosen individual stories. They show that Bush's government tries to copy his Texas policies nationwide, where ergonomic and environmental laws were arranged to favor the food, chemical and oil industries.
Another loser is education, which is a key factor in national wealth creation: 'the government is spending less money on education reform than they were offering Turkey to accept US troops' (in the Iraq war). (p.89)
The Bush Administration is nominating extremists as judges.
The sex obsessed part of his Administration tries to restrict information on sexual transmitted infections, contraception and abortion. As an example, the US delegates at the UN Special Session on Children objected to a section calling for services to children in post-conflict situations, because they were afraid that might include girls who had been raped and who could be offered an abortion or even emergence contraception. (p.260)
They are more catholic than the Pope, who agreed on abortion for raped catholic nuns in 1960 in Zaire.
With this book in hand, one has absolutely no excuse to say that they were not informed.
A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Cassandra Redux
Review: Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam, the mythological ruler of Troy. She was given the gift of prophecy and the curse of not being believed. In their previous book, "Shrub," Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, our Cassandra twins, told America about a pampered preppy named George W. Bush. They warned that he was bad news as governor of Texas, and he would be bad news for America. He helped big bidness (business in Texan), and he hurt little people almost by reflex. He transformed a six billion dollar state surplus into a ten billion dollar deficit. Though Gore won the popular vote, not enough Americans listened to Ivins' and Dubose's plea to offset the Florida fiasco and the Nader vote. The consequence, saw in hand, postures on the book cover. Will "Bushwhacked," Ivins' and Dubose's latest screed, help unseat "Dubya?" Ivins and Dubose dress up this story of an ill got presidency with a bunch of Texas humor; it makes the bitter story they tell more palatable.
In poignant detail, Ivins and Dubose describe the lives of common people across the United States--in Philadelphia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oregon, Wyoming as well as Texas. They are extensions of what the authors warned in 2000: the denial of basic services to the needy; environmental deregulations that threaten the health and livelihoods of everyday Americans; the denial of justice to little people fighting major corporations; massive deficits balanced on the backs of the poor. All are Texas problems gone national under Dubya. And they document the international consequences of the Bush presidency. Even the one thing that Ivins and Dubose credited then Governor Bush with, a penchant for education reform, is shown to be a canard in "Bushwacked." The authors show there was no reform; the numbers were cooked; under performing students were ushered out of the system. The "Texas Miracle" was, in truth, the "Texas Shame" (pp.78-79). Ivins and Dubose enumerate a litany of what has happened during the Bush presidency. They write that he has acted as president as if he governed by mandate. They talk of policies that have run up massive deficits and alienated long time friends (p. 266). They show how he speaks in platitudes. He attends photo ops for vocational training programs, then cuts funding for them (p. 286). He goes to mines to honor brave trapped miners, then seeks to cut funding for the agency that saved their lives (p.291). He praises our soldiers, then tries to conceal medical benefits from them (p. 285). He praises police, fire and emergency workers, then cuts funding for those programs. While praising work, he tries to get overtime pay for millions cut. Meanwhile, he bequeaths a 337 billion dollar tax break to his wealthy friends (p. 272). The book is about the consequence of greed. Not only does bidness desire too much, they do not mind creating human misery to get it. In poignant stories about "real" lives the authors describe lives that are harmed so that corporations can extract a few more dollars from the earth too cheaply. In the arid West, they describe how mining and gas companies tip a delicate natural balance away from sustainability (p. 158). Make no mistake about it, Ivins and Dubose state that this presidency is of big bidness, for big bidness, and by big bidness (p. 287-88). To conceal this duplicity Bush slathers on a good old batch of jingoistic patriotism. The authors offer a quote from one Boots Cooper, a boyhood friend of the late Texas humorist John Henry Faulk. Upon being frightened and then injured as he flees a harmless Chicken Snake, Boots offers John Henry's mother an explanation of self imposed fear: "Ma'am there is some things that'll scare ya so bad that you'll hurt yourself." (p. 277). It is on this basis that the authors embark to explain the PATRIOT ACT and the recent wave of fear in America. The authors also talk about the dangers that Bush poses to the judiciary in nominating extremists like Priscilla Owen to federal judgeships (pp.230-33). And Ivins and Dubose clever explanation of the situation in the Middle East based on Bush's apocalyptic belief system is worth considering (pp.222-23). There is much here for the reader to feast upon whether your interest is domestic policy, terrorism, the Iraq War, the judiciary, big bidness, the environment, the economy. But it might be instructive to end with part of a quote from the principle, President George W. Bush, at the beginning of Chapter 16 of "Bushwhacked" entitled "The State of the Union." "I am the commander-- see... I do not need to explain to anyone why I say things" (p.276). The full text of the quote is on page 276. Ivins and Dubose borrow it from Bob Woodward's book "Bush At War."
Rating:
Summary: Which regime to change?
Review: Let's hold a contest. Which man should be awarded the title of "Greatest Hater of America"? Bin Laden? Khaddaffi? Chirac? Sorry, none of the above. The man who hates Americans the most, and shows it in his actions, is the incumbent president, George W. Bush. According to Ivins and Dubose, Bush has no equal in the damage he's done to education, the environment, food safety . . . the list seems endless. The authors have produced a catalog of social and economic transgressions attributable to Bush and his cronies. More than six thousand people, twice the toll of the WTC, die each year in workplace-related accidents. These deaths were preventable, but allowed to happen through lack of inspectors, poor enforcement or emasculated legislation all the result of the Bush regime. Ivins and Dubose catalog the transgressions against American society perpetrated by the Bush regime. These authors aren't lofty ideologues, savaging the Republican minority president in favour of Democratic hopefuls. Instead, their aim is the exposure of Bush policies on people we usually can't see. Elderly residents of un- or poorly-heated apartments. Working people led down a deceptive path toward unfulfilled retirement schemes. Hungry children in American school lunchrooms being fed tainted turkey sandwiches. The team took to America's streets, coffee shops and fast-food outlets. What they found makes depressing reading. They relate how fish-plant workers, driven by assembly-line processing speeds suffer permanent limb damage. None of these people should be enduring these privations, as the authors make clear. It is also clear that but one person can set those offensives right - you. The ironies contained here surpass easy count or description. One of the most glaring is the role of judges in interpreting the law and constitution. For decades, American conservatives have railed against courts "making law from the bench". Under the Bush regime, it is just such "justices" that are being elevated to lifetime appointments in Appeals Courts, once established to ease the burden on the Supreme Court. Even when the regime is finally toppled, those figures will continue affecting legislation for many years to come. Their positions designed to circumvent political interference, they show the Bush legacy won't equal the "thousand year Reich", but will extend far into your lifetime. As you read this book, you begin to wonder if the authors hesitate to describe the regime's foreign policy. As they express it, the complexities of the regime's foreign affairs elude simple narration. Once holding the concept of "nation building" in contempt, Bush, leaning on "the most radical and chilling foreign policy statement ever made" is now embarked on a unilateral adventure in just that area. In summary, they see Bush's dealings with other nations as moving from "incoherent" to "silly". The folly of a "war on terrorism" has been demonstrated by Bush dropping bin Laden from the most wanted to the most ignored. Ivins and Dubose acknowledge America will be struck again, with no amount of bombast or rhetoric deflecting it. Although the authors declare their distaste of overuse of the term "fascist", they cannot avoid the obvious. Bush's gratification of corporate greed and imposition of tax burden on those least able to bear it force the comparison. Quoting Mussolini [sorry, kiddies, but we older folks know who that is] they remind us that this regime is "the merger of state and corporate power". If Americans can justify regime change in other countries, certainly there's no excuse for not exercising that action at home. Indeed, that's the conclusion of this book - talk to one neighbour, one friend, one relative. Show the need for change and have them pass the word. It's possible. More importantly, it's necessary. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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