Posts
'via Blog this'
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Molly Ivins is no phony, October 25, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)
...or phoney - whichever way you choose to spell it. Nothing about her seems fake or insincere. She is a bona fide Texas gal - an honest and passionate journalist whose wit and humor can make you laugh out loud.I watched Molly Ivins speak about "Bushwhacked" on the now infamous C-Span/Book-Tv program that also included Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly. While the two guys came close to smacking each other, Molly, in her Texan drawl, was very nice and gracious to conservative O'Reilly - which is also how she usually comes across in her writings. She may report from a liberal perspective, but she never seems outrageously unfair and biased, or mean-spirited and offensive.If you've read Ivins' columns you know what she's been telling us about Texas politics and "bidness" and about the Bushes. In her book "Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush", Ivins and Dubois told us about the easy life of George Dubya, a.k.a. Shrub - someone who's made it through life and to the top with no particular talent or hard work, but with the help of daddy's powerful, wealthy friends. Although the title of that book didn't turn out to be exactly accurate, you can say that in that book Ivins warned us about George Jr - Shrub as guv. Now, in this book we see how not just Texas, but sadly, all of America has been "bushwhacked".
The book has plenty of Ivins' wit and humor, but it is also more depressing because Mr. Shrub is now running America - the guy who called Africa a country is no longer dealing with Texas "bidness", but with the entire world. And we know that, so far, it is not going too well.
This book can also make you angry at the hypocrisy of George W. who, as a Texas businessman, made a pile of money with shady Enron-like business practices and who now, as our president, speaks about his strong commitment to business ethics.
In "Bushwhacked" we read about how Bush profited from his position as member of the board at Harken, taking low-interest loans to buy stocks and profiting from insider-trading, walking away with a million dollars while the less fortunate (and less informed) stock holders lost millions. We learn that, despite Bush's denials, Harken and Enron were very much the same thing - same corporate crime, same crooked behavior.
The book points to the connection between George W. Bush and fellow Texan and corporate crook, Kenneth Lay. Enron was Bush' BIGGEST contributor once, but thanks to the "liberal press" we hear little about Bush's cozy relationship with corporate thieves or about his own business practices at Harken.
Fortunately, we can read "Bushwhacked" and learn all about it, and more - and keep it in mind when it's time to vote again.
69 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Cassandra Redux, February 27, 2004
By
Joe Eshleman (bratenahl, ohio United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)
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."
53 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Don't be fooled by the ranting, November 12, 2003
By
Kate Michele Stern (Newport, RI United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)
Conservatives do a better job than sane people of ranting, crying, and stomping their feet when presented with anything that does not support their view of the world. They are so loud, and morally superior ("How dare you criticize Bush, he is the Commander and Chief in wartime!"), that sometimes it seems like they must constitute a majority.Well guess what? Elections are won (and lost) in the middle, and this country is spilt right down the center. That's how Gore won the popular vote but lost the election. It was that close. Both sides know this, so they ratchet up the rhetoric in an attempt to win converts from the middle (Franken on the left, O'Riley on the right), and in the end, as far as the vast middle is concerned, they cancel each other out. The middle doesn't pay attention until its time to vote, and even then far more of them vote when they feel something more important than politics is at stake.That is why this book scares conservatives. The middle is worried about keeping or finding a job, and wondering if George just flat lied about WMD as the clear and present danger in Iraq or if was duped by hawks that decided to get Hussien once and for all on Sept 12, 2001. Either way, there is cause for concern. When people are concerned, they start asking questions, and they vote.
Smart people approaching this book, asking honest questions about George, will almost certainly end up voting against him. That's why conservatives will yell and scream about what a liberal flak Ivins is. They want to prevent the undecided from reading it, and the best way to do that is to label it as liberal propaganda.
Well, it isn't. Just as she did in Shrub, Ivins lets it be known where she stands, but she lets the facts speak for themselves. The scary thing is, once you start to see George for what he truly is, its clear that all you have to do is scratch the surface to see through this guy, and it makes you wonder why the mainstream media are so scared of doing just that.
292 of 331 people found the following review helpful
If Only This Were the News, October 27, 2003
By
Kelly Scaletta (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)
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.97 of 107 people found the following review helpful
Rapidly dismantling the government safety net,October 10, 2003
This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment