Customer Reviews

Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This book ASTOUNDS me. It's not a "spin book," trying to argue against positions or "prove them wrong," it's simply a look at actual records of decisions and political connections (and their consequences) in the Bush administration. I find myself often gasping and proclaiming out loud to my wife, "Man, I NEVER heard this stuff anywhere else!" And it's not based on fragile strands of interconnecting conpsiracies; it's rather blunt and obvious--but just not commonly revealed in any media.

For example, this book documents in detail how Bush had done exactly the same thing with his Harken stock that Martha Stewart might be serving time for, but the SEC investigator on his case was also Bush's own personal lawyer too--and he simply allowed Bush to file his disclosure forms RETROACTIVELY. End result? Bush sells his stock moments before it tanks, costing OTHER people millions, getting rich, and then slipping through the law using the very same methods he'd later scold in his "corporate crime" speech about Enron. Oh, and remember how Cheney's company stashed billions in assets in tax shelters on the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes here? Now THAT'S patriotism!

Or how about this one? Bush made emissions controls in Texas VOLUNTARY for corporate polluters. How did polluters ever manage to win such benevolence? In fact, industry campaign contributers literally wrote every word of the law regulating themselves! Of more than 5,000 polluters in Texas, not one actually voluntarily reduced their emissions. Texas reversed Bush's law within the first year of his absence. Unfortunately, nobody has yet reinstated the food safety/listeria regulations for meat products that Bush cancelled during his first few months.

Or this one? In 1995, Newt Gingrich repealed the Superfund Tax on corporate polluters, which means that cleaning up Superfund toxic waste sites is now paid for by taxpayers, not by the corporations who made the messes. As a result, the $3.8 billion trust to clean toxic waste had dwindled to only $28 million this year (2003), less than one-fourth the cost of cleaning up a SINLGLE waste site (there are hundreds). So how'd Bush respond? He installed Christine Todd Whitman, a polluter's dream of an administrator, and CANCELLED the EPA's Ombudsman program. That means citizens have no method of raising concerns or reporting toxic sites to the EPA anymore; it's the same thing as cutting the wire on every phone leading to the EPA's reporting agencies. As a result, Bush can show on paper that the prevalence of toxic waste dumps is declining--not because he's done anything to remedy the problem, but because he killed the only available process for identifying and treating contaminated sites in the first place. And the sites that already exist remain untreated! (Is there one in your area? Check at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/)

Remember when Bush said that by far, "the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the people at the bottom of the spectrum?" And his defense that he would never pass along budget problems to future generations? And that his programs would stimulate the economy and jobs? Well, it turns out that 60% of his cuts go to the upper 10% of people (40% to the upper 1%), with NO cuts (or less than $200) to the bottom class (and yet the service cuts to pay for the tax breaks affect the lower classes the MOST, meaning it actually cost us money). The stock market has lost $4.6 TRILLION during his presidency, with 3 million jobs lost and no net jobs created, a DOUBLING of trade deficits under his gloablzied "free trade" arrangements (which he wants to expand still further!), record numbers (and a record increase-of-pace) of jobs lost to overseas sweatshops, and deficits caused by tax cuts that will extend into the senior age of our children.

And so on.

The book is plainly written, not dull, and not "catty." It just lays it right out there. Unfortunately, I suspect that any Bush "fan" would simply stop reading it after the first chapter, rather than confront the information offered. I predict you will see very few, if any, reviews that oppose this book by rebutting its facts; watch carefully and guage the balance between people who actually tackle what this books says, and those who slough it off with lazy and cowardly phrases like "more liberal [insert cliche dismissive term here.]"

Go, Molly!

Molly Ivins is a very funny woman. She has clearly made many enemies with her outspokenness. And with Bushwhacked, Ivins outdoes herself with her comedic approach. There are some laugh out loud lines that are just entirely brilliant in Bushwhacked.

At the very same time, Iver's humor is focused on a very real situation: the current administration of our country. To that extent, Bushwhacked is a serious examination of some very compelling political and constitutional issues.

While Bushwhacked can easily be attacked as left wing pabulum by the conservative readers who believe they are benefiting by the approach of the current administration, the issues it deals with are all too real and all too well corroborated in the media and in observations made by average people throughout our nation.

I know that humor is supposed to cushion the hard and often cruel truth. And for a while, the humor in Bushwhacked works very well. Yet, at the end of this book, I just came away sad and somewhat anxious about the state of our nation.

Vitally important issues, cleverly presented. Yet, as a reader, my concluding emotions on the issues addressed in the book were ones of genuine discomfort and a sense of powerlessness that I all too often hear echoed in the voices of many American as they discuss their views of how the country stands politically at this juncture in history.

A recommended read. Some serious issues for all Americans to consider with an open and nonpartisan mind!


Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA

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.

...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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Wow, I wish we had all read "Shrub" then we might not be in this mess. Molly Ivins hit the nail on the head with this book, and man, have we been lied to. Just read it and you'll understand, then pass it along to a friend or donate it to your local library, this book must be read, especially before November 2004. Thanks Molly & Lou, this book needed to be written!

I don't get it. One lady I talked to said she liked Bush because he was a Christian, but as I looked to see what he has done that was Christian (I am a Christian who believes in Jesus)I just couldn't find a thing that he has done that is something that Jesus would have done. Saying grace, while it is good, is not being a Christian if what you do isn't.

This was an extremely depressing, but necessary, book to read. We have indeed been bushwacked. Molly and Lou show us how the policies that Bush and his buddies have pushed through have helped the rich but have hurt the 'Doug Jones' of America.

With Harken, Bush did what Enron did, but as he did it first, and has gotten away with it, he was a good teacher for his friends at Enron. Look at how many innocent hard working people were hurt in that fiasco. He took away the cap on the price of energy that Clinton had established when California had its energy crisis so the Californians wouldn't be gouged by unfair prices, and helped the energy companies rip off Californians.

When he took office in Texas, it too, had a surplus, but when he left office in Texas, it had one of the biggest deficits ever. As is the case throughout his life, he makes a mess and then someone else has to come along and clean up after him.

He worked for the big companies so that they wouldn't have to put money out for air safety for our environment etc. These people, are against abortion, but they don't care about the lives of our future generations, or our current ones either (I would think a life should be as important to them after it is born as it is before) , just to save them a few bucks.

They worked hard against any bills that would help the health of the working class people, Clinton worked hard for them and then Bush and his people come along and shoot'em down. There are businesses where workers are docked for using the bathroom, they are only allowed an extra five minutes during the lunch hour.

His educational plan is a dismal failure, you would think with a wife who was a teacher, that he would have come up with a better approach.

The control over our judicial system is downright scary. They will show us again and again how it is used against the average American citizen.

His lack of environmental protection is abominable. I have never seen an administration so gung-ho on destoying its resources as quickly as it can so that a few companies can make a little money. What I don't understand here, is don't these people plan on having children and grand-children, etc. Is this the legacy they want to leave them? Because many of their actions are causing permanent damage to our country that cannot be undone. The damage is not going to be partisan, it is going to affect every single one of us.

The bottom line is, every action he has taken has been to increase the wealth of the rich and hurt the working class people. He has shown no compassion for the majority of the people at any time. He may tell the people he is helping them, but what he does is just the opposite. An example: he says he is concerned about the young men and women that are fighting for our country, while he is lowering their wages and the ones that have been injured and are flown back to the U.S. are being charged for the meals they eat in the hospital-they put their lives on the line for our country and we won't even feed them?

This has become a country controlled more and more by the corporations and the super rich and if we want to save it, we are going to have to put a lot of the people that are in office out and get some in that care about the people. For a country to be healthy and prosperous, it has to have a more even balance or it will fail. So, go find out how your congressmen have voted on issues, and if they haven't been for the good of the people, get out and vote someone else in. Someone who does care about you, someone who is fair minded and compassionate, and get out and let's get the patriot act repealed!