Customer Reviews

Dude, Where's My Country?

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2 star:		(52)
1 star:		(218)

 

 

Hey folks, this is place for book reviews, not just somewhere to hammer your political stakes. If I want to know a good restaurant in which to eat, I don't get much help from people who say "that place sucks," or "it's awesome, maan." Those are not restaurant reviews. They are inarticulate blanket statements that tell me very little about culinary establishments. If some moron who doesn't like Italian food, but loves Chinese food, even if it is bad, makes those statements, I am not in a very good position to find a good restaurant.

But, hey, Moore's book is not exactly fine literature either, nor is it supposed to be. It is the stuff that touches nerves and induces one or two sentence leftwing or rightwing rants. While this may be bad for the Amazon book review section, it is good for political discourse.

And that is where many "professional" reviewers (or the publicists who pick abridged comments) fare little better than the guy who likes lousy Chinese food. The first splash review on the back of the book exclaims "Moore is a comic genius." This comment is like a court reporter exclaiming "Kobe Bryant is a basketball genius" after covering a pretrial hearing.

Well, Moore is damned funny, but the book is not primarily a comic work. Chapter 10 is hilarious, granted, but this is a book of serious political and social commentary peppered with quips and sarcasm. Moore fans already know that model, and they aren't the ones reading these reviews for the purpose of finding a good read.

The book is a Bush-bashing of epic proportions, but the weapon for the beating is not weird conspiracy theories as some might want to claim. Sure, Moore suggests that the war in Iraq is about oil, that the terrorist threat is a Republican political tool to exploit patriotic sentiment, and other ideas that put grins on the faces of liberals and frowns on the faces of conservatives. But the plain well-documented facts in the book do the talking (as they do in any decent piece of research).

Startling revelations of the Bush family's intimate business and social dealings with the Saudi Royal family are Moore's most powerful weapon. And, no, he is not relying on innuendo or rhetoric. Actually, he is using mainstream media sources, even those owned by arch-conservative Rup Murdoch. Moore describes how the Saudis were overtly protected from scrutiny after 9/11 by Ashcroft and company (to the great dismay of the FBI), while hundreds of other Arabs on American soil were rounded up like Japanese Americans during WWII, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 highjackers were Saudis. And that is just an appetizer.

In all, the book effectively discredits Bush and his agenda - from tax cuts to the Patriot Act to foreign affairs. Moore is persuasive in describing Bush's presidency as an absolute disaster for the country (our country if you were wondering which one).

On the disappointing side, Moore wants to have his cake and eat it too (the common pitfall of most political discourse). While Moore doesn't sketch out theories, he asks questions that imply, for example, that Osama wasn't perhaps as responsible as the Saudi establishment for 9/11. But he then asserts his desire for Osama to be caught and held responsible. This is a bit of a trap for Moore. He asks a lot of questions of Bush - legitimate questions that need to be answered. But the reader (particularly the unlikely conservative reader) may see these as rhetorical questions for which Moore is implying answers. The easy leap for the critic is "conspiracy theory." For those less likely to make that judgment, the problem may be more like the Osama one: Innuendo A is not consistent with Assertion B.

Perhaps inevitable, this flaw is the soft underbelly for those wishing to dismiss other parallel arguments which are well crafted and well researched.

Finally, does this book "suck" or is it "awesome?" Well, I read it in one sitting, which rules out "sucks." It is not awesome as in "awesome dude-meister!" It is awe inspiring for the plain questions it asks and the startling revelations it makes. Strip away all of Moore's prose if you wish, and you will be left with a body of research that should leave you sickened not only by Bush and his puppeteers, but by Congress, and maybe even your brother-in-law.

I agree with those who say that anyone accusing Moore of not writing the facts is full of it. I have spent the past two months working on an anti-Bush book, and virtually everything I found confirms what Moore says in "Dude".

There are very serious questions about what happened both before and after 9-11 that the Bush administration is refusing to answer. Frankly, I think that Moore does not go far enough in
indicting the Bush administration for their crimes.

The entire Bush family is one virtual criminal enterprise, from Prescott to the present, and it is deeply disturbing that such people have their hands ILLEGALLY on the levers of power.

Aside from being the truth, Moore as usual is very, very funny. There are some actual laugh-out-loud parts of the book.

Best reason to buy the book: Moore is going to use all the money he gets from the Bush tax cut to work against Bush and the Republican party in 2004. So help make Mike rich!

I have read some reviews here and it looks like the right wingers are already trashing this book, and the sad thing is that they probably haven't even read it. I don't understand what left and right have to do with anything here. Moore is just stating what a huge mess this country has become. I would hope that everyone that reads this book feels the outrage that I do. This administration has taken 9/11 and used it to steal our liberties, our money and sent our children to war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. This book should be required reading for everyone. Then maybe people would wake up, and make our government accountable for what's been happening in this country. It's time for them to do the things they were elected to do instead of looking out for big corporation's interests. Buy this book. You won't regret it.

Wow, what a book! I must have looked stupid laughing out loud during my lunch breaks as I read it. But the laughter was mixed with concern about where our America is heading. His excellent, yet misunderstood use of sarcasm is well blended with the shocking, sometimes frightening and thought provoking questions he raises. I thoroughly enjoyed his previous book, but I admit I couldn't wait for this one because I knew that if he was outraged at Bush for stealing the Presidency in "Stupid White Men", he would be hilariously struck by the mess he has gotten us into in such a short time.

Now let's talk about the reviewers that "allegedly" read this book, but were "disappointed" to find those web sites that list the "factual errors" in this book. Isn't it convenient that they don't share the links to these sites so we can judge for ourselves.

So I decided to look for these myself, and I found some interesting ones. You know, I was really expecting to find at least ONE error or misrepresentation, but all they had were either inconsequential criticisms or debunking of opinions, not facts. In fact, none of the supporting articles that Moore references are even challenged!

Let me show you a few examples of the 17 "factual errors" noted at spinsanity.org:

#1. "Moore claims that [...] HarperCollins, which published Stupid White Men, "dumped [the book] in some bookstores with no advertising [...] yet on his web site Moore stated that "HarperCollins is doing their best to get the book out there." -Bryan Keefer, "Moore's myriad mistakes"

HOW IS THIS RELEVANT? Also, these were not FACTS, just opinions. Can there be "Factual Errors" in opinions?

Then he quotes Moore:
"There is usually very little in the way of an electronic or paper trail when it comes to terrorists. They lay low and pay cash. You and me, we leave trails everywhere"

And their "finding" is that "Moore evidently forgot about the credit cards used by the Sept. 11 hijackers". WHO CARES ?! That it NOT the point he's making. Plus, again, this was not a fact, but an opinion they're "debunking".

Their "error # 17" is actually a comparison in Poll results about the war intentions of Americans. They compare to polls that ask a different question (omitting the "with the support of UN and allies") and use them as a contradiction of Moore's allegations. Now who's twisting the facts?

And this one is outright ridiculous:

#7. "Moore uses fake quotes as chapter headings, implying that Bush (or administration officials) said things they never said"

Well duh! Chapter headings are meant to SUMMARIZE the text below. Any intelligent reader would know this and would read the referenced NEWS articles for the real quotes.

Another site that tries to challenge Moore is moorewatch.com. Now this one is heavy on ranting, but light on anything constructive. Here's an example from their article "Michael Moore: The Fact-check":

MOORE: Rush Limbaugh has been around for 20 years.
REALITY: This year marked his show's 15th anniversary.

Wow, they're right, Moore IS a liar! (That's sarcasm, for the literary-challenged)

Now here, they too show their ability to twist facts. They quote Moore: "Private jets, under the supervision of the Saudi government were allowed to fly around the skies of America"

They retort with: "The real truth of this incident is [...] No account has a flight of Saudis leaving the U.S. until after the resumption of normal air traffic".

Well that's NOT what Moore is saying. He says they flew WITHIN America while all other flights were stopped, not "leaving" the U.S.

The rest of their critics resort to name-calling to make their points. Though it really gets to me when they call Moore (and his readers) America-Haters, when it's obvious that Moore (and all of us) LOVE this Country. Its like the love you have for a parent which has Cancer, and you wish with all your heart someone can find a cure.

Other reviewers of this book bash Michael Moore for being obese, white-hating, and unamerican instead of refuting what he says. If you want to bash Michael Moore and his book, do so with facts. Dispute his claims. Show that George W. Bush and his family hasn't had ties to Saddam Hussein since the 1970s, show us the proof "W" had for starting this war, and disconnect all his links to "Kenny-boy," Enron and other energy companies and their attempts to pilfer Iraq of its natural resources.

Forget the fallacious arguments and conservative rhetoric against this book and read it for yourself. Then make your opinion based on the facts, not Michael Moore, his weight, patriotism or all things arbitrary.

Moore's book was at times downright DISTURBING to me--and not in the Molly Ivans "I can't believe the astonishing facts I'm reading!" way. No, more like "I'm a bit worried that Moore has gone off the field."

I'm a Moore FAN who's met the man several times, visited with him, and read all his books (I just finished this one today; I'm one of those rare reviewers who actually READ the books before submitting a review). But this book seems to offer us a lot of what we already knew, a hefty dose of NEW research, but wrapped in the decoration of conspiracy theory.

For example, Moore excels at researching and documenting his grievances about Bush's handling of terrorism, war, the conomy, the envioronment, civil rights, etc. Moore has been taken to task before about playing loose with facts, so he covers himself well by offering us specific sources for each claim this time. At least the facts won't be as easy to dispute.

But Moore sways a bit too flexibly toward his own dastardly conspiracy theories, and that nudges him toward rhetoric that becomes ever-more aggressive and shocking, rather than cunning and witty as when he's at his best. He'll cite Michael Savage as an example of conservative hate speech that "liberalism is a mental disorder," but a few pages later joke about no effective mental health treatment being developed for conservative thinking. He'll title a book "Dude, Where's My Country?" to complain that conservatives have stolen the America he once knew, and then climax the book with a chapter about how conservatives are a minority in an America that really prefers liberal social agendas.

One chapter troubles me deeply. I'm not a fundamentalist about religion, but Moore interrupts his book to include an entire chapter written by "God," ostensibly to "set us straight" about how God wants us to think. Even when I agree with some of the thoughts Moore suggests in that chapter, I am more uncomfortable than amused with the daunting arrogance of presuming to possess God's own voice, for the sake of telling us that God's voice endorses Michael Moore's will. Such a tactic smacks of the very attitudes Moore is condemning among Bush's allies.

It's an excellent book for people needing fast facts with their relevant sources. It won't present new concepts, but it will help liberals make their routine arguments with better data.

One final thought: Beware of ANY reviewer here who's obviously never read the book, and yet posts a review simply as an opportunity to advance a personal political view, bash their ideological adversaries, or post a personal message about how great Bush is/how bad Moore is, etc. Any review that either supports or criticizes this book should be investigated by the readers for evidence of insight into the book's actual content, and not just the writer's own personal rhetoric published to Amazon.

Absolutely AMAZING. I don't know what's wrong with half these people, but definitely buy this book! It completely changed my outlook on 9/11 and the evil Bush Administration. Do you know WHY we're really on war with Iraq (this is one of the many issues covered in the book)?
1. No, there were NO Iraqis on the planes on 9/11.
2. No, Saddam and Osama DO NOT like each other or are in cahoots. (Moore comments that they did meet each other ONCE but it turned out to be like a great episode of Blind Date - they both HATED each other).
3. No, Saddam does NOT have connection with al Qaeda.
4. No, Iraq does NOT have any "weapons of mass destruction," not unless you count the stuff we gave them (i.e. Bacillus Athhracis, Clotridium Botulinum, Histoplasma Capsulatum, Brucella Melitensis, and Clostridium Prefringens. He explains what they are in the book. We also gave them computers and a whole mess of other stuff that totalled to 1.5 BILLION dollars).

Moore investigates everything to the fullest and we, as American citizens, should KNOW everything there is to this awful story. This story where Bush devises plans and more plans to help out his Bin Laden friends and his rich friends with providing them access to FLY out of the country just days after 9/11 when NO ONE ELSE COULD FLY, tax breaks, and much more. READ IT.

First, to those individuals who condemn this book for its ideolgical slant to the left, I wonder if those same individuals would be equally outraged by the ideological slant to the right by Ms. Coulter or Mr. Hanity in their books? Of course the political biases of the author are going to come out in their writing; it would be unreasonable and unrealistic to expect otherwise. Rather, one should focus on the quality of the writing and information presented. If one's focus is on these literary attributes, then Michael Moore's book stands up quite well. I found, Dude, Where's My Country to be both humorous and thought-provoking. Whether you are on the left or the right on the political spectrum, the primary question that this book raises, at least to this reader, is to whom is the government, be it American, Canadian, Iraqi, or whatever, answerable to?

Despite some claims to the contrary, Mr. Moore does, in fact, document his evidence. One needs only look at his endnotes to show that he has dilegently documented his sources. Upon reading the negative reviews, I'm not sure that those reviewers aren't confusing "lack of evidence" for Moore's claims with the "interpretation of the evidence." While this may be an issue for debate, Moore really cannot be fairly accused of not providing evidence for his claims. To those who have stated that he is lying, I would challenge you to prove yourself (I've examined the negative reviews that claim Moore is lying and I have yet to see an example of these assertions).

Whether you're a liberal or a conservative, Moore's book deserves a fair examination.

The list of sources is a chapter in itself, making it difficult to doubt the aligations. You'll be stunned. Please read this book before Election 2004!

I got this from a fellow Republican as a gag Christmas gift. I was going on a plane ride, and didn't have anything to read, so I grabbed it, figuring I'd get a few laughs out of it. I was a huge Fox News fan, and I was prepared for Moore's lies and manipulation, but 100 pages in, I started to question my own beliefs. When I got off the plane, I had some questions, but they had to be double checked. I know what Moore is capable of, or at last I thought I knew. A cross-checking turned up almost nothing but information backing up Moore's claims! I feel like I've been duped by my own kind. There's no way I'm voting for Bush this time around.