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F.U.B.A.R.: America's Right-Wing Nightmare

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Seder and Sherrill manage to create smiles despite the mess Bush et al have made of America. They begin by pointing out that we now have Rapture Republicans - i.e. an American version of the Taliban, patrolling our sex lives, science, education, laws, etc. America's Taliban are flooding Washington, statehouses and school boards - not just looking for a voice or equal time, but dominion and world conquest.

"Intelligent design" is the new "smart bomb" of the religious right, according to FUBAR. It's genius is how it uses principles of enlightenment to attempt to destroy enlightenment - all its proponents are asking for is to "consider all sides."

Surely this (Republican right-winging) can't go on forever, you think. The "good news," Seder and Sherrill point out is that you're in luck. The "bad news" is that the end is called the Apocalypse. Bush, along with 89% of evangelicals believe every word in the Bible it literally true, including all of Revelations. (The even badder news is that evangelicals are growing in strength - from 24% in '84 to 30% in 2003.

When the end comes, we won't need money, so no need to be concerned about losing half of all pension plans in the past decade. Similarly, the facts that real hourly wages have fallen 2.2% since the '03 tax cuts, median household income has dropped every year bush has been president, and the poverty rate has risen each year since 2001 are also immaterial. And to those who whine that in the 30-month period after the end of the recession the economy added 4.5 million jobs, compared with 7.9 million in the corresponding period following the last three recessions - Rejoice, The End is Near!

For those longing for the "good old days," FUBAR summarizes how the new Bankruptcy Law brings back Debtors' Prison, with a twist - you'll never get out! Among the remaining material there is also a helpful chapter covering buying or leasing a congressman.

Bottom Line: Be Happy - if you're a Republican, the end is near; if not, you'll be happy you read the book.

I'm a huge fan of "The Majority Report" and waited in anticipation for Sam's book. I was not disappointed. The "Editor and Publisher" summation hardly does the book justice. F.U.B.A.R. is smart, witty, hilarious and most importantly, very well researched. I also bought the audio CD and have ripped it into my IPod. You can pick up F.U.B.A.R. and start reading it at any page and find something meaningful. (This makes F.U.B.A.R. a great book to accidentally-on-purpose leave in the employee break room or washroom of a particularly hostile neo-conservative workplace.) It combines the knife-edged wit of Gore Vidal and the good old-fashioned shock value of John Waters.

People who still call themselves Republicans will hate this book. But the rest of the world will enjoy it.

In many places it's laugh out loud funny. In other places it is only funny because of the insane actions of the Christian Taliban's actions in the past few years.

Short chapters, so it's great for bus/train/plane reading or bathroom reading if that's your thing.

Enjoy!

For those who have enjoyed the zing of the political barbs on Air America's "The Majority Report", co-host Sam Seder and producer Stephen Sherrill have come up with the inevitable book tie-in to capitalize on the radio show's current popularity. Luckily, the book captures much of the lacerating spirit of the program by skewering the religious right with its own imagery and calling the Republican Party most appropriately the "Rapture Right". From there, much of the satire derives from how to fit into the current power structure, whether that means identifying your place in the apocalypse, tips on buying off a Republican congressman, or simply how to speak religiously. Much of the book takes a similar approach to the tongue-in-cheek parody of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction", but the scope of Seder and Sherrill's tome is much narrower and the humor somewhat more repetitive. It also lacks the comical graphic elements that make a book translation truly worthwhile on its own.

However, there are definite pleasures to be had in reading what American history would have been like if New York Times foreign affairs reporter and globalization specialist Thomas Friedman covered key events. And in light of President Bush's concentrated attempts to include a gay marriage ban in the U.S. Constitution, one of the funniest chapters is about gay Republican homophobes and how the co-authors have discerned a pattern of the most vehement anti-gay Republicans turning out to be gay. It is probably enough to say that they provide their evidence through the levels of arousal measured by a "penile plethysmograph" and coming up with statistics like eighty percent of gay homophobes produced a "Fristy". I also like their Dale Carnegie-like pointers in winning over archetypal Democratic stereotypes like the "Super-Jewish Grandma". Seder's co-host, Janeane Garofalo, uses her typically dry humor to great effect in the book's "postface" as she denigrates his co-host's diatribe. In fact, the whole book feels like a series of late-night comedy sketches rather than a cohesive satire, but there are enough laughs to keep any defeated Democrat from reaching for the Prozac.

I have to admit - I have watched the country spiral out of control over the past several years - and there has not been that much funny about it.

However, at least I know now there are fellow travellers who get it - and who can at least laugh about it. I had a great time with this book - and would recommend it to anyone who needs to take a break from CNN and smile.

I knew I was in for a treat when I first saw the cover of "F.U.B.A.R."...my state, Connecticut, was missing from the map, having been pried away by men who look like they might work for Halliburton. But when I read authors Sam Seder's and Stephen Sherrill's references to my hometown, Greenwich, (the prototype WASP community in America and tribal home of the Episcopalian Bush family) I was completely won over.

To be sure, there are many highlights in the book but it is the authors' inventive humor that shines throughout. It was so nice to be reminded of Karen Hughes's "listening tour" of 2005, not to mention "Brownie" (of "your doin' a heckuva job, Brownie" fame just before his falling out with a lass named Katrina) and our old friend, Rick Santorum. Where are these people when we need them today? "F.U.B.A.R." could easily stand for "Fools Under Bush Are Republicans".

It was hard to imagine at this point in reading "F.U.B.A.R." that the book could actually get funnier, but it did. The FDR speech to the nation following the attack on Pearl Harbor is re-written here as Bush might have delivered it and it's a classic. Their dissection of the self-serving Thomas L. Friedman is dead-on perfect but the line I laughed out loud about was this one: "You may find this hard to believe, but there are times when cable news is not covering missing white women". Bush and missing white women... the picture of America in the twenty-first century.

It's not too late to give "F.U.B.A.R." as a holiday gift...just pick the correct holiday. This book is a gem. It would be fun to have Seder over for dinner (is that possible...?) and I'm sure the other guy is just as funny.

Liberals are fascists who suppress debate, and Christians (who are more than 90% of Americans) are as oppressed as Jews in Nazi Germany.

Any right-wing Christian offended by this book should talk to members of the Bahai faith--virtually anywhere in the world--if they want to know what it's like to be oppressed for their religion. (And yes, I know that not all Christians are right-wing. Unfortunately, the ones who are: they tend to be the loudest, the most obnoxious, and otherwise attract the most attention.)

What pathetic whiners!

If they think being unable to hang the Ten Commandments everywhere at taxpayers' expense is oppression, then these folks need to read a bit of history. Talk to Kurds in Turkey, who are thrown in jail simply for using their own alphabet. Talk to East Timorese. Hell, even Christians in China.

But here? Oppressed?? Here in America, where Christians have their own networks all over both broadcast and cable TV. Where they have their own newspapers. (Seen any atheist or secular-humanist mass-market publications lately? No, don't say the New York Times, who supported Bush 100% in going to war with Iraq. Been watching too much Fox News Channel?)

As for suppressing debate: why is it that the Right can have people as radical as Pat Buchanan or Robert Novak or Charles Krauthammer or Ann Coulter all over the media? (OK, I'll admit, Coulter isn't a real pundit; that would require her to think and have meaningful opinions. How about Debra Saunders?)

Yet a tepid liberal like Al Franken is described as a loony leftist. No--you idiots--a leftist is someone like Noam Chomsky or Barbara Ehrenreich or maybe Jim Hightower. People who almost never appear in the U.S. media.

Yet many are constantly sought out in Canada and Europe for their political insights. Obviously, then, it's not a question of being telegenic, or capable of speaking in sound bites. It's more about the fact that outspoken lefties say things which frighten the advertisers.

If you're more liberal than the likes of (apologetic, ineffectual milquetoasts such as) Alan Colmes, you simply cannot speak in the American news media. You are blacklisted. Period.

Except in an extremely marginalized forum: such as the Pacifica News Service (which, like The Nation, is becoming more liberal and less left, all the time). Air America may change things, but only a bit. Mike Malloy is the only truly progressive voice on the station. Someone like Randi Rhodes may have a combative style, but the substance? Her politics are as much standard party-flack talking-points as what you hear from Rush Limbaugh, only on the other side of the aisle.

Thank the non-existent deity for such sources as the on-line Counterpunch magazine from Alexander Cockburn, so we leftists can get some actual news.

If Christians are so oppressed by the separation of church and state, why is "In God We Trust" printed on our currency? Why does the Senate have a Christian chapel?

What would happen if taxpayer funding was sought for a "faith-based" organization founded by, let's say...Buddhists? Or Hare Krishna? Or practitioners of a Native American religion? (Or, dare I say it...Jews?) I wonder whether their grant applications would receieve the same prompt attention as one from a Christian church.

(I don't want to hear anything about how the Constitution doesn't include the words "separation of church and state". True. But Jefferson, Madison and other Founding Fathers used the phrase frequently. "There shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion". Clear enough. Jefferson published his own version of the Gospels. He took a razor and cut out all the miracles. Anything supernatural was obviously ridiculous, he thought: but otherwise, the words of Jesus are great moral teachings and great literature. Most of the patriots who built America weren't Christians. They were deists and freethinkers.)

I will admit to having a left wing bias in my beliefs. That being said, I do read and listen to the views of folks on the "other side" of the aisle. Prior to 6 years ago, the other side of the aisle was not really a big deal. Before reading F.U.B.A.R., I knew things were not right in our excutive and legislative branches. (The jury, so to speak, is still out for me on the Supremes b/c they have suprised me with some decisions). This book gives a very easy and and funny read on a very serious topic. (the corrupt and idiotic leadership in control of our country) Their sources are cited, and when they are poking fun, they make sure to let readers know that particular source is not legitimate. My true gut feeling after reading this book is that it further scared the hell out of me, and made me increase progressive activity. However, the typical American doesn't want to hear it, doesn't get it, or down right just calls us "idiots and unpatriotic" for our rise up to make folks aware, when, in fact, we are very patriotic by exercising our rights to question what they are doing.

Nowadays, when I'm reading a book about politics and government, I prefer the author brings laughs with his facts. The current administration -- and the right-wing media it colludes with -- is so frustrating that it's better to be able to chuckle at the absurdity of it (the only alternative is to go insane).

So books like "F.U.B.A.R.," Franken's "Lying Liars" and "Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly" have become a good therapy.

"F.U.B.A.R." displays the same hilarious, nudging sarcastic humor of those other two books. They focus on the "Rapture Right's" favorite subjects: religion, gays and sex(lessness). They also go into other, less-traveled areas, about the attempt at destroying social security, the Bush Administration's incestuous political appointees, the so-called "Clear Sky Initiative" and how the EPA was manipulated and forced to lie.

This book is as funny as it is well researched. The authors never fail -- through inventive Q&As, imagined newspaper accounts, rewritten speeches, fake bestseller lists -- to perfectly expose the sad but hilarious truth about their subject.

Some of the highlights in this book for me are a soft-ball questionnaire from Republicans for Supreme Court nominees that includes questions like "How awesome are you?" and an absolutely gut-busting account of Karen Hughes' trip in the Middle East, where she constantly repeats her love of being a mom as a qualification and talks to angry-to-be-seen-as-victims Middle Eastern women about the joy and privilege of driving a car. Hughes' trip and her speeches while on it are a stark example of how out of touch this administration is with their own people and seemingly all other people, too.

Sam Seder is a star. I never heard of him before his show came on Air America but now I'm a huge fan. This guy is hilarious and smart! He released a brilliant DVD of him walking around the floors of the RNC in 2004 and that material is pure gold! Especially when the secret service throws him out for looking for Log Cabin Republicans.
And now this book comes out and it doesn't disappoint. It's very difficult to put down once you pick it up. It's laugh out loud funny. Sam proves that he's just as talented as the most famous political comedians: Al Franken, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher. This guy needs his own TV show!