Customer Reviews

How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

By virtue of being an organized series of past short columns, most two pages to three pages in length, this book may be off-putting to the average reader, but for either insiders or those who care deeply about moral legitimate governance, this is a real page turner.

The author renders a valuable service in providing an original 23 page "tour of the horizon" that captures many but not all of the impeachable offenses of the Bush-Cheney team. In Florida, for example, his emphasis is on Bushophiles stopping the recount, not on the fact that Greg Pabst broke the story BEFORE the election that 35,000 people of color had been disenfranchised by Jeb Bush in a calculated plan to cheat the American public out of an honest election.

As someone who has read most but not all of the books covering this era (it merits comment that in its radical being, the Bush-Cheney Administration has inspired more books of the moment than any other previous President, as best I can tell), I found the collection of essays logical, reasoned, relevant, and depressing. This is a litany of high crimes and misdemeanors that demands the question: why hasn't this pair been impeached? The obvious answer is because they own Congress, which has abdicated its roles at the first (Article 1) branch of government, the less obvious answer is because the public has become both ignorant and inert, the worst nightmare of Thomas Jefferson and Justice Branstein combined.

A few highlights along the trail:

Intelligence wars, with Cheney first trying to intimidate the CIA, then ignoring it.

Cheney killing the policy process, ruling by dogma.

Rice negligent & incompetent, as well as disloyal to Scowcroft, subversive of Powell, and ultimately the "butterfly of the State Department."

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence betraying the people's trust and its responsibility, the majority concealing and delaying accountability.

Bush leveraging religions, creating the first major violation of the Founding Fathers' insistence on a secular state with tolerance of all religions.

Government in crisis, Bush-Cheney at war with the professionals.

Iran, not US, winning in Iraq.

Bolton as a "neo-primitive" (for the cognoscenti, the author renders gifted turns of phrase at every turn).

Catholic Church as a neo-fascist extreme right element more in harmony with the Bush regime than any protestant might imagine.

The invisible shrinking president seeking to uphold a doctrine of presidential infallibility.

The summary at the beginning of the book is alone worth the price of the book, and takes this collection of insightful and well-sequenced essays from four to five stars.

My one thought in putting the book down was that the author may have been unduly kind to Cheney. If one reads the The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 it is clear Cheney has mounted an internal coup d'etat and is NOT briefing Bush, is actively WITHHOLDING from Bush critical information, and appears to be deliberately REVERSING decisions by Bush made in Cabinet sessions and the over-turned in the dark. The full story on Cheney's machinations remains to be told.

EDIT of 10 Dec 07: We now know that Dick Cheney is a nakely amoral person and has committed 25 documents acts of commission or omission that in my judgement demand that he be impeached. See, in addition to One Percent Doctrine, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency. My review there items 23 act, the other two are in One Percent Doctrine.

The book has an index, mostly of names.

No one understands the radical right like Sidney Blumenthal. He writes about it in a clear, concise, measured way, though his revelations can make your blood boil. This book is must reading for anyone concerned about what is happening in the United States. I hope it influences the way the country will vote in the mid-term elections this year.

I'm giving Sidney Blumenthal's new compendium of political essays and columns a qualified 4 stars. The writing is good, the target well-chosen, the barbs well-aimed. My problem with 'How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime' is that it is simply a collection of short columns (generally 2-3 pages) that Blumenthal wrote while commenting on the Bush Administration between November 2003 and April 2006 in Salon and the Guardian of London. Two or three pages is just not long enough to develop the facts or ideas that I look for in a book. The benefit, and some may find it to be a big plus, is that you can pick it up and read a 'chapter' in just a few spare moments. 'How Bush Rules' amounts to a diary of the past three years of lies, incompetence, religous extremism, destruction of civil liberties, and a breathtaking concentration of power in the Whtie House.

The chapter-length introduction, however, raises my rating of the book by a full 'star'. It is nothing less than a concise and convincing indictment of Bush's rule. Congress could use it as an outline for a bill of impeachment.

Recommended.

No one in the Bush administration will read this book. Most of the readers will already know what is included - I did, without even opening the cover. It is a quick read, and very little speculation, but it would be too painful for President Bush to admit, ever that he was and is totally incompetent, inept and without a single doubt the worst President in our history and the damage he and his henchmen have done will take decades to repair. The saddest part is that they just don't seem to care about the mistakes they continue to make. They refuse advice from wiser, more intelligent public servants, and never will. Books like this are frustrating to read because you know going in that those who should read it and learn from it won't, and neither will their blind supporters.

This is a shocking look into just how this administration goes about business. The more you read, the more you can key in on specific things that are reported in the news or that is said in Bush's speaches. This is a commentary on the sad state of current politics - we need to take these things seriously and get our government back to the checks and balances that our Constitution provided. To continue the way things are going, will be the effective dismantling of our Constitutional guarantees and protections

I will agree with the other reviewers that the author doesn't look at Cheney as deeply as he might. And, yes, the book is a collection of short columns--but that's one of the things I like about it. I've been able to share many of them with friends who, after reading them, have gotten angry and interested enough to start reading some of the books that go into depth on the Bush regime. I also want to mention that Mr. Steele's review misnames Greg Palast as Greg Pabst. Though I find Palast's style of writing rather juvenile in tone too often, he is a great investigative reporter.

Blumenthal's "How Bush Rules" (an introduction and epilogue, surrounding a series of short essays between the post 9/11 period and the 2006 election) provides a concise and level-headed summary of the Bush years. Its easy reading provides a valuable antidote to the "boiled frog syndrome" in which many of us have become accustomed to Bush's new interpretation of American democracy.

Blumenthal begins by telling us that no one predicted how radical a president Bush '43 would be. His support of Arab-Americans in a debate with Gore seemed to suggest continuation of non-partisan Arab-Israel peace efforts (it was instrumental in winning an overwhelming share of the Muslim vote, about 90,000 of which were in Florida), he touted a record of bipartisan cooperation in Texas - stressing he'd be "a uniter, not a divider," and promised that he would be "humble" in foreign policy. Even the battle for Florida (setting loose a mob of mostly Republican staff members from Congress flown down to intimidate the Miami-Dade Board of Supervisors form counting votes there) was seen as a minor aberration.

However, immediately on assuming office Bush began to undo bipartisan traditions - we withdrew from efforts to persuade North Korea's leadership to control and limit its nuclear weapons, rejected the Kyoto Protocol, withdrew form negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, reversed his promise to reduce CO2 from power plants, pushed a large tax cut through that redistributed income and drained the Clinton surplus, limited stem cell research, and antagonized the Russians with aggressive Star Wars pursuit and an intent to withdraw from prior treaties.

By 9/10/01, Bush's approval rating was the lowest of any president at that point. Rove then went on to strategize demonizing Democrats over false issues of national security (eg. unionizing of TSA staff), while Bush moved to concentrate power in the Executive Branch, asserting that he had complete authority over federal agencies. Secret prisons were established, the Geneva Conventions ignored and described as "quaint" (Gonzalez), spying authorized without the required warrants, false and misleading information regarding Iraq and Saddam used to stampede public opinion, and the doctrine of preemptive attack launched. Government scientists were muzzled to muffle global warming concerns, and the opinions of others misstated; stem cell research (even when drawn from umbilical cords) also was targeted, this time to benefit Bush's religious-right base. Critics outside the (eg. Joseph Wilson) were smeared (eg. anti-Semitic, or worse), and media executives were leaned on to provide "more objective" coverage.

Bush hoped to undo the New Deal, beginning with Social Security, after the '04 election using his newfound "political capital." However, the effort failed to even garner a single congressional hearing, and his descent began. Katrina and the leveling of New Orleans exposed administration incompetence, and people began to wonder aloud about other major Bush actions/non-actions.

Bottom Line: Bush contends that being reviled is proof of his righteousness, comparing himself with Truman and Churchill during their down times. Closer to the truth, however, is Blumenthal's observation that Bush's legacy is an American democracy in crisis.

First, I want to make clear I have not read this book nor had I heard of it until stumbling across it in a search for more credible authors. This IS the same Sid Blumenthal that worked for the Clinton Mafia? Dispensed misinformation to the press in order to spare Pres Clinton a conviction in the Senate? And, last I knew, was accused of committing perjury himself by author Christopher Hitchens during the whole Lewinsky/Jones matter? My review consists of recommending you go to any of the other hate/hit books on VP Cheney rather than a professional propagandist like Mr Blumenthal. At least, I would assume, they haven't participated in the same "high crimes" that they routinely and falsley throw at VP Cheney.

Perhaps if we take a sample of their venom, spite, delirious tantrums, submit it to Center for Disease Control, we can finally diagnose them.