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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Damning Indictment Of G.W. Bush's First Term In Office!, September 14, 2004
This review is from: What We've Lost: How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Our Freedoms, Mortgaged Our Economy, Ravaged Our Environment, and Damaged Our Standing in the World (Hardcover)
Editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, has written some excellent columns and letters for his magazine over the years, and for some time now has been expressing his concern with where the Bush administration has been leading America. In "What We've Lost," Mr. Carter consolidates his grievances against the Bush administration - documenting the ways, he believes, the present government has weakened our democratic process. Listed, and the book is long on lists, are the names, dates, numbers and details of American losses due to President Bush and his colleagues' zeal to further their political agenda.
Carter cites national and international policy failures as a result of President Bush's 1st term in office: the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent, seemingly never-ending war; personal rights; woman's rights; the economy; the environment; the accumulation of a huge deficit, including pork barrel spending; jobs; the respect of old allies and the international community, etc., etc. The author claims that it would be difficult "to point to a single element of American society that comes under federal jurisdiction that is not worse off now than it was an administration ago, from civil liberties to the economy, foreign affairs to the environment." All that is alleged is documented here with facts and anecdotes. Each chapter opens with a statement by the President in "Bushspeak," i.e., "I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation" - George W Bush, (August 2002); and "It's clearly a budget. Its got lots of numbers in it." It all boggles the mind!
The author apparently researched thousands of reports and documents for his book - one of the many "Bush Bashers" to be published this year. Although those in G. W.'s administration surely have explanations and rationales about how all that is cited as major losses are really "wins," Mr Carter wonders if the President really believes his own spinners' spin. For example, he questions how Bush can institute a tax system that clearly benefits a minute percentage of extremely wealthy people and does so little for the middle class.
This is obviously not a work by a political pundit, but it is an impassioned argument by a fellow American citizen against reelecting the President to a second term of office.
Although this is not my favorite political book of the year, I did enjoy it, (if "enjoy" can be employed here), and found it to be quite informative and disturbing. I think folks should read through parts of this at their local bookstores, if they don't want to purchase it. One should be as fully informed as possible before the November elections.
JANA
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62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The yAre All Here, September 8, 2004
This review is from: What We've Lost: How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Our Freedoms, Mortgaged Our Economy, Ravaged Our Environment, and Damaged Our Standing in the World (Hardcover)
Fifty stars for Graydon Carter. They are all here, the figures that confirm what we have lost. In this packed booked, Carter, the Editor of Vanity Fair, lists all their names, paying tribute to the servicemen and women who have lost their lives in the useles, hopeless war of choice by George Bush.
Carter exposes the spreadsheet of the Bush Administration: money spent on an unworkable missile defense system and astronomically costly war toys for the future while 40,000 service people for months were without Interceptor vests and ride in Humvees of which 87% have no armour-no more than soft-topped recreational vehicles. Bush has tried to charge returning troops a $250 fee to enroll in the VA Medical Plan.
Decades of legislation meant to protect clean air and water, forests, shores, wetlands and mountain tops has been rolled back to accommodate mining, oil and logging interests.
Thirty-two billions dollars needed to upgrade shools and the cash is not available. Students hold bake sales to retain special teachers. Teachers do janitorial work to save school funds.
U.S healthcare, ranking only 37th among developed nations, is not available to 43 million of its people. Medical expenses are the primary reason for the escalation of bankruptcies in the country.
The economy is on the edge of collapse owing to the trade deficit and profligate spending of this Republican Administration.
If every undecided voter read Carter's book Kerry would win by a landslide in November. But the written word is not the preferred medium of the American people, so What We Have Lost will be read by too few.
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47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written indictment from a new perspective, September 15, 2004
This review is from: What We've Lost: How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Our Freedoms, Mortgaged Our Economy, Ravaged Our Environment, and Damaged Our Standing in the World (Hardcover)
The editor of Vanity Fair has spoken through "letters" in his magazine. I wanted to see the totality of his view on the Bush first term. I was not disappointed by the well written book that takes a viewpoint of how Bush and this administration have destroyed the reputation of the US within the world community and weakened our civil liberties at home. Mr. Carter is Canadian and has many friends within the international community - it is this perspective of someone who was drawn to the promise of America, but is now disillusioned by the actions of Bush and his administration to dismantle that promise, which makes the book compelling. I admit that I am less conversant on the "facts" than another reviewer but I am concerned that the US has weakened itself in ways that may take decades to repair. I come from a home that can be described as southern conservative - my mother was a "grand dragon" of the DAR and I have heard bashing of the UN and internationalism all my life. Unfortunately, reality is that we cannot promote a global economy on one hand (including exporting all our manufacturing) and then embrace isolationism. This country has become too dependent on foreign oil and is quickly becoming dependent on importing everything else - does this sound anything like the fall of the Roman and British empires? Our future will be dependent on us waging war to keep the import of "guns and butter" coming. If we heed the warnings of this book and others, it is not too late to change course.
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