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

~ (Author), Stephen Sherrill (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this manifesto, which is occasionally hilarious but more often stale diatribe, Air America radio's Seder and Sherrill have increased the scope of liberal rage to not only our elected leadership, but all those who elected him—the "Rapture Right" as the authors dub them. To read this volume, which uses sarcasm as its main analytical tool, one would think the American right was composed solely of born-again Christians. And that take would indeed justify the title of the book, which is a military acronym meaning "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition." But devoting more than 40 pages (albeit funny ones) to problems plaguing gay Republicans, for example, seems excessive. Where the authors' blistering irony works best, paradoxically, is in the chapter "The Media Is Not Your Friend": the authors discuss in particular the New York Times's Adam Nagourney ("If you want to see why the liberal media is... not liberal") and columnist Thomas Friedman ("what he's really writing about is Tom Friedman"). And here the authors hammer home their best point: the need for so-called "objectivity," which translates as the need to present both sides of an argument, no matter how patently inane. (June)
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Product Description

The United States has survived clueless presidential administrations before. But no matter how enormous the crisis -- the Great Depression, Vietnam, Watergate, Monica Lewinsky's thong -- America's always come out looking like, well, America.

This time, however, something's different. Things aren't just screwed up; they're f&#!$d up beyond all recognition. Wel-come to F.U.B.A.R., a hilarious and scathing satire of the American Right's bad behavior, by the creators of Air America's Majority Report.

If you're a liberal who's somehow not panicked over the state of our Union, or if you're a Republican who's just having voter's remorse, or if you think what's happening to the country is just politics as usual, F.U.B.A.R. will open your eyes to our current national nightmare. With completely unfair and unbalanced analysis, authors Sam Seder and Stephen Sherrill take readers on a whirlwind tour of what's left of the United States, exposing the truth about the Right's blueprint for total domination -- over your money, your mind, your sex life, and even your place in the afterlife (yes, they have a plan for that, too).

Along the way, they'll answer your most pressing questions, like:

• I'm gay. Can I still be a Republican?

• Do I need to own my own congressman, or is a time share okay?

• Is New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman's mustache, in fact, the sign of the Beast?

• I thought we ran the media. What happened?

Finally, Seder and Sherrill offer a helpful and hopeful vision for a future that remarkably doesn't look like a cross between the Matrix and Mayberry. F.U.B.A.R. is the wake-up call America has been waiting to receive -- and it will probably be wiretapped.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (May 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060846712
• ISBN-13: 978-0060846718
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,102 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and Funny!, June 2, 2006

By	Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

166 of 195 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars F.U.B.A.R. : You're Obviously A Republican Or A Dumbass If You Don't Buy This Book!, May 28, 2006

By	Dan Krisher "www.punkblog.org" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: F.U.B.A.R. CD: America's Right-Wing Nightmare (Audio CD)

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.

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny Scattershot Satire Pierces the Ruling Religious Right with Comic Acuity, June 6, 2006

By	Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.