Paul Walker Books

As a Lender to the Exhibition this book covers in its voluminous pages, the actual chance to see the exhibitions in LA, Milwaukee and New Jersey Museums was only aided by this graceful tome. Four Stars ****!

I purchased this book for a Christmas gift, the cover was damaged and it should have been protected in shipping.
The box it was shipped in was in perfect condition the inner protection, well there was none!

I purchased this book as a gift for the person who viewed the exhibit with me, it's an excellent book, a great retrospect.

This book works well with the museum exhibit, if you get the chance to see it. If you don't, the book itself is a good overview of comic history, and the pictures are great.

There are precious few draughtsmen that can put line to paper in all of low/high art than he. he is a master. Take a look at "Archie and Mahitabel"; authored by the great Don Marquise.It simply does't get any better than his exquisite line

I recently purchased The Monster of Frankenstein, Dick Briefer's Horror Comic Epic" and was so enthralled by this golden age comic that I had to have more.

"Masters of Comic Art", a reexamination of pop culture comics morphed in to fine art, is a useful overview of a "who's who" in the comic world.

Beautifully reproduced in full color and loaded with great art and interesting information about the creators makes this book a must have.

Neal's longtime girlfriend Emily is right. They are stuck in a rut. What she really means is that HE is stuck in a rut, which is also right. His father died years and years ago, but Neal still can't seem to get over it. Nothing really matters much to him, and he floats through his life, disconnected. He takes jobs and is soon fired from them, and his mother worries that he will be like his father, only doing what he feels like doing instead of taking responsibility for things that need to be done.

Emily has her entire life worked out. She and Neal were born in the same hospital on the same day and have practically been dating ever since. She is going to be an accountant and is pushing Neal to go to business school so when they finish they can get married. This summer after his junior year in high school, though, Neal is changing.

It started with a film class Neal took, in which he was supposed to create a documentary. He wanted to make a film about his father, but couldn't seem to get to the truth he needed. He received an incomplete in the class, with the requirement he finish the film over the summer. Neal decides to do the documentary at the old estate where his father was caretaker when Neal was young. This is the place where Neal has his fondest memories of his father, and he also has fond memories of a girl, Claire, whose mother owned the estate. Through this summer project, Neal begins to realize that maybe he doesn't want the well ordered life he is heading toward.

Neal's investigation of his memories was interesting, and his rediscovery of Claire was a good story, too. I thought Neal's relationship with Emily was unbelievable, and the filmmaking part of the book was a bit distracting.

This book is about finding your place in the world. When you look at adults, they all seem to have found somewhere that they fit. This book is about how Neal finds where he fits. It isn't where his mom or his girlfriend thinks, though. He finds it out for himself by making a film and finding out the secrets about his dad and meeting a new girlfriend who supports him instead of telling him stuff "for his own good." The film parts were good and it's a good story and I like the way it all came out.

Neal Thackery is a sixteen year old high school student that is required to re-do an assignment for his film class before he graduates. His teacher was nice enough to give him an incomplete for his grade instead of a failing grade because his film teacher knows that he can do a better job. Neal has to spend his summer working at a warehouse and also trying to re-do his documentary. Neal is a young boy that has a lot on his mind, especially since his father passed away from a massive heart attack. Neal's mother and long time girlfriend Emily seem to be really supportive, until they find out that Neal--once again--lost another job!! While working for a short time at the warehouse, he meets up with a girl he knew when he was younger. With her help he finds out some interesting things about his father and gets reacquainted with her.

This book has a very creative format...most of it is written as a novel, while other parts are like a script...kind of like the book, Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Honestly, I was expecting more at the end of the book.... I liked it, but wouldn't read it a second time.

This book is a good read for someone that has been real close to a loved one and lost them. The age range for this book would be ages 13-18 and even older....

In My Life, Take Two, Paul Many writes the story of sixteen-year-old Neal Thackery's journey to self- understanding. Neal 's documentary about his deceased father has just bombed; he has mixed memories of his father with his dreams. Now Neal must spend the summer before his senior year revamping his documentary, and to appease his practical mother and girlfriend, working at a construction warehouse, making money for college. Neal struggles at work; he can't seem to hold down a job or accept the future that others seem to have already laid out for him. At work he becomes reacquainted with childhood friend Claire and her mother who help him come to know his father. Neal learns that he has a great deal in common with his father, both artistic and creative, and with this knowledge must now make important decisions concerning his future.
Neal's voice is both witty and sarcastic, though sometimes his observations seem a little far-fetched. That lack of connection, though, may just put the reader with the practical, uncreative people who, in Neal's world, also find him hard to understand. Likewise, those readers may find that the documentary script sections slow the story and prefer Neal's humorous narrative. Overall, middle school and young adult readers will recognize Neal's feelings of inadequacies and understand his need to determine for himself what his future will hold.

In My Life, Take Two, Paul Many writes the story of sixteen-year-old Neal Thackery's journey to self- understanding. Neal 's documentary about his deceased father has just bombed; he has mixed memories of his father with his dreams. Now Neal must spend the summer before his senior year revamping his documentary, and to appease his practical mother and girlfriend, working at a construction warehouse, making money for college. Neal struggles at work; he can't seem to hold down a job or accept the future that others seem to have already laid out for him. At work he becomes reacquainted with childhood friend Claire and her mother who help him come to know his father. Neal learns that he has a great deal in common with his father, both artistic and creative, and with this knowledge must now make important decisions concerning his future.
Neal's voice is both witty and sarcastic, though sometimes his observations seem a little far-fetched. That lack of connection, though, may just put the reader with the practical, uncreative people who, in Neal's world, also find him hard to understand. Likewise, those readers may find that the documentary script sections slow the story and prefer Neal's humorous narrative. Overall, middle school and young adult readers will recognize Neal's feelings of inadequacies and understand his need to determine for himself what his future will hold.

NOTHING! Paul Fleischman has created a story about imagination, about seeing the ordinary world around you with new eyes. It's a story about what COULD be, and about transcending what IS. Kevin Hawkes has given visual life to Mr. Fleischman's concept. It's a book which shows that children still have the capacity to see the world as a place of possibilities, while the adults nearby are oblivious to the wonderful circus of events taking place around them. This book is a masterpiece.

After reading the other reviews posted for this delightful book, I can only observe that those who wrote them are like the adults in this book. As a society, we are accustomed to being entertained out the wazoo. We are passive observers, waiting for someone to "show us a good time." Mr. Fleischman's book takes me back to that time in my life when all I required to have a good time was a summer afternoon and back yard. My imagination supplied the rest. Sidewalk Circus is a great book to help you take out your imagination and dust it off. Buy it today.

Illustrator Kevin Hawkes says on the jacket copy for Sidewalk Circus "I am grateful to [author] Paul Fleischman for opening my eyes." He was referring to the research time he spent in Portland Maine watching "all the things going on in the city, and all the people and things I had never really noticed before. " Sidewalk Circus presents an almost wordless story that opens our eyes to the pageant of our hometowns. A little girl waiting at her bus stop notices a curious shadow following a man putting up posters that advertise a circus and its acts. The shadow outlines a top-hatted circus ringmaster holding up a megaphone as though directing our attention to a performance. She looks up to discover an ironworker walking a beam above a banner proclaiming "The Great Tebaldi Prince of Tight Rope Walkers. Next she sees a deliveryman bearing a load whose shadow mimics a poster announcing Goliath the Strongman. Through this little girl's eyes everyday events become fantastic feats of juggler's clowns, acrobats and trapeze artists. Kevin Hawkes' rich acrylics of warm yellow and red nineteenth century brick front shops recreate a big top. He portrays the little girl, and later a little boy in color amid achromatic crowds. Their imaginations make the world a circus and their wide eyes and big smiles reflect the delight and wonder circuses strive to inspire. Come one come all of ages from five-to-a-hundred.

My daughter approached me with the book because it did not have any words. I told her that we had to create our own story. She abolutely loved it. We read the book over and over creating new stories each time.

My daughter is just learning to read (4yrs.)so this book provided a break from the phonics lessons. If you have a child that loves to talk and asks lots of questions then this book is for you.

This book is very successful in linking real world to circus. I think the idea is just wonderful, and the illustrations are exquisite.

The authors show that if we only open our eyes to every-day people, we will see how skillful they are in their jobs. It shows, for example, how a food carrier could be a STRONGMAN in the circus, and how a window cleaner could be a trapezist.

I really agree with the idea, I think the circus is so great because it is a place where we open our eyes and our minds to the human abilities. I believe the book represents Emerson's phrase on his Nature essay: "Nature wears the colors of the spirit."

So if you want your children (and yourself) to start watching and acting in the world, instead of seeing it, this book is a good beginning.

Huh. That's weird. I'm a pretty easy person to influence. If I read a glowing review of a picture book, I'm far more likely to love it instantaneously upon reading it than, say, view it with a suspicious eye. And the advance word on "Sidewalk Circus" could only be described in one way: glowing. Every reputable children's publication, from Horn Book and Publisher's Weekly to School Library Journal and Bulletin For the Center of Children's Books could only gush and clamor over the beauty that was "Sidewalk Circus". With such remarkably good things said about it, I looked forward to viewing my own copy with quite a bit of anticipation. Maybe I was just setting myself up for disappointment. But when I finally read through this reportedly glorious book I found that it was not the genius work of picture book art I'd come to expect. It's an interesting concept and perhaps a plummy idea. But it's not particularly winning. After I read it I could really only think one thing: Huh. That's weird.

This book is all but wordless, making the action take place entirely in the deft acrylics of illustrator Kevin Hawkes. If you've ever seen Hawkes' fabulous, "Weslandia" then you're familiar with his talents. In the beginning a marquee promotes the following: "COMING SOON...WORLD-RENOWNED...GARIBALDI CIRCUS!!!!....". Across the street from the marquee sits a girl, waiting for the bus. Beneath her eyes, even the most ordinary human being are transformed into circus-related creatures. That construction worker balancing two heavy buckets high above the ground? A tightrope walker, of course. The cook tossing early morning pancakes on a grill? A juggler of highest renown. And what about those window washers that accidentally swing high off the ground? Trapeze artists. In the end the girl gets on her bus, still entranced by her thoughts and a boy takes her place on the bench, creating whole new imaginings of his own.

The idea is very good. And since author Paul Fleischman didn't actually write many words for this tale, he must have closely collaborated with Mr. Hawkes. The ways in which the girl sees everyday people as circus performers is through their shadows. The shadow of an old man posting flyers turns into a magnificent image of a circus ringleader announcing the next act. The problem is, the book's a little messy. The shadow idea appears here and there, then drops off without explanation. It's a little difficult to make out some of the images as well. For example, unless you look very closely, you may not notice the shadow of a big top splayed against a building across from the fascinated girl. There's also an odd sequence involving two clumsy skateboarding youths, a painter, and some window washers that doesn't flow together particularly well. I kept feeling like I was missing something. Sometimes the shadows work splendidly (like the one on the cover) but other times they're actually a little hard to separate from the real life action. Only a kid with a deep-seated conviction that he or she was going to figure out every shot in this book would take much pleasure in the story.

I feel terrible saying this. I mean, everyone and their mother seems to like it. I've heard it bandied about for certain awards and many many people think it's worthwhile reading. And I did attempt to like it. I did. I tried everything in my power to do so. But why on earth are the shadows of the pigeons shaped like toucans? Why do the window washers have difficulties with their rig anyway? Why did the youths' skateboards disappear in one two page spread then reappear all over again on the next? Maybe kids won't notice these inconsistencies but they're bound to be a little puzzled by the story's haphazard action. Take it from me... I wanted to like this book and it certainly had a lot going for it. It just didn't live up to its potential. As picture books go, it's so-so. Not very good. Not very bad. Not very anything. Read it if you like, but consider giving it a glance before making any purchases.

I ordered a book through another online book provider and received three different delivery dates which were well beyond the date originally quoted. I needed the book fast for an online class so I ordered through AMAZON whcih delivered the book through the postal system arriving in 4 or 5 days much to my surprise. Excellent service.

After reading `Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off', I must say that I can recommend it. Buy it if you want to know how large companies have been dealing with risk management in the past years. This book will not really help you understand the fundamentals of risk management, and that isn't the primary focus of this book.

I would recommend that you do not read `Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off' just by itself. I highly recommend `Controlling the controllable: the management of safety' by Dr. Jop Groeneweg. This is a must-read if you are interested in risk management and it will give you an good basis for reading `Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off'.

`Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off', unlike what may be suggested, isn't about companies on the cutting edge of risk management. In my opinion that's only partly true. These companies are dealing with highly visible risks, but in risk management that is the easy part of the job. Dealing with the invisible risks, most often those risks lurking in a company's own organization, is much harder. It is unfortunate that the Tripod risk management methodology isn't discussed in this book because it is THE methodology for integrated risk management.

I would recommend that those interested also read up on a risk management tool called BowTie XP, which really represents the leading edge of risk management research today. I believe the majority of companies in this book will be using BowTie XP for risk management in the coming years.

`Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off' is quite readable and I enjoyed reading it. When you read it, realize that risk management is evolving quickly. Don't try to copy the companies in this book with respect to risk management, unless you only want to deal with highly visible risks.

After the Enron meltdown, risk management is as hot as fire. You can?t pick up the newspaper without stories about all the risks facing businesses and investors.

I run a medium size business in a big city. If you want to ?de-risk? a company, you need to learn from managers who are already doing it and doing it well. This book has very detailed cases about the risk management programs at companies like Microsoft and DuPont with managers telling their own stories. The book is short on fancy theories and long on practical ideas.

I admit I was surprised to see Chase bank among these elite companies. Chase wrote off $500 million because of Enron. But you have to wonder how much more they would have written off without a good risk management program. No one ever said these systems are perfect. The Chase chapter even describes two big problems the bank had with their bookkeeping and how they were fixing them.

This book has everything you need to get started in a good risk management program. Lord knows businesses had better manage their risks or they?re history.

If you are interested to see what other companies are doing, who have no relevance to yours, this book is for you. If you are looking for practical guidance that you can use in your own situation, buy something else.

Since the opening day of the United States, baseball has been an interest of many of the presidents. Soldiers with George Washington at Valley Forge played a game called "base", which was a precursor to baseball as we now know it. John Adams wrote about playing a game called "bat and ball" in his youth, although Thomas Jefferson expressed disdain for the game. While Andrew Jackson is known to have played a similar game, Abraham Lincoln is the first president to be strongly linked to baseball. On page 5 there is a cartoon showing Lincoln with the other candidates for president in the 1860 election, and all have bats in their hands.
From that point on, there was a deeper involvement of the American presidents with baseball, although William Howard Taft was the first president to make the ceremonial first pitch. From that point on, every president, including the taciturn Calvin Coolidge, made it a point to demonstrate his interest in the game. The worst photo in the book shows Coolidge in an Indian headdress at a baseball game. Coolidge looks angry enough to act like a ballplayer and spit at the photographer.
There are many colorful historical anecdotes in this book and while it is clear that the presidents used their appearances at baseball games to their political advantage, most of them took a genuine interest in the game. In what may have been a rare point of political honesty, Richard Nixon said that he would have liked to be a sportswriter. There were several points of trivia that I was totally unaware of. In 1965, Nixon was recruited to be the director of the Major League Players Association. When Nixon declined, they hired Marvin Miller, who led them to the overthrow of the hated reserve clause. Furthermore, at one point Nixon was seriously put forward as a candidate to be the commissioner of baseball. As a youth, Dwight Eisenhower played semipro baseball under the assumed name of Wilson, both before and while he was at West Point. Since this violated his pledge of honor at West Point, had this knowledge been revealed, he could have been expelled.
If you are interested in how the political lives of the presidents have been intertwined with baseball, then this is the book for you. Unlike many other books about the inside story of baseball or politics, it is a joy to read and there is very little in the way of negative material.

For those who have wondered about the tradition of our nation's leader throwing out the first pitch of the season, here is your answer.

Authors Mead and Dickson have compiled this entertaining look at how each president, beginning with one of the most UNathletic chief executives, William Howard Taft, has related to the national pastime. For example, while rough- and-ready Teddy Roosevelt was not much of a fan, Franklin Roosevelt was instrumental in keeping baseball going during the dark years of World War II.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a pretty fair ballhand, a minor leaguer who found greener pastures in military and political pursuits. And Richard Nixon was considered by some to be an astute student of the game.

The President's Game is well-illustrated with seldom-seen photos and would be a welcome addition to both the baseball and the political science fan's libary.

Covers all types of careers, plus includes detailed job forecast information, salary data and each section includes a summary of how to obtain addional career information as well as the education required. The book also includes extensive reference material such as professional organizations for each job.

This book should be called "College majors in the environment". I am a college graduate with a social sciences degree, and the book was not of any help to me. It does not cover the job search, and gives only a few, obvious contacts (such as the EPA). Each chapter is written for a specific degree, and what can be done with that degree, all of which are life or physical sciences. Im sure the book is very helpful if you have a degree in biology, forestry, chemistry, meteorology, etc. But for those of us with less scientifically specific degrees, this book is not too helpful unless you are willing to go back to school for four more years after reading it.

In Incarnational Ministry, Heibert and Menses "use both theological and scientific insights to examine how we can best plant living churches in different types of societies" (pg. 14). They integrate theology and the social sciences in an effort to provide understanding of human societies and cultures so as to help motivate and guide church planting efforts in various societies. They argue that "response to human cultures must be an ongoing process of critical contextualization...thereby critically examining different areas of culture in the light of God's Word to test what can be kept and what needs to be changed" (pg.19).

The book examines four different types of societies and cultures and how their needs and differences affect Christian ministry and church planting efforts. Heibert and Menses assert, "The hindrance to the growth and spiritual maturation of churches is often not the offense of the gospel, but our ignorance of the ways cultures and societies operate" (pg.19). Hence, it is imperative Christian missionaries be aware of structure of various human cultures and societies in order to be culturally sensitive and more effective in their cross-cultural ministry endeavors.

It is a common held belief that writing a children's book is easy. In actual fact, it is one of the most complex forms of writing. Tracey E. Dils in her book, You Can Write Children's Books states, "Because of the special nature of this audience...most writers find that writing for children is as challenging or more challenging than writing for other audiences." What could be more challenging than writing on the subject of the Battle of the Little Bighorn for children?

A young reader's book about the battle is long overdue, so it appears that National Geographic has filled that gap with Paul Walker's Remember Little Bighorn. It also includes a thought-provoking introduction by the battlefields' chief historian, John Doerner.

Books like these have an opportunity to capture a child's imagination, stoke the fires of passion, and lead to further reading. That's exactly what happened to me when I was 14. I checked out of my school library Frazier Hunt's I Fought With Custer. Although not a children's book, it was a book that got me hooked on this story. Hunt related the battle through survivor Charles Windolph, and told a dramatic story of the struggle between life and death. I still remember how I felt when Reno's soldiers were retreating across the Little Bighorn; I quickly realized that fighting Indians was nothing like in the movies.

I believe that Remember Little Bighorn will inspire young readers, like Hunt's book, to read further on this subject. Remember Little Bighorn is written for ages 10 and up. It's amazing how well Walker has taken such a huge and complex story as the Battle of the Little Bighorn and sculpted it into a short, precise narrative. Walker understands the most important points, and none of his chosen topics space is wasted. There is plenty of drama mostly told through soldier and Indian accounts. There is no sensationalism here; young readers are more sophisticated than we realize.

Most importantly, Walker succeeds where many adult books fail; he masters his subject in just 61 short pages, while some authors can't even come close with 610. You'll discover an honest portrayal of George Armstrong Custer and the U. S. Army, as well as Plains Indian life. No officer becomes a scapegoat for failure, and there is not just one warrior who saves the day. What your young reader will experience is gritty warfare between human beings who became sadly wrapped up in a lost cause.

Although there are minor errors such as the warriors leaving Reno's fight to challenge Custer by charging south instead of north, the errors are very few. Instead, we enjoy a powerful narrative that I'm confident will inspire your child or grandchild to ask further questions.

The book is packed with exceptional graphics (could we expect less from National Geographic), high quality photographs (many provided by Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield member Glen Swanson), and easy to follow colorful maps. You'll find Indian drawings of the battle, Martin Pate paintings, Private Windolph's Medal of Honor, and many photos of the participants from both sides.

The Epilogue includes a detailed "Time Line of Battles for Indian Land" that I predict you will use as a reference for your own future study. This time line is divided into three segments; 1.) "Selected Battles, Treaties, and Other Key Events 1607-1789", 2.) 1790-1849, and 3.) 1850-1890. There is a high-level time line for the Battle of the Little Bighorn as well.

Also included is a short but superb bibliography that will make your job a lot easier when your young reader asks what other books are available to investigate. Finally, there is a selected postscript for the principal players quoted in the book.

Remember Little Bighorn is a perfect addition to the plethora of books about the battle, though its flaws are minor and finally immaterial, its ability to capture the passion of young readers far surpasses earlier children's books on the same subject.

Note: Remember Little Bighorn: Indians, Soldiers, and Scouts Tell Their Stories is part of the "Remember" series produced by National Geographic. Other titles include: Remember Pearl Harbor: Japanese And American Survivors Tell Their Stories, Remember D-Day: Both Sides Tell Their Stories, and Remember World War II: Kids Who Survived Tell Their Stories.

You can read an interview with the author at the Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield website.

This Spanish textbook worked very well for my third year Spanish course. It does an excellant job of reviewing many of the previous concepts in later chapters. However, it tends to pack too many new concepts in one chapter. I would not use it for anything below the Junior year.

Paul Begala was a counselor to Clinton, and this book was written in 2002. As a result, much of the information is dated.
I remember reading "It's Still The Economy, Stupid" several years ago, and I thought it was pretty decent, but in retrospect I found that this book was nothing more than an egregious propaganda hit piece that distracts the reader/activist from the real problem, and that problem is the Federal Reserve and our debt based system.
Now, I'm no fan of Bush and his entourage, but let's get real. It really doesn't matter if Bush, Clinton, or Obama is in office, because they are nothing more than mere instruments who are being controlled by the billionaire elite, and the lobbyist who work for them.
So, with that said, it's overwhelmingly obvious why Begala adroitly circumvents the Fed issue. And the fact remains unambiguous that we'll still be in debt because the Federal Reserve is a private bank that we pay interest to for printing our currency, and its one of the many institutions, which loans the U.S. government its funds for incursions, and exhibitions around the globe.
The bottom line is we borrow from the Fed and "the borrower is servant to the lender." Which means our whole economic system is based on debt.
However, what I will state is that if you're researching facts and figures and you're an objective individual who can get past Begala's so-called far-left diatribe then I suggest reading this book, because it is chalked full of facts and figures about how our tax money is being spent/wasted.
But, if you're looking for on comprehensive view then find a book that discusses fractional reserve banking and the Federal Reserve System, or I highly recommend watching "The Money Masters" documentary, which explains the Fed System in detail.

Taken as a whole, this book is and indictment of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Now I'm not going to rehash the alleged moral turpitude of this administration because that would be superfluous. Besides, Begala does enough of that in this book, which makes this an entertaining read.
Just don't get suckered into embracing his Democratic hyperbole. It's an obvious fact that politicians use the Left/Right paradigm to distract, mislead, and reshape public opinion, which falls in line with the Hegelian Dialectic (Problem, Reaction, Solution). So, ascertaining this principal is essential insofar as weaving through the unnecessary wisecracks in this book, which detracts from the message, and makes the messenger seem immature at times.
So, I'm giving "It's Still The Economy Stupid." 2 stars.

If you have ever watched CNN's "Crossfire", then you know about Paul Begala. He is the wildly fanatic liberal opposing the wildly fanatic conservative Tucker Carlson. As I see it, there is no point in reading this book. It falls under the category of unobjective political drivel. There are so many far right and far left books out there it is a wonder those who follow politics aren't going crazy trying to decipher who is telling the truth. I have a better idea, let's all stop reading ideologically driven junk like this and maybe they will stop writing this nonsense.

One has to wonder where Democrats like Begala get their moxy. When they ran against Bush I it was the "worst economy since the Great Depression" and now running against Bush II it is "the worst record on jobs since the Great Depression." Boy I bet Herbert Hoover can't wait until they don't have HIM to kick around any more. I skimmed this little farce in the bookstore, and while I read at least one sentence from every paragraph in the book, I can't even claim to have found any NEW distortions from the liberals. Guess they are as adamant about recycling as they claim.

Let's start with a few immutable facts before wiping the gum off our shoe with this book and tossing it in its proper place. Bill Clinton inherited an economy growing at a roaring pace of over 4% when he entered office, and he left it with negative growth. The most recent recession started either in Clinton's last quarter in office, or the one right after. My friends, this is etched in stone. No Democrat, no matter how many talking points faxed directly to the Washington Post and NY Times editorial board, can make this untidy point go away.

More facts - Clinton benefitted from a peace dividend from a Cold War we were no longer fighting, and from the reduced deficit spending of the S&L bailout which ended in the early 90s. He had his eye on spending this windfall and then some, but a Republican Congress put up an electric fence. In the end it didn't matter, as an economic boom driven by the internet industry filled government coffers so EVERYONE (republican and democrat alike) could overspend, and still have enough left over. Was this the doing of a brilliant economic vision of Billy from Arkansas or dumb luck? The cornerstone of his economic agenda was a massive tax & spending hike he himslf referred to as a "turkey" in an honest moment. If turkeys can't fly, they certainly can't instigate massive growth in a private sector economy.

Returning to today, the paltry economic growth inherited by Bush II is showing historic signs of strength, this despite the fact our economic activity was devastated by an attack on our shores and a war overseas. That is hardly a record to condemn our President and his economic policies. More Americans are working now than at any other time in history, and unemployment is at the statistical equivalent of 1996, when Bill Clinton was re-elected in large part due to the economy's performance. Interest rates and inflation are exceptionally low, and the markets have rebounded. Finally, this recovery is nascent; more is yet to come. I suppose this will be most germane in November when voters decide, but as a conservative I am not the least worried about the performance of the economy under Mr. Bush, and nothing in this book approaches a persuasive argument otherwise.

Let's look at some of the specific accusations of Begala's book: Deficits are up, (always a concern), but this is unrelated to the economy; interest rates have yet to budge, nor has inflation ticked up. The effect on actual people is nugatory. What interests me is how Democrats that NEVER cared about deficits are suddenly such guardians of the public purse, when it took a GOP Congress to balance the budget in the 90s. If one cares to look at the record, Robert Reich, among just one of Clinton's economic gurus, publicly stated many times that balancing budgets was not a goal of the administration, but investing in America's infrastructure was. This is public record folks.

Which brings us to his point that Bush is not investing in America. Now that Bush and the Congress are happily spending on infrastructure like highways, education and assorted other projects (most of which I can assure you is excessive) Democrats decry deficits. Well welcome to the party. All of the things Begala says Bush is neglecting, like job training and education have seen 30% increase in actual dollars in Bush's tenure.

Begala of course makes the obligatory Democrat argument that Bush offered a huge giveaway to the rich in the form of taxcuts, not mentioning that now as opposed to Clinton's last year, the top 1%, the top 10% and the top 50% of taxpayers are paying more of the tax burden then under Clinton. The top 1% now pay 35% of all taxes in this country, a fact that Al Sharpton, a man who thinks enough of himself to seek the job of President, didn't himself know. I suspect many other liberals don't know it either, as it certainly isn't in Begala's book. Either way, the terrible tax cuts have spurred economic growth which will create an overall increase in revenue to the government. Since Mr. Begala is so fond of spening money, you would think having more money to spend would be a good thing. It is, but crediting a Republican for anythingis a bad thing, so let's call him stupid and make a few coins off a book.

I am sure Paul Begala will happily trumpet the candidacy of Mr. Kerry, who by his own public declarations is offering hundreds of billions of dollars more in spending proposals than Bush. To Mr. Begala and his kind, deficits won't be important, but "investing in Americans" with such proposals will be. As the economy slows under the weight of Mr. Kerry's tax & spend proposals, all those goverment pork projects will be good for people. It will be the most active "make-work" Administration since the Great Depression. Rest in peace, Mr. Hoover.

Paul Begala's book, It's STILL the Economy Stupid, is more relevant than ever as we approach the 2004 election. It is clear from his editorializing that Begala is no fan of George Bush, but that shouldn't stop any thinking person who wants to understand who "the only President we have" is and what he stands for from reading this book - Democrat or Republican. The book is well written and well documented. Begala does not make unsupported accusations. He carefully lays out the evidence that makes his case.

In this book, Begala goes through Bush's speeches and his record and uncovers a number of disturbing patterns, including George's habit of making promises and then disregarding then days or weeks later and his systematic efforts to cut taxes for ONLY the rich, with the super-rich receiving the vast majority of the benefits.

Begala also carefully explains how the Republicans in Congress blocked Clinton's efforts to put reforms in place that would have curbed big business and avoided both the Enron and accounting scandals among others. This was especially interesting to me, as the Republicans have laid the blame for these things at Clinton's feet.

Don't take my word for what Begala says. If you want to make an educated choice between Bush and Kerry in November; if you want to understand who you're voting for; if you want to understand the record of the incumbent President, read this book.

After six+ years of total Republican control we have seen the national debt skyrocket: and who benefited from that money spent? This book does a thurough job at explaining how these neo-so-called-"conservatives" have put future generations in debt for short term-gains, all while spouting political rhetoric of 'fairness'. If you follow the news closely enough to know that this country has serious problems ahead; problems that Bush has not addressed -or has even made worse- then this book gives you some fine details that you can't just pick up anywhere else. It's a thurough job into how the righty's rhetoric about 'flat-tax' and 'tax fairness' is just another way of saying they're going to give money 'back' to the most comfortable of us (including some real 'Entrepeneurs of the American Dream', like Ken Lay, y'know- the business criminals), leaving the rest of us to pay the ever looming bill. As of writing this the National Debt is over $8 trillion dollars, $25,000 per citizen if you average it out. There is interest on that number, and the money is owed to people who don't even like us (China for example). You will never hear these basic facst from the political-righties, because a good deal of it is there doing, and Bush is continuing the madness with full-force like a junkie that just won't quit. We will have to forever endure from eight years of immoral, foolish, sometimes diguised and sometimes in-your-face disgusting economic stupidity and corporate sleaziness. Buy this book and find out if you don't believe it.