Bush Books

While this book may have been intended as a parody of Bush's colossally mean-spirited incompetence, its content is anything but parody: It is deadly serious in laying out chapter-by-chapter, fact-by-ugly-fact, and in alphabetical order, GW's "in-your face" corruption and incompetence. It underscores, more than any other book, why GW will no doubt go down as America's worse President ever.

Here in one concise compendium is not just Bush's record of "high-minded" and "entitled incompetence," but also what could easily be termed as his "intentional malfeasance" while in office. Why he and Dick Cheney were not impeached remains a mystery.

As the book notes on page 94: while street crime was on the decline all across the U.S., corporate and white-collar crime spiked above that of any government since that of Herbert Hoover's. Bush II's administration was a virtual Xmas Holiday for corporate crime and corruption.

Few may know for instance, that Enron was not the only energy company that was "busted out," and "raided" leaving tens of thousands without jobs and billions lost in retirement funds. The book gives a lineup of others that followed the Enron pattern: El Paso Oil, Williams Oil, Duke Oil, Dynergy, Mirant Energy, and Reliant Oil, mostly Texas-based and big contributors to GW's campaign coffers. These, along with Enron, were also raided and implicated in the "contrived" California energy crisis, in which, for the first time in its history, that state experienced a statewide blackout before energy prices were reinitialized at a new quantum higher level.

Read the full story of GW's connection to the Bin Laden family through Texas oil-man James Bath. After 911, it seems that the real war that Bush conducted was not on the Saudi backed terrorists, but on the economic interests of the majority of the American people. The "Bush Warriors" under the rallying cry of "no more class warfare" was nothing if not a war by a handful of the rich on the poor, and on the Constitution itself: Inadequate regulations were further reduced on the environment, on worker's health, on consumer protections, on programs designed to help veterans and the unemployed, and on the elderly and the poor.

While 2.5 trillion dollars in tax cuts were awarded to the rich, a two-dollar per hour increase in the minimum wage was denied the poor. Bush's own "No Child Left Behind Program" was left behind when it came to funding: It remained unfunded. At the same time, the two areas with the largest contributors to the Bush campaign, healthcare and energy, saw healthcare costs and gas prices skyrocket. This of course occurred at the same time that profits in these two areas increased to such obscene levels that it embarrassed company officials. They immediately began advertisement campaigns to offset the obscenity of the embarrassingly large profits.

In summary, I knew the Bush administration was incompetent, corrupt and overall just plain bad, but not this bad. What a revelation.

Five stars

I enjoyed the book very much, but there was one thing he said that I disagree with, and was totally unnecessary and perhaps a little damaging to his case, and that was his comment that we really should have 100% inheritance tax, with the argument that people who inherit have already been given the best educational and other opportunities, etc.. The irony I found in that statement was that when my parents died and I inherited probably more than some I grew up with did, part of the reason for this was that we scrimped and saved and had to do without some of the things the neighbors kids got, because my parents lived through the depression and never got it out of their skin. I earned my inheritance in part by doing without things to allow my parents to be able to save and invest for the future, a future that unforunately for them was cut shorter than it was planned to be by a tragic accident. Okay, there were plenty who had it worse than us, whose parents didn't earn enough to save even if they had wanted to, but even if I can't convince the author that I deserved to not have my whole inheritance taken away from me, there was a missed opportunity here.

I am precisely the sort of person Bush was probably trying to pretend his relief in inheritance was supposed to help, protecting the honest middle class family that wants to pass on their hard earned savings to their children..we all know the line. But in actuallity long before Bush the law already provided quite adequately for people like me. Even back in 1994 when I inherited, the first $600,000 of an estate was tax exempt at least when passed on to the children, and I suspect that has gone up in adjustment for inflation. Now there's a funny quirk in the inheritance law that allowed us twice the exclusion in effect, because my parents died in a car accident at the same time, which allowed them each to pass on $600,000 untaxed. If they had not died at the same time we would have had to pay some inheritance tax, but even with only the first $600,000 untaxed it would not have been oppressive. With the already in existence back in 1994 $600,000 exclusion a family with 2 children could pass on $300,000 to each without anyone needing to pay inheritance tax at all. In our case there were 3 of us, so only our first $200,000 would have been untaxed if one or our parents had died before the other, still not exactly hardship, though.

In other words, the point about inheritance tax relief being tax relief for the rich could have been made much better without clouding things by making it seem like an argument about whether inheritance should exist at all. By saying that kind of thing he is unnecessarily playing right into the hands of Bush supporters that will be all too eager to say, that he (and by association all Bushhaters) wants to steal the family home away from the children before they have even had the chance to properly grieve.

I can't get over how great this book is! It is well organized (all social/political issues are in alphabetical order). It covers all aspects of the presidents mistakes from the environment, appointment of jugdes, the war on terror, etc. Its presented in a concise manner so that its interesting but still information packed. This book is a must have for anyone who disagrees with Bush or anyone who is blind enough to think he is a good president.

I had a whole plethora of emotions when I read this book. I laughed hysterically when I realized how stupid our President really is, I was astounded by the investigative journalism and the their findings, all of which should never happen in the office of the President of the United States. The reporting on the war and the real reasons we went there are sadly shocking. Everyday, you read about the deaths of the young men and women from 18 to 24, just babies really. None of them have been alive long enough to learn how beautiful life can really be, and it is just heartbreaking. Jack Huberman has done a fantastic job of documenting the lies and scare tactics used by this administration to terrify the population, and the member's of Congress into voting for Bush's blank check into Iraq. The author needs to update the book since it was originally published in 2003. The book would double or triple in size by the time the author starts digging into all the alleged crimes committed by Paul Bremer in Iraq, the illegal contracts with American companies that should have gone to the Iraqi's, and the missing billions in cash. What would they find if they really looked at what that arrogant, ignorant liar, our Commander in Chief (the decider), has done to this country. Why for example, do we have over 100,000 American businessman and workers who are earning billions, when 75% of Iraqi men can't find a job to feed their families? Our country is going broke, we have become a severly fractured society and we no longer have any "good standing" left anywhere in the world. "The Decider" has destroyed our great nation and his foolish decisions are directly responsible for the thousands of dead troops and another 30,000 severly disabled men and women. It is almost too much to believe the true axis of evil, (Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld), could do so much damage to such a proud nation, in such a short period of time. Our ecomomy is in ruins, and they have stripped our Armed Services down to its bare bones. They have cut the funding on every program they possibly could, including VA hospital benefits to pay for this fiasco. It will take generations for this country to recover. George Bush will walk into retirement admiring himself for this hideous mess, and he will dump it on the next President to clean up. It took "The Decider" less than six years to turn the United States into a gigantic bull's eye. Terror is already walking on our soil, just patiently waiting.

I found this to be a great book full of facts and statistics necessary to back up the feelings that anyone who picks this up to read must already have.

I especially enjoyed the history of the administration officials that was offered and the specific information on the Iraq "situation."

A quick read, which had me both shocked and in awe at some points. :)

This book made it clear to me how the neocons managed to infiltrate the highest reaches of our government. George W Bush is not as dumb as he appears to be, he is intellectually lazy. What better way for the neocons to take over the government than to use him as a patsy and get their ideals into law. The foremost of those ideals is that "the end justifies the means". This is diametrically opposed to what I have always thought of an American value.
I am grateful to Unger for this clear and succinct account of Bush's psyche
and the workings of the Neocon movement.
I think everyone should read this if only to know what's happening in our country.

unger is so eager to make a point, he constantly paints the world in black and white terms and, as a result, he constantly contradicts himself. In the House of Bush, Poppy Bush views "the horrific photos of Iranian soldiers whose bodies had been burned by chemical weapons" as "a delicate public relations problem rather than a moral issue." In this newest text, Poppy Bush good, Baby Bush bad. And Kissinger, known to be responsible for installing military dictatorships throughout Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Argentinia) and the deaths of more than fifty thousand civilians, is suddenly "good" in contrast to the evil neoconservatives.

lots of interesting facts but these need to be separated from unger's off-the-wall opinions.

So far after 140 pages read there may be 3 pages relating to George W. Bush. It's a good history book but very little dialog on George W. Bush.

This book is astonishing
it shows in rivetting detail the perfect storm that arose from the following 4 factors:
George W. Bush's life-long feeling of living in his father's shadow
The forward march of the right (particularly the neocons) in terms of institutions, media, think tanks and the political and elite circles in particular.
The Rove strategy of allying the GOP to the evangelical movement to create a permanent Republican revolution

The coallescing of the previous 3 factors in allowing the GOP to view the younger Bush as their saviour (having been gravely disappointed by his father the 41st president) because he so convinced the various evangelicals that he met that he was the real deal (and he was).

it is a sober book, it's very well written (in the style of a very good Vanity Fair article which of course Unger co-edits) it makes its case really well and as you read it, since it's such recent history, you find every outrage detailed in there (except curiously the scandal of the sacking of the federal judges). I was nodding my head thinking, yep, I remember this, yep this too, and this etc...
I was very surprised that it was so up to date that it even had the phony incident in which the Pentagon tried to suggest that Iranian dinghies in the gulf had tried to 'suicide' attack the American fleet..As if!

Unger is a serious commentator and I think it's fair to say that he views the grand sweep of history through the psychological analysis of the various characters involved rather than say 'powerful forces that shape history'. He makes a very convincing case that it's the neocons rather than anything else who are driving America's disastrous Bush 43 administration. The key characters come out looking deeply flawed.

The two biggest villains are Rumsfeld and especially Dick Cheney.
A third foe that emerges even though he never really spells it out, is the US mainstream media. In plenty of asides, he makes a subtle point along the lines of "it escapes me ...it mystifies me why the US media did not pick up on this." This is naive in the extreme, but I'm not going to bleat on about this, he's clearly a creature of the media himself and he probably does not want to make his book unreviewable.

Two unexpected heroes emerge from the book, Bush snr and his lifelong friend and advisor Brent Scowcroft.

I learned a great deal by reading this book and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who instinctively wondered how the Bush 43 cabal created such a horrific mess of their 2 [illegal] terms.

There are plenty of fascinating footnotes in this book, and they are well worth reading too.

I've been to Iraq many times. Unger gets it right. Good read. If you're on the Right and love Bush you'll hate it. Lefties will be reassured. The Middle will learn how we were conned. And why we shouldn't have been.

This book is filled with great history tidbits about sock knitting, and is filled with instructions for many different heel and toe variations. and then there are the many, many photos of old socks that have been preserved over the years which demonstrate many of the techniques and patterns that Nancy describes. Finally, there are her interpretations of many of these patterns, with instructions on how to duplicate her efforts, beginning with a basic sock pattern.

While I have not knit any of the patterns precisely as printed in this book, I have used many of the ideas and designs in my own sock patterns...with great success. As a matter of fact, while I do own many sock pattern books, I rarely follow a pattern precisely. I know the sizes to knit for the various people I knit socks for, and only use these books for ideas and will often incorporate portions of patterns, or combinations of patterns.

I've read complaints about this book in that some of the patterns don't seem to fit well. For me, sock pattern books are much like cook books...one doesn't need to slavishly follow a recipe, but rather one uses it as a roadmap to achieve a particular result. Since socks are knit following simple math guidelines, once those are committed to memory, socks can be knit using whatever yarn or needles you fancy. Having a book such as this can help you turn a generic pair of socks into something very stylish, or even spectacular!

This book is a fun read, has lots of interesting ideas and techniques, and should be on the bookshelf of every sock knitter!

Great book. Full of useful information as well as interesting historical background information on socks. Lots of patterns, different patterns. Great reference book.

I've had this book for years. When I'm thinking about starting a sock this is the book I always choose. I love the classic sock pattern. The author gives basic instructions for child ladies and men. She gives you a variety of options for the heels and toes. I made the Lithuanian Amber Socks for my nephew. Once he outgrew them we passed them on to the next kid. They are now on the fourth child and still look great.

This is a good source book for socks and I'm looking forward to trying to convert some of the needle knitting patterns to a loom pattern and see what I can come up with. Then I might try some of them on needles. They look gorgeous, and very interesting. I have read through the descriptions and everything on each sock listed several times. It's a good source book for socks.

This is a wonderful book, full of tips, with patterns ranging from simple everyday socks to beautiful lace wedding stockings. The first few pages, illustrating differences between toe and heel design, are especially instructive. When I first bought this book, I had made only a few scarves and while I struggled a little, I was able to turn a heel without too much trauma. I love this book. It is beautiful and informative.

Waldman provides a good compilation of Bush and his Administration's lies and manipulations of the truth. While little is presented that is new, having it summarized in one place helps shock readers who have become innured to what has been going on, or may have been too busy to notice.

Examples from the book include:

1)Bush likes to brag about his "business experience." The reality is that he ran three oil companies into the ground, and achieved baseball ownership status only through a sweetheart deal with some of his father's friends. Further, evidence strongly indicates that Bush was guilty of insider trading, and he has refused to release documents relevant to the case. (The SEC, led by a Bush, Sr. appointee, found no problems and closed the case.) Finally, one of the companies Bush was a director for also set up a phony Cayman Island subsidiary to dodge American taxes.

2)Bush gave the impression that Ken Lay (Enron CEO) was but a distant and minor supporter. Reality is that no company gave Bush more money over the course of his political career than Enron.

3)Waldman claims "Orwellian Misdirection" is a favorite Bush tool in which the speaker accuses his opponents of the very thing of which he is guilty. For example, when questioned about his extraordinary fundraising during the 2000 campaing, Bush accused his opponents of being the real profligates.

4)Bush vetoed a Texas patients' bill of rights which was then passed veto-proof and without his signature. When accused of not supporting patients' bill of rights, he claimed to have brought Republicans and Democrats together to accomplish such. (Note: No such bill has moved at the Federal level since Bush became President.)

5)Bush claimed his 2003 tax-cut plan would allow 92 million Americans to keep an average of $1,083 more of their own money. The reality was that the numbers were badly distorted by benefits received by the rich, and 66 million would only benefit by an average $19.

6)Efforts to repeal the "estate tax" instead referred to it as the "death tax." In reality, it then only involved the wealthiest 2%, though thanks to the confusion generated half of Americans believed that most families would have to pay estate tax when someone died.

An important read for any citizen seeking to be well-informed.

This book has excellent arguments which shows that various major media providers put George Bush in a false light, a pretty one, in order to make him out to be a good or innocent person when in reality, he is not at all.

Mr. Waldman skillfully and logically explained using even subtle evidences as to how the media puts him in an undeserved good light.

One of the things I found fault with however was that he said that George Bush was not evil, yet ironically, his description of Bush, despite whatever else Waldman was saying about Bush Jr. in his book, was a man who with the help of his friends and allies as well, made and makes deliberate efforts to portray him as someone who he is not, that includes him having a humble, God-fearing personality, and who is honest about his true goals for the laws and speeches he makes. For example, Bush hiding the fact that his true intent is to fatten the rich and keep the poor poor. According to the Bible, and many major religions, and even obscure ones, to give to the rich (those who already have) as well as steal from and oppress the poor, especially to fatten the rich by doing so, is EVIL. Even non-religious people sense that to take advantage of the poor to increase the wealth of people who are already rich is an evil act.

Despite that flaw, this book is a great help for reformed type Christians in showing the hellish direction the U.S.A. and the countries it oppresses are going.

This book was a phenomenal, well-written expose of George Bush. As one reviewer put it, it is an encyclopedia of every thing that is wrong with George Bush, and the fraud he has perpetrated on the American public.

Waldman catalogues so many facts and attributions per page, it is difficult to read so many pages in one sitting, because you want to absorb the messages. This book is filled with footnotes and appendices and nexus searches. It is impossible here to list all the things that Waldman describes in detail: his drunkeness, arrests, insider trading, favored military treatment, sleazy campaign attacks, the administration chickenhawks, and his lies about everything from WMD's to taxes.

Waldman writes well. His message is clear, concise, and easy to follow. His arguments are compelling and unassailable. If you are still uncertain, read all the one star reviews and look at what they attack: the editorial spelling of a latin phrase, or a dismissive, shrill-like, paragraph without a single, intelligent, cogent analysis, refutation of fact, or challenge of Waldman's work. That may be your best recommendation.

I hope he writes another one about the second term. I'll stand in line for it.

If you want one book that will teach you how to talk to a conservative, this is definitely one of the very best.

Lucid and compelling. By far one of the best anti-Bush books I've read. It's done with a scholar's scrupulous attention. Waldman placed this book at the head of the line with me by repeatedly providing thought provoking comparisons. Frankly, I'd like to compare it with my anti-Bush book, but really the two are incomparable. You will see Bush as he really is. What you will learn, and this pleases me because I've been, okay I'll say it, preaching that Bush is not some dumb clown that doesn't know his left from his right. He knows damn well what he's doing and he's doing it according to plan like a champ. The greatest trick the devil ever played on earth was to convince people he didn't exist. The pleasure was all mine, Waldman.

Paul Waldman exposes one of the most corrupt Presidents to take office and the news media that has supported him.

Fraud shows how the public has been grossly misled. The American Media has portrayed President Bush in a favorable light. Partly because they are gullible, partly because I suspect the news media is owned by very wealthy individuals or large corporations and partly because the Bush Administration has used "bullying tactics" to get bias coverage.

If one looks closer you see that the facts speak for themselves and Paul Waldman lays down the facts.

This book not only lists many of the lies uttered and policies enacted by our 43rd President but lists the exact sources of information (like a college thesis paper) so there is no doubt as to the validity of the information provided. This isn't "Bush Bashing" as much as it's a laying down of documented utterings by none other then W himself.

People that are still pro Bush will not see this, they will make excuses and allowances for the more then 262 lies documented as the American Public sees what they want to see.

We have a President that has bent all rules in favor of his own personal agenda vs the public good. He habitually says one thing, the press reports what he says and then he turns around and quietly does whatever he wants. The media seems to not see or want to see the discrepancy and in the process Americans are being deceived.

I suspect historians will verify that Fraud was accurate and the American People were misled.

I found page 52 very interesting, here Paul Waldman compares Bill & Hilary Clinton's Whitewater scandal to George W. Bush's Harkin Scandal and shows how the American News Media has twist and shaped the publics perception in favor of George Bush Jr.

The Whitewater Scandal was the target of an Independent Counsel investigation that spent more than $70 million in taxpayer funds. And how much money was involved? Approximately $220,000.

George W. Bush made $848,560 on his "timely sale" of Harken stock, the $20 million in losses Harken hid from shareholders, and the $8 million in sham profit it created out of thin air with the Aloha deal".

The New York Times ran more than 1,000 articles on Whitewater and only 9 for Harken. Seems the press largely ignored the "Harken Scandal" while climbing all over Whitewater.

The above is only one sample of how the news media has failed the American People big time. We're not getting the full unbiased story. The public at large has no comprehension of the extent we are being manipulated by the press.

I have known for a long time that McCain was a hot head but not how he treated other people. The fact that he rarely votes against his party on issues is not new and we sure don't need four years more of this type of government. I just wonder why we couldn't get two candidates that would actually "change" anything.

As the cover aptly shows here is McCain embracing Bush and everything he stands for. McCain supporters have clearly shown that the truth is the last thing they want to hear. Important topics are ignored by these people while they spin a most dismal ticket trying hard to hide the holes in it. The McCain/Palin ticket will be a litmus test for the sanity of the American voter. Read this book if you want a clear picture of McCain. He has gotten plenty of mileage out of his service record but what about the fact that he is not suited to lead a troubled nation? We need more than spin.

This is about the worst garbage printed I have ever read! If you thought that the Swift Boat garbage written about Kerry or the Obama Nation book were bad....then save your money. It is obvious from start to finish the author is reflecting base talking points to garner news and earn $$ by selling his tales!

The book contrasts McCain's heavily airbrushed media-engineered image to facts, testimony and reports available in the public record that are not so favorable. There are no 'anonymous sources' as far as I can tell. All is well documented and, in fact, for anyone who's been around for the past 15-20 years, reading this book is more like a trip on the political memory lane. My own reaction was "yes, I DO remember that" - McCain's numerous 180's and than back on just about any important issue.

I am not going to cover the book's contents. All I can say is that it was a good read for me but I have a bias - I didn't think much of McCain before reading this book and I think a bit less of him after finishing it. Like I said, I was familiar with most of the events covered by the book but it was good to have them all in one place at this point in time where we are coming close to election day and McCain could become the next US president.

Good things about 'The Real McCain':

- well researched
- well sourced
- relevant to the current presidential race
- some humor
- not too long

Aspects that some may object to:

- not too many 'good' things (not balanced)
- the humor COULD be interpreted as 'sarcasm' by someone who had a favorable view of McCain
- the cover, while 'funny' is likely to turn away anyone who doesn't already agree that McCain is a bad person/politician
- the subtitle advertises the conclusion, something that should emerge from the process of reading the book
- the author does leave the impression (especially to current McCain supporters) that he is 'after McCain'

To conclude, this is a book worth reading in the second half of 2008 and will stay an important book for a while IF McCain wins the presidential election. If McCain loses, then McCain will quickly disappear from our public memories and this book will be as irrelevant and uninteresting as the accounts on Geraldine Ferraro or Bob Dole are today.

Footnote
If anyone is wondering why am I granting 4 stars to a book for which I listed a few 'negatives', my defensive explanation is: this is 'my' review. I tried to be objective and think of reasons why some readers may object to this book's contents or approach but 'my' own view is that it is a well-written, well-researched, fact-filled, relevant-in-2008 tome.

This kind of book comes out every election campaign. It's like Obama Nation, except there are no obvious lies and distortions.

The tonality is snipey and churlish, but most of the facts he cites appear to hold up. Unfortunately, like all these books, the author is mainly addressing people already determined not to vote for McCain. So for partisans, it's a fun read, but for anyone else it's hardly worth the time.

The love affair of the Ragin'Cajun and the hippie-turned-conservative, the election of '92 with him running Clinton's campaign and she stumping for Bush sr., a cast of thousands; and it reads like a novel.

Wonderful insider view of politics, told in alternate blocks by the two, with writer Peter Knobler keeping the flavor of each's speaking style. Amazingly the pair was able to keep their work out of their personal life, marrying a year later with a jazz band procession through New Orleans's French quarter, naming their first daughter Matalin Mary, called Matty to acknowledge Mary's stature). Intimate looks at the candidates, with James's high regard for Hilary, Mary seeing Bush sr. as warm and personable.

A must-read in this election year!

I can boast of having a copy of this book kindly sent to me by James Carville when it was first published. It's no exaggeration to say it's amongst my most treasured possessions.

There's no denying that James brought the role of the politial consultant into the public eye. Sure, there had been people like Roger Ailes before him, but they'd tended to be shadowy figures, working behind the scenes and known only to political insiders. Carville started the cult of consultant-as-celebrity and his relationship with Matalin - an equally intelligent, equally interesting, but naturally less ebullient figure - whilst both were working for opposing Presidential campaigns catapaulted them both into the public mind.

Perhaps because it was written at the time, the book doesn't have much to say on the subject of consultant-as-celebrity. Of course it was written pre-Stephanopolous / Morris / Rove et al, but it'd be interesting if Carville and Matalin re-issued the book with an epilogue. I for one would like to read their reflections on the trend.

Without Carville and Matalin it's doubtful there'd have been as much focus on the role and influence of Morris and Rove, for instance. Certainly the film "He said, She said" would probably not have been made. Perhaps even "Wag the Dog" mightn't have got off the ground. But have things gone too far when a series like "K Street" makes consultants and politicians players in an imaginary drama?

But for an insight into the Clinton years that's less about the personal and more the political, this is an excellent, lively read. In many ways it comes closer than James's other books to giving an insight into the campaign techniques that made both Carville and Matalin the most successful consultants of their day, as it charts their day-by-day activities.

A cross between campaign diary, a love story and a political how-to manual probably wouldn't work with anyone but the authors at its center. But with Carville and Matalin, it serves to provide a unique way of looking into the inner workings of two Presidential campaigns.

There's probably no other book quite like it - certainly all that comes to mind is Joe McGinniss's "The selling of the President" - for mixing personal observations with professional insight in the midst of a high level political campaign.

It's a book well worth adding to your library, whether you're a political junkie or a romance reader.

I know that this is the first book I have ever read with two senior people on the opposite sides of a presidential campaign combining on one book. As far as I know this might be the only one out there like it. Just the fact that both sides of the total campaign were discussed point by point would be enough to give this book a high rating, but these two authors (and probably the added professional writer) helped to make this book a very entertaining read. The authors struck the right balance between the exciting blow by blow of the campaign and the day to day decisions that most people would find dull. It was just so interesting reading both sides of each issue as it came up in the race. Reading how each side perceived a situation and then reacted gave the reader a rich understanding of how the campaign played out.

The one area that I found a bit annoying was the rabid partisanship of Mary Matalin. I actually thought that James Carville would be the rip it up partisan trash talker that was going to spell out the red meat attack on every issue. Now I tend to lean a little left so I at first thought it was just my liberal sensitivities getting a bit out of joint, but the more I read and tried to be fair I really got a negative view of Matalin. It is one thing to attack Clinton, heck stand in line, but the over blown attacks on average Democrats was a bit much. It just made me doubt much of what she said when balance was required and it eliminated any sympathy I should have had for her being she was on the losing side.

Another area I found interesting was how much she truly respected and adored President Bush. Now this might be a symptom of any campaign worker, but make no mistake about it, Mary held her love for the candidate front and center. With this being said it is understandable that she would take the loss hard and find some avenues to place a little blame, but her dislike of the press was only surpassed by Bill Clinton himself. Every bad decision or misstep on her side was somehow laid at the feet of the press for simply reporting the event. If Clinton was leading in the polls then Matalin made the claim the press was favoring Clinton. It got to be so pervasive that it took on the appearance of the town drunk arguing that he does not have a drinking problem. It might have been an underling factor as to why the Bush team did not pull it out at the end. Overall I really liked the book and if you are a political junkie then so will you.

Even though the Clinton vs. Bush campaign was 12 years ago, this book is well worth a re-visit. The book is relatively long but I found every page of high interest.

Mary Matalin's sections on the Bush re-election were wonderful reading and I am an avowed liberal. She perfectly captured the patrician nobility of Bush Senior and the campaign that destroyed itself. From the disasterous reign of John Sununu as Chief of Staff, the tragic death of Lee Atwater, the paralysis of Margaret Tutwiler, the insanity of Ross Perot, the mean-spiritedness of Patrick Buchanan, the shrill defeatism of Rich Bonds, and the often confused and muddled voice of an out of touch President, George Bush, the characters are vividly drawn and almost sympathetic.

Carville on the other hand is masterful in his analysis of the consciousness of the American Everyman. The strength of Carville's strategy is common sense played offensively. He respects the middle class American sense of irony and skepticism trying to move toward optimism and problem solving.

Even though the book is 478 pages long, it is really a fast read. Both Matalin and Carville are witty, strategic professionals with years of experience. I didn't get the book to read a sappy love story and I was glad the book focused on the considerable professional experiences of this couple rather than on their fledgling romance.

Carville's desciptions of Bill Clinton do the man justice as a flawed but brilliant leader. Matalin's desciptions of George Bush do the man justice as a man who believes his class, gender, and race was destined for leadership but he just can't navigate the reality of the average American experience.

Where both Matalin and Carville converge is in their perspectives on Patrick Buchanan, a mean hateful old man, and Ross Perot, a crazy old man.

Besides a blow by blow detailed story of the Clinton vs. Bush campaigns from beginning to end, the book is full of political wisdom and strategy.

Ever since I saw the documentary "The War Room," I have been a huge fan of James Carville's. It also helps that I am a big liberal Democrat. However, for the longest time I did not know that he was married to Mary Matalin, a longtime top Republican strategist. I also was unaware of the fact that they were more or less opposite numbers in the 1992 campaign, when Carville worked for Bill Clinton, and Matalin for President George H.W. Bush.

This book shows the inner workings and machinations of both the Clinton and Bush campaigns in 1992, from the viewpoints of Carville and Matalin respectively.

The book is written in turn; first Carville tells a little of what was happening in the Clinton camp, then Matalin offers the contemporary perspective of the Bush camp. This style works really well. At some points it develops into quasi-conversation, as if they were speaking to each other. There is ample room for the airing of their own personal views of what was going on as well.

There were two overriding themes in the book: the way Carville ran Clinton's operation, best known as The War Room, clearly changed the way political campaigns are conducted in this nation, and, partially because of the innovations of The War Room the Bush effort was off its game big-time. At times it was amazing to see the sheer ineptitude of the Bush campaign, such as when Mary Matalin describes how the White House and the Bush campaign were unwilling or unable to effectively coordinate their activities until the Republican convention.

There is also a lot of discussion of how the media, especially television and newspapers, influence the way a campaign is run these days. Predictably, there is a healthy amount of negativity expressed toward the press, especially Matalin's railing at the so-called liberal media, even though Carville makes some good arguments that Clinton was not receiving the best coverage, either.

A must-have for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of political campaigns, especially for people who want to get involved in the higher operations of politics.

This is a great book detailing one man's experience in the Contra operation. It has high officials and low, but it is written a bit rough. Particularly the absurd repetition of "Compromised" to the point I was hoping someone would lay a beatdown on the writer. Still, if you care for the genre it is an element of something.

I still have a cassette tape of Mr.
Reed on Dr. Stan's fine Radio Liberty
show discussing how the alphabet soup
lettered agencies came at him with
both barrels blazing under the overused
guies of (get this!) 'National Security.'
Get this book Mr. & Mrs. America!!!!!!

This book could have been better with more diligent editing. There are too many needless details, too much bragging, too much laundering of personal lives, too many names dropped, and too many photos of operatives that would likely prefer to not have their face shown. You may feel like a case is being built...which possibly happens to be true since the author was suing Time for defamation.

On the other hand, it is a thorough and frank history of an exciting story that is probably hard to tell. There are many disclosures that may be impossible to find in more mainstream publications. It will probably never become a movie because the story is simply too explosive.

You will find shocking revelations about the so called 'banana republic of Arkansas', Clintons history with the CIA in the 80s, Oliver North, Reagan, Bush, Arkansas state police, Nicaraguan contras, jackals, government money laundering, extortion, bribes, drug running, agent extra ordinaire Barry Seal, arms manufacturing, Vietnam, Laos, intentional POW camp (with US soldiers) bombing, FBI, IRS, and of course the CIA.

The unintentional hero of the story is the IRS agent who quit his job because he refused to lie under oath for the....IRS. I tend to respect law enforcement that will not break the law while enforcing the law.

This could be a very interesting movie for a very brave producer.

This book underscores and confirms Peter Dale Scott's paradigmatic expansion (appearing in his book Deep Politics and the Death of JFK), of the parameters of American politics to the cesspool of secrecy just beneath the waterline of normal everyday political maneuverings.

Here, Air Force Colonel Terry Reed tells the story of being assigned, as an "Operations Officer" in charge of a CIA-run transshipment drop-off-point, disguised as a parking meter manufacturing plant, somewhere out in the boondocks on the periphery of the small Hamlet of Mena, Arkansas.

According to Reed, while operating under various "deep covers" and "cut-outs," he later discovered, that he was in fact working for Oliver North's Nicaragua-Contra "drugs-for-gun" project. Quite by accident he had discovered that his small operation in Mena was a link in a much larger and longer chain of activities that led from Ronald Reagan's NSC, to the Medellin cocaine fields. Apparently, as Reed surmised, cocaine was being picked up and transshipped through Mena, enroute to being laundered for guns (pick up at the Pentagon, paid for out of cocaine proceeds), and sent on to the Nicaraguan "contras."

All of cargo that arrived in Mena was of course carefully concealed in the typical large steel locked-down transport containers. According to Reed (whose job it was to make sure such containers were securely locked and un-tampered with), he, somehow was able to see inside that they were packed full of "one-kilo sized bricks" of cocaine -- one of which he wriggled out to keep as evidence to later either "blow the whistle" on the whole operation, or at the very least, to be used as a hedge against being called a "conspiracy kook and liar" once his revelations were made public. That is the essence of Reed's story.

Well, that theft by the "good old colonel" was a big mistake: For the rest of book is about what happened to him and his family as he was forced to "go on the lam," to avoid being "terminated with extreme prejudice" by his U.S. government handlers and overseers. According to Reed, he and his family are still being pursued all across the U.S., Canada and Mexico in a harrowing odyssey with enough twists and turns in it to make a move that would rival "The Bourne Identity," of Matt Damon fame.

At the time this book went to print, Reed's story seemed like so much "out there" conspiracy theory by the kooks, who were again weaving their familiar and always un-substantiated tales about the "goings-on" of people in power. However, the revelations since the book was published all seem to have produced nothing but a constant stream of cross-confirmation and convergence with Reed's facts. And here I mean the arrest of Eugene Hasenfus shot down in Nicaragua on October 5, 1986; the incredible well-written and revealing book by Gary Webb called "Dark Alliance;" the ultimate expose on the Clintons written by the renown British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard called "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, and the roller-coaster ride down the dark side of American history by Daniel Hopsicker called "Barry & `the boys," about the life and times of the Soldier of Fortune and known CIA agent Barry Seal.

According to Hopsicker, it was none other than the infamous Barry Seal who was piloting the plane that crashed in Nicaragua and who flew all of the other planes on regularly missions both into Colombia for the pick-up and back to Mena for the drop off, and on to Nicaragua with guns for the Contras. Seal in fact even had his own private "financial interests" invested in the whole Mena operation.

And as is by now well known, from Gary Webb's Dark Alliance, it was "Contra cocaine money" that was sold in America's black ghettoes that led to the "crack explosion" and that financed the whole "Reagan Contra" Operation (At the same time that Nancy Reagan was preaching "Just Say No!"). But it is Evans-Prichard's book that tied all these various loose strains together: from Mena, directly to the backdoor of the Clinton White House: Once the then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, got wind that a big CIA drug smuggling operation was taking place on his back porch, in Mena, Arkansas, he wanted "in on the deal" and "wanted his cut." Apparently he got both with a flourish, by utilizing the likes of Dan Lasater (Chapter 19), who became the Arkansas "Cocaine Kingpen," laundering most of his money through the Arkansas Development Finance Corporation (ADFC), which in a very short time became the largest bonding company in the world. The ADFC was such an improbable place for such spike in bonding activity that this activity alone actually triggered the IRS investigation that eventually led to Lasater and others arrest. [There is another whole story of how that investigation was eventually stifled and then completely snuffed out.]

As one of many postscripts to Reed's expose. Barry Seal was released to a halfway house in Baton Rouge, La, with a bulls-eye painted on his back, and the predictable happened: He was gunned-down in a hail of bullets from a Uzi, presumably by Colombian hit men. The May 23, 1992 (?) Washington Post entitled "Iran-Contra Figure Shot Down Again (by Guy Guliotta) relates how a Congressional Bill to award Eugene Hasenfus $805,209 for his injuries, was shelved: Bill Clinton had written Hasenfus' lawyers in Arkansas, saying that "he would not look favorably on the bill." In the mean time, Oliver North, who lied to Congress, almost won a Senate seat in Va., and then went on to lucrative book deal and an additional lucrative deal as a Rightwing Talk Show Host. Elliot Abrams, who also lied to Congress, did 100 hours of community service and wrote a book about how the Democrats had scape-goated him.

If this does not confirm Peter Dale Scott's theories, I don't what will. Five stars.

This book is simply amazing. It details the life of a CIA asset, pilot and businessman as he falls further and further into the rabbit hole and learns the truth about the CIA and its control of the government. In the book we find that Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and many other politicians are "compromised" and beholden to the secret government known as the CIA. If you think that there is a difference between political parties, prepare to experience a paradigm shift.

My new grandson LOVES this book and it makes him more excited to be
coming to America to live and go to school. He LOVES Laura Bush, and
now knows Jenna Bush. He feels very honored.
Jan Raney

The children in my class really enjoyed this book. They loved the illustrations, especially since they are avid Junie B. Jones fans! There's much more to the story if you take the time to view the illustrations. I think that Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna did a wonderful job.

Purchased this book for my grandson who doesn't like to read. He is almost 8 and was not understanding that books can open up all kinds of worlds for him. He got it with help from Laura and Jenna Bush. I highly recommend this book.

A great gift for a teacher at the start of the new year. A wonderful way to encourage children to read, especially if you or your school is having a contest to read a certain number of books.

This is a great book to read to students who are beginning to choose their own books to read.

i DO NOT CARE FOR bUSH. BUT EVEN I THINK ALL THIS BOOK IS TRASH.

One of the scarriest books I've ever read. Almost hard to believe that people can be so calculating.

Great book for reference. Bibliography checks out nice. Book is good at seperating the facts from the fiction concerning the Bush Family, as well as others. Definately a must have for all those concerned with current affairs and America's future. Don't let "unauthorized" in the title discourage you, this is the REAL biography, not the propaganda puke which is regurgitated by mainstream media and press...

Amazingly accurate and well researched, this book will provide the reader with a fascinating view of "41", and the depths of the Bush influence in American politics. This is revelatory reading. Remember, Poppy is merely prologue for Dubya. These are dangerous people.

For me this is the fourth book I have completed on the Bush dynasty. Unlike the others, this one is not gossipy or filled with innuendoes and salacious half-truths strung together to entice the reader: This is a full-bodied history, well researched and documented, and backed up with "real facts." Since the authors are loosely affiliated with, or at least sympathetic to the Lyndon La Rouche cause, I made a conscious agreement with myself to keep my "crap detection system" in "wide open alert mode," and to "declare foul" at the first sign of "manufactured anti-Bush" unsubstantiated facts.

I have now reached the end of the book and cannot say that I have found anything beyond a slight disagreement with the guilt by association arising in the case of the Union Banking Corporation's Hitler Project. It seems to me that Bush's father was more or less operating under the rules of the Versailles Treaty then in force: as a kind of silent "overseer" of a Harriman caretaking operation. The Bush connection to Nazism was thus more a product of these arrangements than due to some sinister ideological and Fascist motive, which is often erroneously left hanging in the air. U.S. and British partnerships with Germans were more the rule than the exception due to these WW-I Treaty restrictions. And this was true well into Hitler's administration. In fact, many of the actions the government took against these "shared corporations" under the Enemy's Act of 1942, specifically indicated that seizures were only of the "Nazi interests," often leaving the U.S. partners free to carry on business as usual. Except for this, and the fact that the rules of business morality generally seemed to have been more relaxed with wider opportunities for graft in the milieu of the last generation of "wheeling-and-dealing," there is little to question here.

The book pretty much confirms the facts found in other books, but here the authors have done so at a much cleaner, more professional, and in my personal view, on a much higher level. Needless to say, I am impressed with the scholarship of the author's work. The book is all the more devastating because these authors have gone well beyond the cover stories; have provided context as appropriate, have not relied on the normal and very much available anti-Bush claptrap; and have additionally done their own independent research and investigations, often from scratch.

The authors story about Bush I, goes as follows:

George W. Bush (Bush I), like the other Bush brothers and sons, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bush oligarchy, started by his maternal grandfather and uncle, George Herbert Walker, and George Herbert Walker, Jr., and Senator from Connecticut, Prescott Bush (George's father). The epicenter of the oligarchy has always been, and remains the banking business, in particular the Wall Street international investment bank of Brown Brothers Harriman. According to these authors (as well as all the others I have read), this bank remains the "Bush family firm" in the deepest sense of that phrase.

The power of this bank and its ubiquitous network reaches both across the globe and across time. In particular, its connections to the British oligarchy, to Henry Kissinger Enterprises, to Israeli and Zionists circles, to Texas oilmen, and to the Saudi and Kuwaiti Royal families are well known. What is not so well known, is how these connections conspire to control, and in many cases to undermine U.S. economic and national security interests. In this regard the author points out that: "It will be noted that Bush has succeeded in proportion as the country has failed, and that Bush's advancement has proceeded pari passu (in tandem with) with the degradation of the national stage upon which he has operated and which he has come to dominate."

The key to the story, according to these authors is Bush's amoral and compliant personality and willingness to bend the rules to serve those higher up the economic food chain, and family interests over U.S. national and economic interests. As he notes: "The reader will search in vain for strong, principled commitments in George Bush's personality; the most that will be found is a series of obsessions, of which the most durable are race, vanity, personal ambition, and settling scores with adversaries."

Anyone doubting the seriousness of this book will be quickly disavowed of that notion from reading the prediction on its first page in which as early as 1991, when it went to press, predicted that GW Jr. would win the presidency and that his reign would be another unmitigated disaster for the U.S. That alone is worth five stars.

If you want to have an understanding of how the Bush Administration is pushing their ongoing agenda/policy for globalization and corporatization of our world (with the help of a handful of elitists) this is a must read. What frightens me about the future of our world is that this book illustrates that those in power have no interest in the protection of the average person or our planet, it's about controlling resources, i.e. oil, water and food, using any method necessary,including military to further their own agenda...greed and power.

"Once you've got Baghdad it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there. How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the US military.... I think to have American military engaged in a civil war inside Iraq would fit the definition of a quagmire, and we have absolutely no desire to get bogged down in that fashion."--(page 174) Dick Cheney, April 1991, explaining why Bush the First did not take Baghdad after Gulf War I

Antonia Juhasz has performed a major public service in exposing the history, players, and motivations behind the second Iraqi war and occupation. "It's about the oil, silly."

Actually, not totally about the oil but for the material benefit of several industries to which access to petroleum-based energy is a key contributor. She does not mention the Carlyle Group[1], instead focusing on four top bananas: Bechtel, Chevron, Halliburton, and Lockheed Martin. The individual histories and blatant aggression of these companies, each largest in its field, are truly eye-opening.

Agenda is primarily documentation of the relationships between the war and energy corporations and the Bush dynasty...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2007

Juhasz zeal and fanaticism against anyone or anything that engages in oil exploration or consumption makes Ed Begley Jr look like the equivalent of a one man Exxon Valdeze.

The author is of course not a journalist, or a reporter, or even a fair minded observer, but rather a far left activist with many axes to grind. Her total disdain for oil, whether refined or crude, extends to her personal ownership of any transportation that uses the pernicious benzene. What is Juhasz's stated reason for this life long eschewing of the automobile? "I refuse to give money to evil gas companies," says this holder of Public Policy degrees. One has to wonder if Juhasz was frightened by a car backfire in her cradle.

I guess Juhasz's abhorrence of lining the pockets of oil company ceo's only extends to paying at the pump as she isn't as persnickety when it comes to flying to all her public speaking engagements around the country.

Juhasz is a member of International Forum on Globalization and Oil Change International whose ideology and purpose is conveyed in this synopsis:

"We focus on the oil industry because we understand and view the oil industry as a source of global warming, human rights abuses, war, national security concerns, corporate globalization, poverty, and addiction. We also see their interests behind every major political barrier to a clean energy transition."


This intransigent position seems at odds with the purpose of a public policy masters degree that is supposed provide the candidate with analysis of the political, economic, quantitative, organizational, and normative aspects of complex problems. Juhasz has distilled all historical and current complex geopolitical issues and events down to three grimy letters: oil. She is the Freud of the anti-industrial revolution set. Even though both are not mutually exclusive, Juhasz substitutes oil for sex as the motivation for all human endeavor.

Let's examine Juhasz's rational for Bush's continued secret ulterior motives for remaining in Iraq.

"The process of securing this access involves three steps. The first, put into motion with the December 15, 2005, election, is the formation a legitimate Iraqi government with the authority to, among other things, sign contracts with foreign oil companies. The second step is the completion and passage of a new national oil law that is set to conclude at the start of 2006. The third, having enough security on the ground for U.S. oil companies to get to work, is uncertain, and therefore the time line for full U.S. troop withdrawal remains unknown."

Well, this "secret" Bush master plan must have been kept a secret from Rumsfeld since Bush approved the number of troops used in the initial Iraq invasion and subsequent mop up. If securing the all the oil producing fields, as well as Baghdad, was the intended goal after taking out Saddam, why didn't Bush accept Gen. Eric K. Shinseki's estimate that several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq?

Surely Juhasz isn't advocating Iraq oil only for Iraqis? It would seem antithetical to Juhasez's extremist views on petroleum; that any country's petroleum should be taken out of the ground, refined, and used to power evil machines belching toxic fumes.

What is Juhasz's position on nuclear energy? Never mind. I'm sure there are dastardly robber barons who also enjoy a monopoly over the power of the atom. But how would Antonia achieve martyr status if she merely eschewed atomic submarines and nuclear powered aircraft carriers as modes of transportation?

Antonia Juhasz has assembled expertly the pieces of the puzzle. Readers of "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time" will have it all put together by the time they finish reading this well-documented expose. It is so important that I have given copies to three brothers and five children I love.

Bush agenda is absolutely essential to understanding the unfolding story in the Middle East. Turning each page was like opening a new door of insight.