Book Description
George W. Bush came to the presidency in 2000 claiming to be the heir of Ronald Reagan. But while he did cut taxes, in most other respects he has governed in a way utterly unlike his revered predecessor, expanding the size and scope of government, letting immigration go unchecked, and allowing the federal budget to mushroom out of control.
Despite their strong misgivings, most conservatives remained silent during Bush’s first term. But a series of missteps and scandals, culminating in the ill-conceived nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, has brought this hidden rift within the conservative movement crashing to the surface.
Now, in what is sure to be the political book of the season, Bruce Bartlett lays bare the incompetence and profligacy of Bush’s economic policies. A highly respected Washington economist—and true-believing Reaganite—Bartlett started out as a supporter of Bush and helped him craft his tax cuts. But he was dismayed by the way they were executed. Reagan combined his tax cuts with fiscal restraint, but Bush has done the opposite. Bartlett thus reluctantly concluded that Bush is not a Reaganite at all, but an unprincipled opportunist who will do whatever he or his advisers think is expedient to buy votes.
In this sober, thorough, and utterly devastating book, Bartlett attacks the Bush Administration's economic performance root and branch, from the "stovepiping" of its policy process to the coercive tactics used to ram its policies through Congress, to the effects of the policies themselves. He is especially hard on Bush’s enormous new Medicare entitlement…and predicts that within a few years, Bush's tax cuts and unrestricted spending will produce an economic crisis that will require a major tax increase, probably in the form of a European-style VAT.
Bartlett has surprisingly kind words for Bill Clinton, whose record on the budget was far better than Bush’s. Whatever else one may think of him, Bartlett argues, Clinton cut spending, abolished a federal entitlement program, and left a budget surplus. By contrast, Bush has increased spending, created a massive entitlement program, and produced the biggest deficits in American history.
In fact, Bartlett concludes, Bush is less like Reagan than like Nixon: an arch-conservative Republican, bitterly hated by liberals, who vainly tried to woo moderates by enacting big parts of the liberal program. It didn't work then, and it won't work now—and may have similar harmful effects for the GOP.
Customer Reviews:
Powerful critique of GWB not written by whiney liberal.......2007-06-02
Well written entertaining hard hitting book on the various failures of the Bush presidency.
This book is packed with facts and logic supporting the author's thesis that George W. Bush is not a conservative president and has done a bad job from a conservative perspective. Rather GWB has been a highly partisan Republican president in the genre of Richard Nixon in that he has pushed liberal policies like expansion of medicare benefits, pouring billions into educations, committing the troops to nation-building of a democracy (which no doubt will end up like Vietnam) in a place where US troops don't belong.
If you are a die-hard Bush fan or a liberal Bush-hater don't bother buying this book as it probably won't provide any enjoyment. But if you are an intelligent open-minded individual who appreciates a frank discussion of policy from the conservative viewpoint you should not be disappointed.
Well written critical summary of the G.W. Bush Years.......2007-05-20
This book by a Reagan insider reveals in stark detail Bush's hipocracy in using the conservative title. Bartlett shows him as an grandiose opportunist who believes he is guided by God, and making all the errors of judgement that stem from such absurd overconfidence.
Good, but..........2007-04-18
I hate Dubya as much has the next good liberal, but I found this book to be a bit tough to get through due to its focus on economic issues. Cleary, he can be similarly criticized for straying from conservative positions on a whole host of other issues, but the author never strays from economics (but to be fair, that is his area of expertise). At the end, he even veers off on some VAT tax tangent that has nothing to do with Bush.
It's not a bad book, but buyer beware.
An attack more in sorrow than in anger.......2007-02-23
This is a good book. As a political book it is well above average.
As an attack book it is one of the best because it deals with facts,
mostly, and usually identifies opinions as opinions.
We have 210 pages of text, divided into 11 chapters, mostly complaining about
what Bush did, but a lot of complaints about how he did it, and why.
There 35 pages of appendices and notes, documenting the "what" quite well,
and the "how" fairly well. The "why" seems not as well done, but better than
the average political attack book.
A common attack book strategy is to make a statement as a fact, and provide
a note reference. The reference turns out to be an opinion offered elsewhere,
sometimes by the same author. Another is broad labelling. A request for a
hardship deferral makes one a draft dodger. Not accepting a particular
theory espoused by a professor makes one anti-intellectual. These are
rare in Bartlett's book.
There are also 31 pages of end notes, 49 pages of references and a 14 page
index. You can check his claims. In most cases there are references to
both sides of an issue.
I also appreciated that Bartlett identified the political biases of think
tanks and publications.
There are some weaknesses in the book. Much of the subject matter involves
economics, a topic most readers find boring, intimidating, or both.
To aid the attack, Bush is compared against Clinton in some ways and
against Reagan in others. Bartlett gives Clinton credit for welfare reform.
He properly identifies the tax increases that partly offset the Reagan
tax cuts, but ignores the slowness of spending reductions. Bartlett
argues there will be a major tax increase, probably after Bush is gone,
then spends many pages supporting a value added tax (VAT) as the least
bad way to do it.
Some Republicans will hate the book because it attacks one of their own.
Bartlett got fired for writing it. Some Democrats will hate the book
because it does not accuse Bush of treason, rape, armed robbery, and
wearing ugly ties. This is clearly an attack book, but it seems to have
been written more in sorrow than in anger. The book is far more rational
and far less emotional than some of the reviews here.
Critique of the President from the Right.......2006-09-24
This is an interesting work. Many of the critical analyses of the Bush II Administration (George W. Bush as opposed to George H. W. Bush, referred to as Bush I below) have come from journalists or those on the left or from Democrats. This book is fascinating precisely because it is authored by a conservative, one who served in the Reagan White House and in the Bush I Treasury Department. In that, it is akin to Francis Fukuyama's critical analyses of neocons and the Administration's Nation-Building efforts. And, indeed, Bartlett paid a personal price for his criticisms--he lost his job.
He suggests that the Bush II Administration is simply not conservative. In fact, the first chapter's title exemplifies that theme: "I Know Conservatives and George W. Bush Is No Conservative." Among his contentions: the Bush II administration simply does not care about serious policy analysis; it is more concerned with attaining its goals. The chapter, entitled "The End of Serious Policy Analysis," quotes part of Ron Suskind's interview with a top Bush official (some opine that this quotation may come from Karl Rove himself): "You guys, the aide said, are 'in what we call the reality-based community.' Such people are defined, the aide went on, as those who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernable reality.'" The aide went on, quoting Bartlett: "That's not the way the world works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. Any while you're studying that reality--judiciously as you will--we'll act again, creating other new realities. . . ."
Other chapters question the Bush II Administration for its tax cuts, its trade policy, why Enron serves as metaphor for Bush's economic policy, the budget (mirabile dictu, Bartlett suggests that Bill Clinton's policy is preferable to Bush II), and so on.
Precisely because this is a critique from the right, this becomes a very interesting volume to reflect upon. While sometimes the critique becomes a bit shrill, this is still worth looking at and thinking about.
Book Description
As president, he oversaw the end of the Cold War and helpedliberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's forces. As the U.S. Liaison to China,he held tenure during communist rule under Mao, and as Ambassador to theUnited Nations, he forged relations around the world. From his days as ayoung Texas congressman to witnessing his son become the current president,George H. W. Bush has played a major role on the world stage for decadesand continues to as elder statesman. Now, using events from his life, theformer president's only daughter examines how her father confrontedchallenges, how he responded to crises, and how he kept his humor andpersonality through it all.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic! .......2007-09-30
With the 2008 presidential elections coming up, I took it upon myself to learn about our future president ("Living History") and VP ("Dreams of my Father") and past ones. I just finished reading "My Father, My President". It's a candid "inside" look into the life of a former president. Talk about an absolutely wonderful book abt George HW Bush! "41" strikes me as a fun, loving, intelligent, family oriented stateman with emphasis on duty, honor, family and faith. In plain words, a good citizen worthy of admiration! (Need I mention I am a Democrat!)
From his days as a WWII veteran to his brief work career at the UN, to his successful career as a director at the USLO, CIA, then later as a Chairman for the NRC then later as the head of state, it is extremely difficult not to fall in love with GHWB! His wit, charm and affection is just simply contagious... "41" is brilliant! I hope people will get a chance to read it and enjoy it as much as I did. God only knows how much we need more genuine heroes like him.
Fantastic.......2007-05-12
Learned many things about George H W Bush that I never knew. Very enjoyable book and easy to read.
A good and decent man.......2007-03-11
This book provides more insight into the essential goodness of George H.W. Bush. Aside from the facts and figures of his early career, vice-presidency and Presidency, the book gives us a fascinating look at how someone so prominent can still adhere to the Golden Rule. I found the stories told by Secret Service agents and staff about his common courtesy, concern and humor to be the most interesting. He never felt he was better or more important than anyone else, although I think history will ultimately say otherwise.
An easy read.......2007-02-21
What a wonderful tribute to her father! This is a great read and gives us an insight into what makes this man tick.
Heartwarming........2007-02-08
This was a very informative book. It is refreshing to hear good things about such public figures. Mr. Bush is thought of in endearing ways by many people and loved dearly by his family.
Amazon.com
Princeton University's Fred I. Greenstein caps off an illustrious career as a presidential scholar with The Presidential Difference. This book won't fundamentally change the way anybody looks at the last 11 chief executives--Greenstein's earlier work The Hidden-Hand Presidency revolutionized the academy's view of Eisenhower--but it does provide a worthwhile series of minibiographies and analytical summations. Greenstein rates his subjects in several categories: communication, organization, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. His assessments can be quite frank: Roosevelt is the source of "endless positive lessons"; Truman "illustrates the cost of a defective communication style and a situation-determined approach to presidential leadership"; Ford is "underappreciated"; and so on. Who is Greenstein's favorite? It's clearly FDR, even though he confronts the question with an amusing anecdote about LBJ. Walking on a tarmac in Vietnam, an airman says, "This is your helicopter, Mr. President." Johnson replies, "They are all my helicopters." Writes Greenstein: "Each of the modern presidents is a source of insight, as much for his weaknesses as his strengths. The variation among them provides intellectual leverage, permitting comparisons and expanding our sense of the possible." And so, he writes, "They are all my presidents." --John J. Miller
Book Description
For a quarter-century, Fred I. Greenstein has been one of our keenest observers of the modern presidency. Here, he provides a fascinating and instructive account of the qualities that have served well and poorly in the Oval Office, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt's first hundred days. Newly expanded, this second edition now covers the momentous events of George W. Bush's administration--from his handling of the events of September 11 to the war with Iraq.
Throughout, Greenstein offers a series of bottom-line judgments on each of his twelve subjects and a bold new explanation of why presidents succeed or fail. He surveys each president's record in public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence--and argues that the last is the most important in predicting presidential success.
Download Description
Fred Greenstein is among the top students of the American presidency -- his book on Eisenhower, The Hidden-Hand Presidency, is regarded as a classic. His pioneering work in political psychology has done much to illuminate the nature of power and leadership writ large. Now, as the culmination of a half-century of study and firsthand experience, The Presidential Difference rewrites the book on greatness in the presidency.
Greenstein looks at both personality and context to consider how well each president "fit" his times. From FDR to Clinton, he paints a portrait, by turns sweeping and detailed, of the era of the imperial presidency. The Presidential Difference employs a concise set of six categories by which a chief of staff is rated: communication, organization, natural skill, vision, cognitive style, and the unexpected key to the whole package -- emotional intelligence. Not since Richard Neustadt's Presidential Power has a scholar so clearly defined the keys to success for the world's most powerful office.
Customer Reviews:
Review.......2006-06-06
Greenstein's The Presidential Difference is short and sweet. It condenses the story of our Presidents from FDR to George W. Bush into an easy to read manner. Each chapter is dedicated to a President and gives six points upon which they are evaluated, which makes comparisons with other Presidents in the book easy. Even with only 223 pages nothing seems to be left out. The book is engaging from beginning to end and before you know it you have gone through twelve presidencies. To end it all Greenstein wraps 13 chapters up in a magnificent conclusion titled "Lessons from the Modern Presidency". There isn't any more one can ask for. I highly recommend this book as a good read, that is fun, short, and a great way to brush up on knowledge of our Presidents.
Great intro to U.S. presidency.......2003-01-08
Fred Greenstein explores the leadership style of the presidents from FDR to Bill Clinton in his piece "The Presidential Difference." In the new edition, Greenstein includes an updated afterword on George W. Bush. The book is a great introduction to the modern day presidents and is recommended to the amateur historian to the most serious public policy students.
The organization of the book is wonderful. Greenstein spends a chapter on each president. The format is the same for each chapter. Each opens with interesting quotes from the respective president, and then goes into a brief biography. Greenstein then spends time describing the major events of the president's tenure, and closes the chapter with the significance of the president's leadership. In doing this last bit, Greenstein analyzes five areas of each chief: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence.
There are other aspects of the book that are praiseworthy. Greenstein scatters wonderful pictures throughout; my favorite is of LBJ in the face of Senator Theodore Green. The appendix is also a wonderful tool, as it in effect shows the resume of each president. It outlines important life events and information, election results, the political composition of Congress, appointments, staff, and key events.
This book is recommended to all as a great introduction the the U.S. presidency.
Wonderful Comparative look at the Modern Presidents.......2002-11-04
Greenstein does a great job in setting aside his bias and reporting on the facts from the people who knew. He reports on the "Modern Presidency" - all of the presidents who were elected from FDR to Clinton. He evaluates them based on a number of qualities including vision, cognitive ability and a few other qualities. Greenstein first gives a basic history of life before being elected president and then evaluates the qualities. At the end of the book, he sums up the qualities he has just evaluated and proceeds to explain that no president will ever be able to perfect all of these qualities because every man is flawed. Overall, this is a great read for everyone who wants to brush up on their knowledge of these presidents. It doesn't go into too much detail but what it does present is both useful and sufficient.
Presidential Leadership in the 20th Century.......2002-03-06
This book by political scientist Fred Greenstein is the first I've read focusing, not on presidential achievement but on effective leadership. Using a series of criteria including vision, cognitive ability, management style and most importantly emotional intelligence, Greenstein looks briefly yet closely at each president from FDR through Clinton with a special afterword on George W. Bush. (pre 9/11) Greenstein chronicles the successes and failings of each president he profiles. Roosevelt receives the highest regards for his ability to translate his popularity into bold leadership. His secretive and manipulative management style is condemmed. Truman is praised for his management style but criticized for his inability at times to lead the nation along the lines of his vision. There is truth to this criticism but Greenstein doesn't look at external facotrs that effected Truman's ability to govern such as the Republican demagoguery of the Democrats as "soft on communism". Eisenhower is highly praised, and properly so, for his strong management style and his strong, quiet leadership. Kennedy gets deserved criticism for his early failings but not enough credit for his later growth. One thing Kennedy is properly criticized for, in my view, is his overreliance on intellectuals, something that would plague Clinton as well. After Kennedy we have a series of failed presidents, with Ford excepted. The common denominator between Johnson, Nixon and Carter are their weak emotional intelligence quotas. All are thin skinned, unable to work well with others, naturally suspicious of those outside their circle. Clinton too is regarded as weak emotionally. Greenstein's thesis is that persons of low emotional intelligence should not become president as it is a recipe for failure. Interestingly, in his brief comments on President Bush, written before Sept. 11, 2001, he predicts, based on his observations of Bush's steady emotional inner core, that he will be a strong and succesful leader. You don't have to agree with Greenstein's entire analysis to appreciate the achievement of this book. It is refreshing to read a book about the presidency that moves beyond Arthur Schlesinger's tired and outdated theory of active and passive presidents. A good read and I highly recommend it.
Creative, Original, and Objective..........2002-01-19
An excellent book! The book illustrates a face of American presidents in a way in which we rarely see in politics today. Not only is the book bipartisan, but Greenstein gives many specific examples of each of his points, therefore giving you a true feeling as if you knew each of the American Presidents. The book does a great job of summarizing the successes and downfalls of each administration, while at the same time reflecting the specific leadership styles of each president. Greenstein has put together a fabulous compilation of facts and examples as this book reflect tremendous research of an insiders' view of each of the presidents he discusses.
Average customer rating:
- Educational
- A case Excellently Presented
- Right Result, Wrong Reasoning
- Doesn't mince any words
- Supreme Court Betrayal
|
The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President
Vincent Bugliosi , and
Gerry Spence
Manufacturer: Nation Books
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ASIN: 156025355X |
Book Description
During the course of American history, wrongful events have occurred and certain Americans have stood up and spoken out against these wrongs: Tom Paine, Edward R. Murrow, Daniel Ellsberg. Vincent Bugliosi takes his place in this special pantheon of patriots with his powerful, brilliant, and courageous expose of crime by the highest court in the land. When an article he wrote on this topic appeared in The Nation magazine in February 2001, it drew the largest outpouring of letters and e-mail in the magazine's 136-year history, tapping a deep reservoir of outrage. The original article is now expanded, amended, and backed by amplifications, endnotes, and the relevant Supreme Court documents.
Customer Reviews:
Educational.......2007-08-30
This book packs a lot of information into very few pages. Bugliosi does a good job of supporting his suppositions with law. There are so many points made, most everyone will be unaware of some of them. The biggest drawback for me was that sometimes Bugliosi strays into name-calling which leads one to begin to doubt if some of the scholarship isn't slanted more than is obvious at first blush.
A case Excellently Presented.......2007-08-05
Bugliosi is one of a kind! He makes his points clearly and effectively. I wish he could take all these so called "justices" to court where he would run circles around them with his startlingly clear reasoning and thinking, ending with them all being dragged off to the nearest prison for treason. A great book to get the juices of freedom flowing again from a great man who truly cares about justice.
Right Result, Wrong Reasoning.......2007-06-01
I voted for Al Gore in 2000 and wish that he were finishing his second term as President at this time. However, if you put partisan emotions aside and look at the full legal context of that election, it is clear that Bush was the legally elected President.
Article II of the Constitution gives state legislatures the authority to appoint electors to the electoral college, using whatever criteria each legislature establishes. In the early days of the Republic, most legislatures chose all electors themselves, by majority vote. Over time, other criteria were used, until now all 50 states award electors based on the results of the popular vote. With only one or two exceptions (I forget which states), the candidate with the highest popular vote in a given state gets ALL of that state's electoral votes.
For many decades, Florida has followed this procedure to award its electoral votes. But Florida election laws clearly state that the state legislature has the right to set aside the results of the popular vote totals; the legislature may then directly award, by majority vote of all legislators, the electoral votes to whichever candidate it chooses. In 2000, both Houses of the Florida legislature had solid Republican majorities. The Republican leaders of both bodies (and the Republican governor, Jeb Bush), clearly stated that, if necessary, they would call a special legislative session to award ALL Florida electors to George W. Bush.
Had that scenario occurred, here is what would likely have played out. On the day that Congress was scheduled to count the electoral votes, the Gore operatives would have challenged the Florida electoral count. Existing FEDERAL election laws would then have become operative. The Republican U.S. House majority would have awarded the electoral votes to Bush. The U.S. Senate would have voted 51-50 to award the electoral votes to Gore, with then Vice President Gore casting the tiebreaking vote in his favor. Federal law states that if the Senate and House award electors to different candidates, the governor of the state in question has the right to break the tie and award the electors to the candidate he so chooses. The Florida governor in 2000...Jeb Bush, George W.'s brother. In a last ditch effort to salvage the election for Gore, the Florida Supreme Court would probably have tried to use their powers of judicial review to thwart this scenario, by claiming that a state Supreme Court has authority to review all acts of its own legislature. However, the U.S. Supreme Court would certainly have ruled that the U.S. Constitution unequivocally gives the power to select electors (by whichever method it chooses) to state legislatures, outside the scope of state court judicial review - and by more than a 5-4 vote.
So there you have it, folks. Lament all you want over what federal election laws should be, bash the electoral college, lambaste the confusing "butterfly" ballots in south Florida, criticize the flimsy equal protection arguments of the 5 or 7 justices, etc. But all partisan feelings aside, George W. Bush was the legitimately, constitutionally elected winner of the 2000 Presidential election. All other legal reasonings in this book make for nice academic discussions, but are beside the point in any practical sense.
Doesn't mince any words.......2007-05-30
Bugliosi turns a prosecutor's eye to Bush v. Gore and finds the decision not just lacking substance, but a criminal act.
First he deals with motive. All of the 5 justices who chose Bush as president came up through partisan Republican politics. While that's expected (since they come to their positions through the political process), integrity in upholding their oath to support the Consitition has been expected to take precedence. Beyond their partisan pasts and connections, 3 of the 5 had immediate and direct interest in a Bush presidency. Justice O'Connor publically said that if Gore won she'd have to postpone her retirement at least 4 years (so as not to have a Democratic President apppoint her successor.) Justice Thomas's wife, through her Heritage Foundation position was poised to serve on the Bush transition team and Justice Scalia's two sons work for a law firm that handles Bush's legal business.
Bugliosi doesn't say what would happen if we, the non-elite, helped out friends or worked things to our interest through service on a jury, but I'm sure something would.
Next Bugliosi deals with the legal issues. How could the court accept Bush's argument that Bush needed "equal protection" from Gore? That is... the court assumed that Bush won the election and that by counting the votes Gore could take it away from him. Votes, 60,000 in this case, the sacred element of our democracy... the very core of what people fight and die for... were negated as the Court ignored its own entrenched states right biases and regarded time frames as inflexible when complete past practice and case law showed recounts and seating delegates, (with disputes always decided by states and state courts), to be viewed as target dates and not rigid dealines.
On p. 155 Bugliosi has a hypothetical script. He suggests the dialog of the justices and how they came to "reason out" their unsigned opinion that allowed them to pick the president over 50 million voting Americans.
In the early part of the book (written in 2001) he likens this decision to the "preposterous" idea that Republican prosecutors would prosecute only Democrats and vice versa. It was strange that he would mention it, because it was this exact thing that piqued my current interest in this 2001 book.
Supreme Court Betrayal.......2007-05-12
Mr. Bugliosi's excellent book brings into question the entire operation and philosophy of the supreme court. Perhaps the supreme court should be simply the highest appellate court and leave questions of constitutionality to the judicial committees of Congress. As Mr. Bugliosi points out, there is nothing in the Consitution that gives the Supreme Court the right to strike down federal and state laws as unconstitutional.
Amazon.com
The winter holidays are usually a quiet time for news, but the December 2005 revelations of the Bush administration's extensive, off-the-books domestic spying program by New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau made headline after headline, raising criticism from both sides of the aisle and an immediate, unapologetic response from President Bush himself. On the heels of those scoops comes Risen's State of War, which goes beyond his Times stories to provide a wide-ranging, if anecdotal, "secret history" of U.S. intelligence following 9/11.
Risen's description of what he says was called "the Program"--the ongoing eavesdropping operation, done with almost no judicial or congressional oversight, on the phone calls and emails of hundreds of Americans (and potentially millions more)--is only a chapter in his larger tale of the recent missteps and oversteps of U.S. intelligence. His evidence ranges from insider White House accounts of Donald Rumsfeld, "the ultimate turf warrior," outmaneuvering his rivals to make the Defense Department the dominant voice in foreign policy, to on-the-ground reports of the administration's willful ignorance of crucial intelligence on the dormancy of Saddam's weapons programs, Saudi support for al Qaeda, and the startlingly rapid transformation of Afghanistan into a "narco-state" under American authority. Some of the episodes he recounts--Saudi security officials with Osama bin Laden screensavers, an Iraqi scientist who had told the CIA his country had no nuclear program watching Colin Powell testify to the UN that they did--would be comical were the stakes less high.
Risen's loyalties are not with the opposition party--he's sharply critical of Clinton's disinterest in the CIA--but with the career field agents who are his best sources. Those agents and their expertise, he argues, have been cast aside, along with the long centrist tradition of U.S. foreign policy and the basic checks and balances of the American system of government, by the Bush administration's radical politicization and militarization of intelligence. He covers a lot of ground in a book of just over 200 pages, some of it familiar from other accounts, and at times his tradecraft anecdotes can be hard to assess without context. But his specific revelations and his well-sourced, angry overview of the way the battles against terror have been fought make for startling, newsmaking reading. --Tom Nissley
Book Description
With relentless media coverage, breathtaking events, and extraordinary congressional and independent investigations, it is hard to believe that we still might not know some of the most significant facts about the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet beneath the surface events of the Bush presidency lies a secret history -- a series of hidden events that makes a mockery of current debate.
This hidden history involves domestic spying, abuses of power, and outrageous operations. It includes a CIA that became caught in a political cross fire that it could not withstand, and what it did to respond. It includes a Defense Department that made its own foreign policy, even against the wishes of the commander in chief. It features a president who created a sphere of deniability in which his top aides were briefed on matters of the utmost sensitivity -- but the president was carefully kept in ignorance. State of War reveals this hidden history for the first time, including scandals that will redefine the Bush presidency.
James Risen has covered national security for The New York Times for years. Based on extraordinary sources from top to bottom in Washington and around the world, drawn from dozens of interviews with key figures in the national security community, this book exposes an explosive chain of events:
- Contrary to law, and with little oversight, the National Security Administration has been engaged in a massive domestic spying program.
- On such sensitive issues as the use of torture, the administration created a zone of deniability: the president's top advisors were briefed, but the president himself was not.
- The United States actually gave nuclear-bomb designs to Iran.
- The CIA had overwhelming evidence that Iraq had no nuclear weapons programs during the run-up to the Iraq war. They kept that information to themselves and didn't tell the president.
- While the United States has refused to lift a finger, Afghanistan has become a narco-state, supplying 87 percent of the heroin sold on the global market.
These are just a few of the stories told in State of War. Beyond these shocking specifics, Risen describes troubling patterns: Truth-seekers within the CIA were fired or ignored. Long-standing rules were trampled. Assassination squads were trained; war crimes were proposed. Yet for all the aggressiveness of America's spies, a blind eye was turned toward crucial links between al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia, among other sensitive topics.
Not since the revelations of CIA and FBI abuses in the 1970s have so many scandals in the intelligence community come to light. More broadly, Risen's secret history shows how power really works in George W. Bush's presidency.
Download Description
"With relentless media coverage, breathtaking events, and extraordinary congressional and independent investigations, it is hard to believe that we still might not know some of the most significant facts about the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet beneath the surface events of the Bush presidency lies a secret history -- a series of hidden events that makes a mockery of current debate. James Risen has covered national security for The New York Times for years. Based on extraordinary sources from top to bottom in Washington and around the world, drawn from dozens of interviews with key figures in the national security community, this book exposes an explosive chain of events. Not since the revelations of CIA and FBI abuses in the 1970s have so many scandals in the intelligence community come to light. More broadly, Risen's secret history shows how power really works in George W. Bush's presidency.
Customer Reviews:
I could not put it down once I started reading it........2007-05-29
James Risen describes an institution of the CIA decaying after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the retirement of many long time career CIA officers, the CIA in a politically weak and compromised position.
Former CIA director, George Tenet became entangled in the Bush administration's politics and seemed to be directing the CIA in a manner to save his own job while sacrificing the CIA's credibility by having the CIA produce reports to support the Bush administration's propaganda which was not supported by observable evidence or credible sources. The Bush administration wanted the CIA to manufacture intelligence propaganda to support Bush's claims that the Saddam regime in Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction, WMD, and allied to or supporting terrorist groups such as al Qaeda.
The CIA was able to produce neither credible sources nor evidence to support Bush's claims. In fact, credible sources and evidence produced by the CIA in its investigations contradicted Bush's claims to indicate that the reverse was true. Production of WMDs had been abandoned as a result of America's first war against Iraq. No evidence or credible reasoning was ever discovered to support the claims of any links between Saddam and al Qaeda.
The observation that James Risen points out that I find most fascinating is the contrast with the Bush administration's great expenditure in time, effort and resources to persuade Americans that al Qaeda was somehow linked to the Saddam regime and that Bush continues to portray the war on Iraq as a war on al Qaeda's terrorism despite evidence to the contrary. However, the Bush administration shows no interest at all in following up ample evidence that points out links between Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and high level Saudi officials. On the contrary, such evidence at times has simply disappeared without explanation at the hands of Saudi officials or has been aggressively suppressed by American politicians. There is no American political support for U.S. intelligence services investigating terror evidence that leads back to Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, Saudi official's faster and more direct contacts with politicians in Washington, including Bush have been put to use by Saudis to hinder CIA and FBI investigations about terrorism originating out of Saudi Arabia.
One very ancient principle of war that both the CIA and the pentagon are guilty of neglecting is to know the enemy.
The CIA allowed its intelligence sources in Iraq to wither away without recruiting new intelligence sources in that country after operation desert storm and Saddam's non compliance with the terms of surrender to end the Persian Gulf war and his defiance against U.N. investigators searching for WMD.
The CIA accidently blinded itself in Iran by transmitting data to an Iranian double agent that enabled Iran to identify all CIA intelligence sources in Iran. Even worse, the CIA attempted an extremely dangerous and stupid stunt to get the Iranians to reveal their stage of nuclear weapons development by sending them flawed designs for a nuclear weapon through a former Russian scientist who revealed to the Iranians that the designs were flawed.
George Tenet established communication protocols between himself and high level Saudi officials. But, there was a complaint that George Tenet did not share the intelligence he received with CIA analysts. Saudis continue to ignore CIA requests for intelligence at lower levels and have even shared intelligence provided by the CIA with members of al Qaeda.
The Pentagon was unable to recognize that some hired Afghan allies were sympathizers of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda who took bribes in exchange for allowing them to escape from the Americans. The Pentagon was also unable or unwilling to recognize that some of their drug lord allies were funding the al Qaeda and Taliban which led to the revival of both in 2005.
Recurrent failures of the Bush administration which almost led to reversals of American victories in Afghanistan and Iraq include over optimism while committing minimal numbers of troops to both theaters of war, too trusting of native afghan fighters, drug lords and Iraqi intelligence sources lacking credibility while overly suspicious and suppressive of American military and intelligence sources whose reports contradicted manufactured realities the Bush administration was attempting to project, a lack of coherent planning and communication and cooperation between the administration, the department of defense, the state department and intelligence agencies.
James Risen points out briefly ineffective management and poor leadership characteristics of the Bush administration with which I agree.
Basic Management and leadership functions are planning, organizing, directing and control. Anyone who has been through such training will be able to identify failures of these functions by extracting them from the readings in James Risens book.
I wish that leaders and future leaders would read this book and others I list below so as to able to recognize poor crisis management and leadership and resolve to do better in the future.
Here are some other sources of related material which I recommend:
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror by Anonymous AKA Michael Scheuer
Al Qaeda's Great Escape: The Military and the Media on Terror's Trail by Philip Smucker
No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah by Bing West
House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties by Craig Unger
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude by Robert Baer
Uncovered - The Whole Truth About the Iraq War by Robert Greenwald
Illegals: The Imminent Threat Posed by Our Unsecured U.S.-Mexico Border by Jon E. Dougherty
The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills
Disinformation at its Best !.......2007-05-16
Dont waste more than a couple of dollars on this breezy lite read. The real problem I had with this book is that it revolves around and gives creedence to the "Offical Version" or the propaganda we get on the idiot box. Too Verbose and Not Enough Hard Hitting Content. Example : What happened, why didnt the CIA catch 9/11 ? We just dropped the ball !!! HAHAHHAHA what bs. This book is full of diversionary crap like this. Really folks, there are tons of books that give more information than this, I suggest you start with
House of Bush House of Saud and Petrodollar Recycling.
An expose proven to be true.......2007-02-15
I had just finished this book when CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed Feith from the State Department, and I became totally convinced (as if I were not already) that the Bush administration has lied its way into war and has no clue as to how to get us out. I was impressed with the following: (1) Charlie Allen contacted 30 families to visit relatives in Iraq to do undercover spying in regard to WMD, and all 30 of them reported that there were no weapons. It was not a surprise that the information was stuffed into a file and forgotten by his superiors. (2) Tenet was a puppet for whatever George and Rumsfeld wanted. (3) The drug trade in Afghanistan was not stopped, and Rumsfeld ordered the military to concentrate only on terrorists and ignore the poppies. It is obvious that we should have finished our job in Afghanistan and stayed out of Iraq.
No wonder we are a laughing stock. The FBI and CIA are incompetent and corrupt. Everyone should read this book before the election hoohaw starts.
Useful study of a disastrous, failed state.......2007-01-25
This useful book explores the conflict within the US state between the CIA and the rest of the Bush administration. Risen's thesis is that a flawed administration has overridden and distorted a trusting and trustworthy CIA. He writes, "It is a cautionary tale, one that shows how the most covert tools of American national security policy have been misused. It involves domestic spying, abuse of power, and outrageous operations." What he actually shows is that the whole US state is corrupt.
He notes of the thirty Iraqi sources on WMD, "All of them - some thirty - had said the same thing. They all reported to the CIA that the scientists had said that Iraq's program to develop nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons had long since been abandoned."
The US state protects its allies in the Saudi autocracy, and thus protects their allies, Al Qa'ida. As Risen notes, "Yet it is still true that, both before and after 9/11, President Bush and his administration have displayed a remarkable lack of interest in aggressively examining the connections between Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Saudi power elite. Even as the Bush administration spent enormous time and energy trying in vain to prove connections between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in order to help justify the war in Iraq, the administration was ignoring the far more conclusive ties with Saudi Arabia."
Afghanistan is now a narco-state and a large part of its drug profits goes to Al Qa'ida. "For Afghanistan's drug lords, business was very good under the United States Central Command. Flush with drug money, the insurgency in Afghanistan intensified in the summer of 2005 to its most dangerous levels since the American invasion nearly four years earlier. There were steady reports that the rebels, a confusing mix of Taliban, al Qaeda, and others, were surprisingly well armed and equipped - evidence that they were also well financed. The Bush administration had purchased an illusion of stability in Afghanistan at the price of billions of dollars' worth of heroin that was flooding into the streets of Europe and the United States."
Risen summarises, "The establishment of a series of secret prisons around the world and the widespread use of harsh interrogation tactics against prisoners in American custody has been part of a broader and disquieting pattern by the Bush administration. The White House has interpreted the constitutional powers of the president to fight terrorism in such an expansive way that long-standing rules governing the military and intelligence communities have been skirted or ignored, and secret intelligence activities inside the United States have been approved that may be violating the civil liberties of American citizens. In particular, the technical wizards of the National Security Agency have been engaged in a program of domestic data mining that is so vast, and so unprecedented, that it makes a mockery of long-standing privacy rules."
Unbiased, Well Researched, Informative.......2007-01-15
Mr. Risen presents well-researched data with information coming from many inside resources. He is unbiased and presents the information with no partiality to democrats or republicans, something truly valuable if one wants "real" information. The book covers many current topics, such as wire tapping, prisoner-of-war abuses, the lack of planning for the initial Iraq invasion, as well as the president and his cabinet's refusal to look at the facts indicating we need not go in there, drug profits in Afghanistan, and more. Information is current, spanning perhaps the last 6 years. The book does not go into deeper issues of who is really pulling the strings of those who give the appearance of being in power.
Mr. Risen's style is straight forward, but definitely not as dry as this type of book tends to be. Because of his research and impartiality, I would read further work by him.
Amazon.com
"Youthful political reporters are always told there are three ways to judge a politician," write Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose in Shrub. "The first is to look at the record. The second is to look at the record. And third, look at the record." The record under scrutiny in this brief, informative book belongs to one George W. Bush--dubbed "Shrub" by Ivins--governor of Texas and 2000 presidential hopeful. These two veteran journalists know how politics are played in Texas and they've done their homework, writing a comprehensive examination of Bush's professional and political life that's a lively read, to boot. And if the title alone doesn't convey their particular slant, perhaps the following caveat from the introduction will: "If, at the end of this short book, you find W. Bush's political résumé a little light, don't blame us. There's really not much there. We have been looking for six years."
Beginning with his admission to the Texas National Guard during the Vietnam War (where he bypassed a waiting list of about 100,000), the authors go on to deconstruct his losing congressional bid, his failed career as an oil executive, and his role as managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, revealing how he was helped every step of the way by wealthy and influential friends of the family. Ever popular, Dubya has always been good at rounding up powerful players to bankroll a variety of ventures, including political campaigns. For this reason, explain the authors, along with his lineage and social status, Bush's primary allegiance is to the business community. While his speeches may deal with the "entertainment issues" of "God, guns, and gays," Bush is a "wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America," they write. They further point out that Texas ranks near the bottom of the nation in terms of a number of social categories, such as poverty, health insurance for children, and pollution, spearing the governor for his less-than-compassionate conservatism.
Shrub is not a complete Bush whacking, though. The authors laud the governor's record on education, in which he has managed to raise standards, push local control of schools, and launch a successful reading campaign. They also cite his wooing of the Hispanic vote and his ability to bridge the gap between the Christian right and the economic conservatives within the Republican party as evidence of true political acumen, though they maintain he lacks a penchant for actual governing: "From the record, it appears that he doesn't know much, doesn't do much and doesn't care much about governing." Bush has admitted that he dislikes reading, particularly about policy issues, and that he hates meetings and briefings, causing the authors to wonder, "The puzzle of Bush is why someone with so little interest in or attention for policy, for making government work, would want the job of president, or even governor."
Love him or leave him, Shrub leaves much to consider about the man who would be president. And it can be read in about a day. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
When it comes to reporting on politics, nobody does it smarter or funnier than bestselling author Molly Ivins. In Shrub, Ivins focuses her Texas-size smarts on the biggest politician in her home state: George Walker Bush, or "Shrub," as Ivins has nicknamed Bush the Younger.
A candidate of vague speeches and an ambiguous platform, Bush leads the pack of GOP 2000 presidential hopefuls; "Dubya" could very well be our next president. What voters need now is an original, smart, and accessible analysis of Bush--one that leaves the "youthful indiscretions" to the tabloids and gets to the heart of his policies and motivations. Ivins is the perfect woman for the job.
With her trademark wit and down-home wisdom, Molly Ivins shares three pieces of advice on judging a politician: "The first is to look at the record. The second is to look at the record. And third, look at the record." In this book, Ivins takes a good, hard look at the record of the man who could be the leader of the free world. Beginning with his post-college military career, Ivins tracks Dubya's winding, sometimes unlikely path from a failed congressional bid to a two-term governorship. Bush has made plenty of friends and supporters along the way, including Texas oil barons, evangelist Billy Graham, and co-investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team. "You would have to work at it to dislike the man," she writes. But for all of Bush's likeability, Ivins points to a disconcerting lack of political passion from this ascending presidential candidate. In her words, "If you think his daddy had trouble with 'the vision thing,' wait till you meet this one."
Witty, trenchant, and on target, Ivins gives a singularly perceptive and entertaining analysis of George W. Bush. To head to the voting booth without it would be downright un-American.
From Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush
" The past is prologue in politics. If a politician is left, right, weak, strong, given to the waffle or the flip-flop, or, as sometimes happens, an able soul who performs well under pressure, all that will be in the record."
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Bush's welfare record: "Texas pols like to 'git tuff' on crime, welfare, commies, and other bad stuff. Bush proposed to git tuff on welfare recipients by ending the allowance for each additional child--which in Texas is $38 a month."
¸
Bush and the Christian right: "Bush has learned to dance with the Christian right. It has been interesting and amusing to watch the process. Interesting because it's sometimes hard to tell who's leading and who's following; amusing because when a scion of Old Yankee money gets together with a televangelist with too much Elvis, the result is swell entertainment."
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Bush's environmental record: Since Governor Bush's election, Texas air quality has been rated the worst in the nation, leading all fifty states in overall toxic releases, recognized carcinogens in the air, cancer risk, and ten other categories of pollutants.
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Bush's military career: "Bush was promoted as the Texas Air National Guard's anti-drug poster boy, one of life's little ironies given the difficulty he has had answering cocaine questions all these years later. 'George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed,' reads a Guard press release of 1970. 'Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics.'"
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Anyone can be President.......2007-09-15
No matter your political beliefs, it is interesting to read about the background of our elected leaders; even though it is freightening and sad at times.
Molly Ivins' Shrub'.......2007-05-30
If I was an American voter and I wished to for information about the Republican candidate prior to the 2000 election I would have bought the first edition of Ms Ivins' book. A read would have been enough to ensure that I would not have voted for Mr Bush even though Ms Ivins paints quite an attractive picture of him. She emphasises his campaigning abilities and the undoubted fact that unlike the present crop of Republican candidates he was able in his gubernatorial elections to unite the two quite separate parts of the American right, the fundamental Christians and the old time Republicans. However she also hands out low marks for ability and honesty. Bush does emerge as a Daddy's boy with Bush Senior's friends only too willing to hand out loans to shaky business enterprises and later to election expenses. I amazed that this book did not attract that much attention when the first edition was published.
An apolitical book with a political agenda.......2006-02-15
First and foremost, the book was enjoyable from cover to cover. 'Fun' and 'politics' are not two words that usually go together when you are speaking about casual reading. Surprise. This book hits the sweet spot.
That is not to say that Ms. Ivins and Mr. Duboise don't have a political agenda. It seems pretty clear that they don't like Mr. Bush or his policies very much, but they don't dwell on it. However, this is not a character assassination. They don't cast aspersions about Mr. Bush's social life, religious life, the clothes he wears, his 'youthful indiscretions' etc. They simply point to his political history and draw conclusions about where he stands politically. They also don't take pains to paint themselves as totally objective. What they do do is let the record speak for itself and let you draw your own conclusions.
The book is written in a very colloquial style and with a great degree of humor--both self-deprecating and acerbic at times. Despite a loathing for Mr. Bush's policies, they do paint a picture of him as the ultimate hands-off administrator who cleverly avoids conflicts by deliberately not defining himself, has a transparent agenda behind the opacity of his language, can defend his strengths with his weaknesses and always manages to raise his own capital. Political or monetary. Public or private sector. Whether the venture succeeds brilliantly or fails. Oddly, there is an aspect of the book that is almost a paean to the man...
However, the main attraction of this book isn't in its rhetoric or even its style. The bang for the buck is evident when you realize that this book was written in the year 2000, when Dubya was merely a presidential hopeful and had yet to be elected. Whether you like their treatment of Mr. Bush or not, the authors presciently and absolutely nail the policy issues and priorities of this Bush presidency. And that's why this volume is still a good read today.
minding bush's 'bidness'.......2006-02-11
In "Shrub", columnist Molly Ivins offers amusing anecdotes paired with grim statistics that make it necessary to reread them to make sure they're really true. She delves into Bush's laissez-faire attitude toward education, health, law and prison reform among others. Even those well versed in Bush's misdeeds will likely find something new and/or surprising here. The book is not a no-holds-barred attack on Dubya, however; credit is giving to him for his accomplishments, however minor. There is, however, a definite liberal bent.
Molly Ivans is smart in funny in this critical biography of George W. Bush.......2005-10-14
Molly Ivans is funny from start to finish she understands Bush and understands his thinking or lack of. From the Republican state convention to the Bush policies she tells all. She is a writer who actually has evidence to back up her stories. Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, and Independents alike should read this book.
Product Description
Glenn Greenwald was not a political man. Not liberal, not conservative. Politicians were all the same and it didnt matter which party was in power. Extremists on both ends canceled each other out, and the United States would essentially remain forever centrist. Or so he thought. Then came September 11, 2001. Greenwalds disinterest in politics was replaced by patriotism, and he supported the war in Afghanistan. He also gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt over his decision to invade Iraq. But, as he saw Americans and others being disappeared, jailed and tortured, without charges or legal representation, he began to worry. And when he learned his president had seized the power to spy on American citizens on American soil, without the oversight required by law, he could stand no more. At the heart of these actions, Greenwald saw unprecedented and extremist theories of presidential power, theories that flout the Constitution and make President Bush accountable to no one, and no law. How Would a Patriot Act? is one mans story of being galvanized into action to defend Americas founding principles, and a reasoned argument for what must be done. Greenwalds penetrating words should inspire a nation to defend the Constitution from a president who secretly bestowed upon himself the powers of a monarch. If we are to remain a constitutional republic, Greenwald writes, we cannot abide radical theories of executive power, which are transforming the very core of our national character, and moving us from democracy toward despotism. This is not hyperbole. This is the crisis all Americansliberals and conservatives--now face. In the spirit of the colonists who once mustered the strength to denounce a king, Greenwald invites us to consider: How would a patriot act today?
Customer Reviews:
Acurate and well researched!.......2007-10-03
Great book, very well researched and documented. Greenwald does a great job identifying the root causes of the Authoritarian Presidency.
Packed With Facts.......2007-10-02
Written by an apolitical person, this book chronicles a disgusting abuse of power. A must read for every American citizen...if we truly hope to regain all we have lost in the past seven years. To ignore what this administration has done would be a travesty.
We Owe This to Ourselves.......2007-09-13
This is a book for all those who believe that we must be behind our president 100%, for those who think criticism of the president is mindless bashing, for those who think that criticism of the same is a lack of patriotism, treason, and undermines our troops' morale. Because if you do believe these things, author, Glenn Greenwald will provide a new perspective on what it really means to be a patriot and how one would act. It is clear that he takes aim at George Bush and Richard Cheney, and those who support him.
Starting with a brief background on the FISA law, Greenwald explains how it came about, and how it has worked in a world of a Soviet threat through the present, until this president decided to bypass the law while telling Americans that he was abiding by it. He illustrates how he and Gonzalez were pedaling a pattern of deceit daily.
Next, there had to be some justification for such unilateral action. Enter, John Yoo, assistant attorney general in the Justice's Department's Office of Legal Counsel which "produces legal memoranda that, upon issuance, become the official position of the Justice Department and the entire executive branch." Yoo, a firm believer in the power of the president, wrote exactly what the White House wanted to read. According to Yoo-know-who, the president had the power to do whatever he wanted to do, without the consultation of congress or constraint by court. All this for the security of the United States. In other words, the President of the United States was now above the law, and the checks and balances were no longer in place with an executive that now assumed power over the other two. Bush was king, accountable to no one for his decisions or his actions.
Armed with a justification, Bush wasted no time in exercising it. He arrested American citizens by signing secret executive orders that deprived them of liberty, charges, counsel, trial, and even communication. He ruled that he could hold them indefinitely. He took it up a notch by doing this to an American citizen, in particular, Jose Padilla who was not only an American citizen arrested on American soil, but on "evidence" obtained by torture.
So important was torture to his policy that he threatened to veto an anti-torture bill introduced by Senator John McCain (R) of Arizona. When it passed overwhelmingly in the both houses of congress, the president went to Plan B where he added a signing statement that he would only apply the ban on torture in a manner consistent with his constitutional authority. With John Yoo telling him, his power as president could not be challenged, he could disregard the will of congress and the bill in its entirety. The bill specifically passed to control his use of torture was the same bill he declared he could ignore.
When the liberal and the widely denigrated New York Times exposed Bush's illegal eavesdropping AFTER the presidential election which was several months after the NY Times first learned about it, the administration defended its actions stating that the president's powers included "the right to use war powers against Americans on US soil," and "the right to use them even if Congress makes it a crime to do so, or the courts rule that doing so is illegal." How's that for being above the law?
And this is what began to generate a conservative backlash from those who were his ardent supporters. The rabidly supportive Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia eviscerated the administration in an opinion on executive excesses. Other well-known conservatives such as congressman Bob Barr (R) of Georgia and George Will, journalist, have spoken out against the chief executive's flounting of the law and his disregard of our constitutional rights. Faced with growing opposition, Messrs. Bush and Cheney moved to Plan C.
While most of our famous leaders have instilled in us confidence and fearlessness, Bush and Cheney have gone in the opposite direction. Instead of telling us that terrorism is not our greatest threat, is not so great as being destroyed by the British empire before the nation can be born, by Naziism and imperialism, or by nuclear annihilation in a Cold War, we must remain in mortal fear (or terror) of terrorism, and put our trust in the wisdom and knowledge Big Brother Bush as the safest course for the American people. "Invoking the threat of terrorism and the president's proclaimed commitment to `protect' us from those threats in the administration's sole and all-purpose defense of its conduct." In addition to the fear tactic, Bush and Cheney accused their critics of "actually wanting to help the terrorists attack America." (Where have we heard that before?!) "The tacit assumption is that one can only oppose terrorism by endorsing whatever the administration wants."
Adding emphasis to this administration tactic, the author also quotes Senator Cornyn (R) of Texas, former judge who has doubled as dupe and dope for George Bush, and who is also known for more than one controversial and revealing gaffe when he added, "None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead." Senator Pat Roberts (R) of Kansas has also said about the same thing. Greenwald allows the reader to connect the dots between these statements and that of Patrick Henry's famous, "Give me liberty or give me death!"
When Senator Rockefeller (D) of West Virginia attempted to initiate an investigation of Bush's warrantless eavesdropping early in 2006, the administration that always insisted it had nothing to hide and welcomed any investigation went into overdrive to quash it. In this they succeeded. Even though they threatened to prosecute the paper and its journalists, The NY Times ran the story that Rockefeller attempted to investigate and the government's reaction, but again, the story broke after the national election.
Greenwald asks us to put terrorism in perspective, that the United States has faced far greater threats in our history without sacrificing liberty for security, that "excess loyalty to an individual or party is the very antithesis of patriotism, as it places fealty to that individual or party over allegiance to the country, its interests, and its values."
This is review number 137 for me. It is also my longest because I was so taken with the message of this book. As the author emphasizes, it is our Bill of Rights that is our most cherished ideal. It is more powerful than the fear of terrorism, more important than being conservative or liberal or being a supporter or detractor of Bush and Cheney. No one is more important than our constitution. That document and the Federalist Papers are filled with that belief of those who wrote them, those who believed that just as people must be held to account for their actions, so should their magistrates.
We the people, not a president, are the stewards of our constitution and our legacy. It is up to us to claim it, protect it, and cherish it above any other. That is what this book explains, and that is why I recommend it highly. Please read this and "The Genius of Impeachment" by John Nichols and "Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush" by the Center for Constitutional Rights.
These are short books with powerful messages. They are about our responsibility as citizens, what being a patriot really means.
We owe this to ourselves.
Informative but depressing.......2007-04-17
Greenwald explains with clarity and precision the various ways the Bush administration has been abusing the power of the presidency. That's the informative part. The depressing part is the lack of interest this country's corporate media shows on the topic. A cynical person might believe that the corporate media are deliberately ignoring this subject because they support Bush's agenda. But of course, I am a stranger to cynicism.
Worse Than a Monday Morning Quarterback.......2007-04-13
After reading a copy of this borrowed from the library, I see why its price has been slashed to $5.40. This book is an excellent compilation of thoughts that are "in vogue". As such it has no value. There is nothing original in this book and it omits the relevant actions of previous presidents. Even Clinton trod on Americans' privacy rights (were any of you awake during ECHELON?). If Bush had ordered the internment of all Americans of Middle Eastern descent after 9/11 (yes, F. Roosevelt apparently did fear fear itself by interning everyone who had the wrong type of eyes), this whipper-snapper of an author (could have been any undergraduate trying to make points with his left-wing professor) could have something to stand on. There have been no attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11 and yet self-righteous tyros like this still complain.
Book Description
Tracing investigative leads back through three decades, Secrecy & Privilege explores the mystery of how the two George Bushes rose to the pinnacle of American political power -- and what the rise of their dynasty has meant to the nation's democratic principles.
Customer Reviews:
a comprehensive narrative.......2007-08-16
Robert Parry's book establishes a fact-based narrative that is notable in that it deviates in specific areas from what we commonly know (and are told about) the Bush "family". In particular, the elder Bushes' role in post-watergate republican politics, and his connection to Chilean/south American anti-communist operations (OPERATION CONDOR)of the mid-70's are almost never connected to Bush the way Parry has done in this book. Also of note is the role that helpful "Democrats" have played in forward the elder bushes' agenda. The two most notable are Bob Strauss and Lee Hamilton. Bob Strauss' role was to quash democratic investigations into watergate post-nixon resignation. (he still carries water: he was recently quoted in a NYTIMES article in august 2007 related to how the Bush "family" has drawn together and Bush 41 is hurt by the harsh words in the press in the twilight of Bush 43's administration.) Lee Hamilton's role was to quash any investigation of Bush 41's administration after iran-contra and right after Clinton took office.
Mission accomplished.
The test of time will be to see to what extent historians use it as a source when trying to understand this thoroughly corrupt "family"s negative impact on American society in the last half of the 20th century.
Superb Personal Effort, Narrow, Needs Other References.......2007-02-18
This is a superb personal effort by the author, and it does a tremendous job of harvesting both news media stories and key books. It is however a bit anrrow, and I recommend other references.
A simple example: he speaks of the narrow Bush victory in Florida without reference to Greg Palast's PRE-ELECTION reporting, subsequently summarized in the book, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," or any understanding of the fact that over a year in advance of the election Jeb Bush stole the election by disenfranchizing over 35,000 black voters whose names were remotely--very remotely--linked to the names of felons from other states (only Florida felows cannot vote, but Jeb Bush wanted this so bad he paid ten times the going rate to a "friendly" company that used Texas felon lists to "disqualify" voters who only found out they were disqualified on election day.
Another example: he has a great (but dated) appendix on CIA and who it has funded as intermediaries and end recipients of CIA cash all over the world, but he completely misses the same necessary information for Wall Street, the 40,000 non-profits created to hide wealth and manage perceptions (as well as lure people off land with gold, see "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man").
There are many other books on the Nazi, mafia, and Saudi corruption ties of the Bush family, and there are also other books that are more comprehensive and current on the problems we face today because of young Bush II and his war criminal vice President. See for example, "Crossing the Rubicon," "Rule by Secrecy," and my personal favority, "VICE: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency."
Robert Parry is a gifted investigative reporter. His first book, "Lost History," remains among my favorites. In this book, what may be his most important message is this: the extremists Republicans (I am an estranged moderate Republican disgusted with Karl Rove's hijacking of the party) have combined secrecy, lies, and "perception management" to completely confuse and mislead the public, while carrying out high crimes and misdimeanors against the government, the treasury, the military, and the people.
From Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon to Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and the young (and rather stupid) George Bush II, this book paints a very ugly and accurate picture of the pathological abuse of power and of the public purse by these people. Most of them need to be tried, convicted, and jailed. None of them are fit for public office in a moral informed democracy, but then, as the author makes clear, we do not live in a moral, informed democracy. We live in a "Cheating Culture" where most Americans cannot identify all the states around their own, much less other countries. We have gotten the government we deserve.
One final observation: this book is super but in isolation. I am increasingly persauded that Amazon should digitize ALL books, so that customers can "buy" composite renditions of information that honor copyright at the paragraph and page level, while creating unique original visualizations and summarizations that are free of copyright and can be bought on their own. I would pay $1,000 for a visualization--a poster--of all of the criminal, dictator, and immoral connections of George Bush II and his evil former master, Dick Cheney (whose Secret Service nickname is "Edgar," for the guy that managed the puppet). Bush has finally figured out, way too late, that Cheney hijacked and destroyed the first six years.
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'
Bush's Brain
9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, Fourth Edition
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Real Americans need read this.......2007-01-13
Excellent expose of the madness behind Bush dynasty. So good it hurts... Every American should read this book. Unfortunately, most won't--and those who do will do so too late to stop the Bush family from leaving an appalling blemish on history. Generations of Americans will suffer from the Bush blight on our constitutional landscape. Americans must get the facts about this political family. And then we must act to save what's left of our country from their continuing avarice.
History Filled In.......2005-03-20
Robert Parry gives us insight into why everything has seemed so odd for so long. No matter which side of the aisle you sit, it helps fill in the history that the mainstream press failed to give us.
The Best Book on the Bushes.......2005-02-07
Why is it the best? Because no author has taken the Bush "dynasty" rise the way Bob Parry has - - and no other author could. Parry has been looking under rocks and sneaking behind closed doors to find the truth for almost three decades. Only Parry has had the sources, found the documents, and cogently compiled the despicable history of how the Bush politicians have deliberately buried, under multiple layers of secrecy, the truth of some of the most significant events in recent history. He is the only author who followed the Bush footprints when they were still fresh, often before the impact of the truth was known and could be hidden. In a phrase - - Bob Parry was there.
For at least the past 25-30 years, Bob Parry has been the only journalist with the integrity to follow a story no matter where it went, and to report the truth no matter who it implicated. Of, course, as the saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished." For his dedicated efforts - - with AP, Newsweek, Frontline and other news outlets - to tell the American people about the crimes, actual violations of federal criminal statutes, by members of the Reagan, Bush 1, and the current Bush administration, he became a pariah. But following a moral compass that knows only one direction, he never lost a beat. And to this day, with his sons, they issue of the some of the most insightful political views of this day on his blog, Consortium News.
Consider this: Parry covers the year, 1976, when George H.W. Bush was Director of Central Intgelligence, the head of the CIA. While few paid attention at the time, certain anti-Castro Cuban exiles, many with past and current ties to the CIA, were the only terrorists ever to export terrorism from the United States. In 1977, the CIA reported that these terrorists killed more people in 1976 than all of the Middle East terrorist groups combined. Yet when the FBI asked DCI Bush for help in quelling the Cuban exile attacks, he slammed down a brick wall on anything that might have come out of Miami. And those secrets are still sealed. That alone may give an unbiased observer a reason to understand the overwhelming support the Bush family receives from the Cuban-Americans in Miami.
If you want to know the real story about how and why the Bush family has achieved their astounding political success, given that none of them have ever succeeded in any profession, vocation or position outside of politics, you must read this book. When Bob Parry takes you behind the curtain from Watergate until Bush II, the images of deceit and deception are ugly -- but true.
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
The Assassins' Gate : America in Iraq
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
