Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America

Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam, the mythological ruler of Troy. She was given the gift of prophecy and the curse of not being believed. In their previous book, "Shrub," Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, our Cassandra twins, told America about a pampered preppy named George W. Bush. They warned that he was bad news as governor of Texas, and he would be bad news for America. He helped big bidness (business in Texan), and he hurt little people almost by reflex. He transformed a six billion dollar state surplus into a ten billion dollar deficit. Though Gore won the popular vote, not enough Americans listened to Ivins' and Dubose's plea to offset the Florida fiasco and the Nader vote. The consequence, saw in hand, postures on the book cover. Will "Bushwhacked," Ivins' and Dubose's latest screed, help unseat "Dubya?" Ivins and Dubose dress up this story of an ill got presidency with a bunch of Texas humor; it makes the bitter story they tell more palatable. In poignant detail, Ivins and Dubose describe the lives of common people across the United States--in Philadelphia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oregon, Wyoming as well as Texas. They are extensions of what the authors warned in 2000: the denial of basic services to the needy; environmental deregulations that threaten the health and livelihoods of everyday Americans; the denial of justice to little people fighting major corporations; massive deficits balanced on the backs of the poor. All are Texas problems gone national under Dubya. And they document the international consequences of the Bush presidency.Even the one thing that Ivins and Dubose credited then Governor Bush with, a penchant for education reform, is shown to be a canard in "Bushwacked." The authors show there was no reform; the numbers were cooked; under performing students were ushered out of the system. The "Texas Miracle" was, in truth, the "Texas Shame" (pp.78-79).Ivins and Dubose enumerate a litany of what has happened during the Bush presidency. They write that he has acted as president as if he governed by mandate. They talk of policies that have run up massive deficits and alienated long time friends (p. 266). They show how he speaks in platitudes. He attends photo ops for vocational training programs, then cuts funding for them (p. 286). He goes to mines to honor brave trapped miners, then seeks to cut funding for the agency that saved their lives (p.291). He praises our soldiers, then tries to conceal medical benefits from them (p. 285). He praises police, fire and emergency workers, then cuts funding for those programs. While praising work, he tries to get overtime pay for millions cut. Meanwhile, he bequeaths a 337 billion dollar tax break to his wealthy friends (p. 272). The book is about the consequence of greed. Not only does bidness desire too much, they do not mind creating human misery to get it. In poignant stories about "real" lives the authors describe lives that are harmed so that corporations can extract a

...or phoney - whichever way you choose to spell it. Nothing about her seems fake or insincere. She is a bona fide Texas gal - an honest and passionate journalist whose wit and humor can make you laugh out loud. I watched Molly Ivins speak about "Bushwhacked" on the now infamous C-Span/Book-Tv program that also included Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly. While the two guys came close to smacking each other, Molly, in her Texan drawl, was very nice and gracious to conservative O'Reilly - which is also how she usually comes across in her writings. She may report from a liberal perspective, but she never seems outrageously unfair and biased, or mean-spirited and offensive. If you've read Ivins' columns you know what she's been telling us about Texas politics and "bidness" and about the Bushes. In her book "Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush", Ivins and Dubois told us about the easy life of George Dubya, a.k.a. Shrub - someone who's made it through life and to the top with no particular talent or hard work, but with the help of daddy's powerful, wealthy friends. Although the title of that book didn't turn out to be exactly accurate, you can say that in that book Ivins warned us about George Jr - Shrub as guv. Now, in this book we see how not just Texas, but sadly, all of America has been "bushwhacked".The book has plenty of Ivins' wit and humor, but it is also more depressing because Mr. Shrub is now running America - the guy who called Africa a country is no longer dealing with Texas "bidness", but with the entire world. And we know that, so far, it is not going too well.This book can also make you angry at the hypocrisy of George W. who, as a Texas businessman, made a pile of money with shady Enron-like business practices and who now, as our president, speaks about his strong commitment to business ethics.In "Bushwhacked" we read about how Bush profited from his position as member of the board at Harken, taking low-interest loans to buy stocks and profiting from insider-trading, walking away with a million dollars while the less fortunate (and less informed) stock holders lost millions. We learn that, despite Bush's denials, Harken and Enron were very much the same thing - same corporate crime, same crooked behavior. The book points to the connection between George W. Bush and fellow Texan and corporate crook, Kenneth Lay. Enron was Bush' BIGGEST contributor once, but thanks to the "liberal press" we hear little about Bush's cozy relationship with corporate thieves or about his own business practices at Harken.Fortunately, we can read "Bushwhacked" and learn all about it, and more - and keep it in mind when it's time to vote again.

Molly Ivins is a very funny woman. She has clearly made many enemies with her outspokenness. And with Bushwhacked, Ivins outdoes herself with her comedic approach. There are some laugh out loud lines that are just entirely brilliant in Bushwhacked. At the very same time, Iver's humor is focused on a very real situation: the current administration of our country. To that extent, Bushwhacked is a serious examination of some very compelling political and constitutional issues. While Bushwhacked can easily be attacked as left wing pabulum by the conservative readers who believe they are benefiting by the approach of the current administration, the issues it deals with are all too real and all too well corroborated in the media and in observations made by average people throughout our nation. I know that humor is supposed to cushion the hard and often cruel truth. And for a while, the humor in Bushwhacked works very well. Yet, at the end of this book, I just came away sad and somewhat anxious about the state of our nation. Vitally important issues, cleverly presented. Yet, as a reader, my concluding emotions on the issues addressed in the book were ones of genuine discomfort and a sense of powerlessness that I all too often hear echoed in the voices of many American as they discuss their views of how the country stands politically at this juncture in history. A recommended read. Some serious issues for all Americans to consider with an open and nonpartisan mind! James J. Maloney Saint Paul, Minnesota USA

This book ASTOUNDS me. It's not a "spin book," trying to argue against positions or "prove them wrong," it's simply a look at actual records of decisions and political connections (and their consequences) in the Bush administration. I find myself often gasping and proclaiming out loud to my wife, "Man, I NEVER heard this stuff anywhere else!" And it's not based on fragile strands of interconnecting conpsiracies; it's rather blunt and obvious--but just not commonly revealed in any media.For example, this book documents in detail how Bush had done exactly the same thing with his Harken stock that Martha Stewart might be serving time for, but the SEC investigator on his case was also Bush's own personal lawyer too--and he simply allowed Bush to file his disclosure forms RETROACTIVELY. End result? Bush sells his stock moments before it tanks, costing OTHER people millions, getting rich, and then slipping through the law using the very same methods he'd later scold in his "corporate crime" speech about Enron. Oh, and remember how Cheney's company stashed billions in assets in tax shelters on the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes here? Now THAT'S patriotism!Or how about this one? Bush made emissions controls in Texas VOLUNTARY for corporate polluters. How did polluters ever manage to win such benevolence? In fact, industry campaign contributers literally wrote every word of the law regulating themselves! Of more than 5,000 polluters in Texas, not one actually voluntarily reduced their emissions. Texas reversed Bush's law within the first year of his absence. Unfortunately, nobody has yet reinstated the food safety/listeria regulations for meat products that Bush cancelled during his first few months. Or this one? In 1995, Newt Gingrich repealed the Superfund Tax on corporate polluters, which means that cleaning up Superfund toxic waste sites is now paid for by taxpayers, not by the corporations who made the messes. As a result, the $3.8 billion trust to clean toxic waste had dwindled to only $28 million this year (2003), less than one-fourth the cost of cleaning up a SINLGLE waste site (there are hundreds). So how'd Bush respond? He installed Christine Todd Whitman, a polluter's dream of an administrator, and CANCELLED the EPA's Ombudsman program. That means citizens have no method of raising concerns or reporting toxic sites to the EPA anymore; it's the same thing as cutting the wire on every phone leading to the EPA's reporting agencies. As a result, Bush can show on paper that the prevalence of toxic waste dumps is declining--not because he's done anything to remedy the problem, but because he killed the only available process for identifying and treating contaminated sites in the first place. And the sites that already exist remain untreated! (Is there one in your area? Check at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/)Remember when Bush said that by far, "the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the people at the bottom of the spectrum?" And his defen

Of the growing spate of liberal books to appear in the past few months, BUSHWHACKED by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose is my favorite of the bunch. It also holds the odd distinction of being one of the most thoroughly depressing books I have ever read. No matter how low one's opinion of George W. Bush, it will be lowered through reading this book.Many of the recent books on Bush and the Right have focused on the habit and strategy of intentionally misrepresenting positions held by those on the right. They are, in effect, apologias for liberalism and honesty in politics. This book is instead a direct examination of George W. Bush's policies and plans, and what they see scares them and me. As they write near the end of the book, "The six most fatal words in the language are rapidly becoming `The Bush administration has a plan . . . " (p. 295).Ivins and Dubose don't discuss the Bush policies in abstract, but in terms of how they affect real live human beings. They argue "this country no longer works for the benefit of most of the people in it" (p. 293) and they are determined to explain precisely why. What is most informative about the book is not just the discussion of the more familiar failures of the Bush administration, but overlooked or under considered facets of their policies. For instance, in Texas they have already undergone school reform of the kind promoted by Bush in the No Child Left Behind act. In fact, as they demonstrate, it is a perfect recipe for leaving vast numbers of children behind, as high schools out of self-protection refuse to promote underachieving students past ninth grade, in many instances keeping them there until they turn eighteen and are no expected to stay in school. Or consider the vast number of students in Texas who now graduate by taking the G.E.D as a way of avoiding the exams. All education in Texas is now focused on preparing those students who have a fighting chance of passing the major exam, and shunting those with no prayer of doing so off to the side. The result, in other words, of the No Child Left Behind equivalent has been disastrous, and now this is national policy as well. As they demonstrate, with a minimal financial investment in schools, the federal government has maximum input, and not in a constructive way. I found this chapter to be one of the scariest in the book.The book is an unrelenting recitation of horrors. 500,000 poor Americans who Bush cut off from the federal program providing some support in paying heating bills in the winter. Instituting faith based programs as a means of allowing religious institutions that would otherwise fail credentialing requirements to offer their services to individuals whose needs they are poorly equipped to meet. Consistently sending ideologues instead of public policy experts to every imaginable international meeting. In one such conference, the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the U.S. delegates attempted to strike lan