Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Social Scientific Look at Policy
Review: This book has to be one of the most thorough books I have ever read. It is meticulous and has an extremely non-partisan tone. However in the latter stages of the book the authors tone changes, but i do not believe this tone to be partisan, but rather from calm to angry. It should not be confused with the anger that other reviewers have spoken of when they invoke radical metaphors like the Nazis, communists, etc.; rather this anger is a build-up of a series of claims, evidence, and conclusions, that show themes. Themes that will either make you really angry or really happy. Personally I don't see how anyone could be happy with these themes, as this book shows how Bush lies to his own supporters. There are too many instances in the book to even number where they have a quote from W. and his immediate action thereafter, sometimes the day of, that directly contradicts what he just said. Even better are the times, such as during his Governorship in Texas, where he has one position and then, as President, contradicts himself. Illustrated succinctly with quotes from various speeches. hmmm I think people have a word for that...
This book fleshes it all out, on every issue. In an extremely informative way. However, with knowledge comes the pain of living with it. Each time I read a passage in the book I am filled with sadness. I sit there and I wonder how this is happening in the America I have come to love. The curtain is pulled back and you see the Wizard. You see it all, and you see it working today. If you really want to know then that's a choice you have to make. Do you want the red pill or the blue pill?
Rating: 
Summary: Good Detail, Bad Writing, Worse Design
Review:
I have read virtually all of the books on extreme rightist and Bush deception (from the serious "Weapons of Mass Deception" and "Secrets and Lies" to the satirical and polemical by Hightower, Moore, Franken, Conason, and Carville), and I was hoping that this book would finally be "the" book, a systematic issue by issue outline of what Bush Administration officials have said, when--and then the truth of the matter, well documents.
I find this book disappointing. It is written as if the authors have packed together a whole bunch of Op-Eds, it is hard to read, and it is not coherent. The publisher and editor should be spanked for allowing such an undisciplined work out the door. Although the book excels at detail and focus from issue to issue, the authors fail to do the side-by-side presentation in a manner that satisfies. This book could have been glorious if they had taken the US budget, done down the 30 agencies with discretionary funds, the relevant program lines, and then had three columns: what Bush (and his aides, most of whom do the talking and thinking) said, what they did, and what science and intelligence and real-world experts recommend be done. The index stinks (names, not issues), and there is no bibliography. The footnotes are acceptable, but even more interesting would have been profiles with related bibliographies of how the right-wing think tanks and key personalities like Bill Kristol have shaped the debate, from the early days when Dick Cheney was saying Kristol was a moron (he is not) who could be ignored, to the later days when Cheney discovered that there are a lot of wealthy patrons who put their money where Kristol's mouth is.... In brief, then, the authors appear to have tried, and failed, to deliver the definitive book cataloging, on an issue by issue basis in a manner easily used by a Challenger for the Presidency, the many specific ways in which this Administration is lying, switching and baiting, saying one thing and doing the other, or allowing destruction through malicious neglect. If I were guiding an opposition research team today, I would tell them to take this book, and all the others I have cited above, cut the spines off, digitize everything, index everything, create a visualization link-chart using any one of several automated programs, and from that, create 100 one-page memos that consist of a nuclear sound-bit, a one-paragraph executive summary of Bush versus reality versus the opposing proposition, and a half page of detail and references. Neither the Democratic Leadership Council nor the leading challengers for the Democratic nomination appear to be doing their homework. Kerry's math does not add up, Edward's issues are simplistic, and both Sharpton and Kucinich are absolutely right: the Democrats are not talking substance yet. This book is as close as I have seen to an issue-by-issue review, but if this is the best we can do, the Democrats will lose in 2004, not least because issue discussion is the non-negotiable first step toward outreach and creating a coalition of moderate Republicans, Independents, and Green-Reform-Libertarian allies without whom no one can beat Bush.
Rating:
Summary: Stark document that will soon require a revised update
Review: Alterman and Green painfully chronicle the deliberate deceptions and wanton devastation wrought on our democratic system, the environment, the economy, education, national security, national pride, and international standing during the first 30 months of George W. Bush's administration. What has transpired since the publication of their book with respect to totalitarian mendacity, immoral means to accomplish supposed "moral" ends, and the utter incompetent stupidity in conducting foreign and domestic policy, dwarfs by comparison much of the damning evidence Alterman and Green have meticulously laid out. Nevertheless, their comprehensive review of Bush's first 30 months goes a long way in understanding the catastrophes that are continuing to unfold. The question that is now before us is: can America survive George W. Bush?
History will not be kind to this malignant little man. Nor will history fondly remember the prevailing American culture of lazy and greedy simpletons that helped get him elected.
Rating:
Summary: A great public service
Review: Alterman and Green have put all the reasons to vote President Bush out of office in one place. A lot of it you probably know, but even though I thought I kept up on politics, the authors continually surprised me with outrages that had flown below the radar of both the mainstream and alternative media. Honestly, it can be a little overwhelming and depressing to read in such great detail what the Bush administration has done to this country. Alterman and Green don't write as well as Molly Ivins (who does?) and they aren't funny like Al Franken. Nevertheless, the research that has gone into this is exhaustive. It really is THE book on Bush. Every voter ought to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Got Milk???
Review: Cuz you need something to wash the tase of crap out of your mouth after you read anything by Alterman, a hack that few could top. Pro Wrestlers write better than this guy.
Rating:
Summary: In the finest liberal tradition
Review: Eric Alterman has finally found a home at "The Nation" magazine, and his latest book attacking Republicans and George Bush is in keeping with the reputation of that magazine and its many contributors over the years. This book is another angry screed written by leftists for leftists. There is no subtlety in this book, despite what some reviewers imply (unless you are comparing this book to Mollie Ivans or Michael Moore and view them as "moderates".) It is amazing to me, that a magazine which has employed dozens of Alterman write-alikes, has never been forced to go back and defend itself for supporting regimes like Stalin's, who will go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer in history, who STARVED twice as many of his own countrymen to death as Hitler consigned to the ovens. The same is going to be true with this book, which is written as if everything which can possibly be known about events leading to the end of Iraq dictatorship under another mass-murderer called Saddam is known, and nothing else will ever be found out. Alterman and Green ( part of the cabal that made NYC so safe in his many roles in NYC politics that everyone was afraid to walk the streets after dark) have all the answers about Bush and his motives, without any examination of possible alternatives. Thus according to Alterman and Green, Bush, uniquely, found the end of Saddam to be a worthy cause, yet Alterman and Green ignore the 1998 Senate resolution, passed unanimously, and signed by Bill Clinton, that called for the end of Saddam's regime. While the Senate has never been bothered with having to be found consistent in its resolutions, you would think that Alterman and Green might at least make some reference to this official U.S. policy in effect at the time Bush proposed that Congress put its money where its mouth was since 1998 in getting rid of Saddam. There are dozens of other examples of similar "oversights" in this book, but for anyone looking for something besides the usual Bush-bashing from the left, you won't find it here.
Rating:
Summary: Solid, if unspectacular, indictment of Bush's policies
Review: Eric Alterman is one of my favorite columnists and as an author he's equally effective. This book is a summary of Bush's many disastrous decisions in office. It's not terribly entertaining and a lot of the material is similar to David Corn's The Lies of George W Bush;still it is well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: The truth about Bush *********** ten stars
Review: He just keeps sweeping everything under the rug.
He could be the death of us all.
Rating:
Summary: Arrogant but enlightening
Review: I heard Eric Alterman on Michael Medved as he avoided substantive answers and instead attacked a small-business caller and constantly interrupted Medved with propaganda and other party-line slogans. However, the book is worth five stars as another record of how the left-wing cynics of the Democratic Party are carrying on the platform issues that have haunted us since World War I. Eric does not want to accept Bush's legal and legitimate victory in Florida and in the Electoral College. Instead he wants to use tactics of another party and another time when propaganda agitators (agitprops) tried to undermine American democracy and even earlier brownshirt/black belt men brought fascism to a troubled world with their "Democratic" party. I recommend the book as an example of hypocrisy and deceit so common among the Democratic Party cynics. Good job Eric. Keep talking and writing.
Rating:
Summary: i'm physically ill
Review: I wish I could give a more expansive review of the book, but after page 31 I refused to read anymore. That's not a reflection of the quality of the book, more of the quality of president we live under. W is a character I thought only existed in fiction. He has completely hijacked this nation and together with Cheney & Rove created the largest bait & switch act since Three Card Monte. They have turned the gov't into a vehicle designed not to work for the people, but against it. This book should be made into a movie so the masses can see for themselves. Unfortunately, the only people that will read this book are the people who already know something is very wrong at the White House. The arguments are calm & rational with just the right amount of SAT words. Pick this up if you want to be ashamed of your president & the America he's created.
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