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Pieces of Intelligence : The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld

Pieces of Intelligence : The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld

List Price: $12.95
Your Price: $9.71
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Watch out Emily Dickinson, Rummy's Coming After You
Review: Hilarious and startling. This book contains some real gems of what they call "found poetry," except it's all utterances from our Secretary of Defense. I admire Rumsfeld enormously, and his bizarre utterances have been turned into poetry through the inspiration of Hart Seely. It's just hard to believe these things were actually said. Gordon Lish must be green with envy. Take, for example, The Unknown:

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know we don't know.

Another favorite is The End of the World:

Puffs of dust
End up crawling
Up your leg
And hitting your knee
Because it's,
There might be
As much as an inch
Or two or three.

Come on, the reviewers who sniped at this collection reek of partisanship. I can't recall any politician talking extemporaneously like Rumsfeld. This is unwittingly brilliant, hilarious stuff. Whether you like the current administration or not, this book is worth owning for the sheer incredulity it inspires.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved it, even though I wasn't sure I would
Review: I am usually not into quotations from prominent figures taken out of context and assembled in a humorous way. Additionally, I'm not a liberal. However, this book had me laughing out loud. It's great light reading for a plane ride. Highly recommended!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very Funny Stuff ... Unless you're in Iraq I suppose
Review: I can't bring myself to agree that this book isn't partisan; perhaps the book wasn't compiled with that intention, but reading it certainly,forces some serious political thinking. What do you say about a man who looks the American press (whatever their shortcomings) in the eye and says:

I was briefed on that story before I came down.
I have not gone over it.
It's interesting.
Let me try to put it in context,
And then I'll see if I can answer it.
I have no idea what what it's about.

(...)Where are these gems of verbal prevarication being hidden? In the pages of this book, which will make you laugh until you cry with despair and fear. After all, even tricky Dicky didn't try to convince us he had no idea about something he admits he just read.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bewilderment
Review: I didn't know the extent of powerfull literature before reading a few of the masterful works of poetry captured in this book. This puts the Prince of Darkness--I mean Mr. Rumsfeld up there with Poe and Hemingway. The poem I was most inspired by was the illuminating haiku that went something like:

The president is right
What ever he says is correct
No matter what he says

Like I said truely captivating..........(About as captivating as an SUV rambling down a road driven by a soccer mom talking on a cell phone) Anyone who puts up money to buy this piece of rubbish has an inteliligence level either a two year old toddler or a middle aged right-winger.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: You've got to be kidding.
Review: I honestly feel sorry for anyone that actually took this seriously. Why don't you try reading a REAL book? You know, one with words in it that have more than one syllable.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting, Illuminating, Quick Read!
Review: I really enjoyed this book, which contains the poetic musings of our current Secretary of Defense. Portions of his speeches, interviews and press confereces are placed, verbatim, within the structure of sonnets, haikus and other poetic devices. The results are often hilarious. My only complaint is that sometimes, there isn't a meaningful mention of the context in which the words were spoken. I think this book illustrates the fact that if you talk long enough, you are eventually going to sound ridiculous. I think this book is appealing to readers of any political persuasion. It didn't seem partisan in any way.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting, Illuminating, Quick Read!
Review: I really enjoyed this book, which contains the poetic musings of our current Secretary of Defense. Portions of his speeches, interviews and press confereces are placed, verbatim, within the structure of sonnets, haikus and other poetic devices. The results are often hilarious. My only complaint is that sometimes, there isn't a meaningful mention of the context in which the words were spoken. I think this book illustrates the fact that if you talk long enough, you are eventually going to sound ridiculous. I think this book is appealing to readers of any political persuasion. It didn't seem partisan in any way.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I've endured him on T.V.;now he's being offered in print
Review: It is important for anyone tempted to buy this book to wake up to the reality that Hart Seely's collection of Rumsfeldisms pawned off as what one reviewer characterized as Donald Rumsfeld's "Zen poetry" is really nothing more than an author's worshipful repackaging of a dogmatic, narrow view of the world being marketed in a way that tries to make Rumsfeld's arrogant, reactionary world view seem more palatable. Don't waste your hard earned money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book is not political
Review: It's funny. Our Secretary of Defense has a unique speaking style, often asking a series of rhetorical questions to which he provides responses as though interviewing himself. When some of his more meandering pronouncements are broken into free verse, the effect is hilarious. I bought these as Christmas presents for friends and co-workers and got universally great reactions.

It's too bad people on the fringes can't laugh at others and at themselves. I believe that if you can't laugh at yourself, you don't get life's greatest joke. (Did I write that? Yes, I did. Do I believe it? Absolutely. Thanks, Rummy.)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: FUNNY OR FRIGHTENING?
Review: Love him or hate him, Donald Rumsfeld, our current
Secretary of State, is one of the most influential men in Bush Jr.'s cabinet. This little ditty of a book will satisfy Republicans with a sense of humor and Democrats with a sense of hatred. People with more independent minds will be amused at some of the "poems" in here but mostly bored after a while.

Hart Seely has taken various interviews or speeches that Rumsfeld has given in the past years and broken up the lines into poetry. From what I read on the book jacket, Seely seems to have made a lucrative career out of taking free domain information and then making tons of money off of it.

Lots of the poems in here make Rumsfeld sound senile, dumb, or just plain insensitive. For example, there is a poem called "Of Looters and Vases" in which he humorously comments on video images of Iraqi looters taking vases from a store. Rumsfeld states "My goodness, Were there that many vases?....In the whole country?". A lot of the poems play into his prima donna image and also the myth in the opening stages of the war that Iraq was going to be a democratic paradise. In one poem, he actually wonders "What in the world am I doing here?" I wonder the same question. This book just brings into glaring resolution the incomprehesion of his policies with other nations. It seems lately that his star is falling for the very same smugness and illogic that is on exhibit here in this book.

Will make a good Christmas gift, if Rumsfeld is still in his office by Christmas.


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