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Summary: Mark Crispin Miller Does it Again
Review: Mark Crispin Miller is one of the best media critics around, and with the Bush Dyslexicon he hits one out of the park. Reading this book will scare the living daylights out of anyone who cares about democracy and discourse. Miller is relentlessly witty and smart. In example after example, he exposes the essential meanness of Dubya and his cunning comrades. A must read for anyone interested in political communication.
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Summary: Spectacular. A Crowning Achievement.
Review: Mark Crispin Miller is a brilliant writer and media analyst. He is also arguably the leading scholar of propaganda in the United States. This book is his crowning achievement, drawing from his years of work in media, politics and communication. If you can only read one book on media or politics this year, make sure it is this one.There are some important books one reads because they have to in order to be good citizens. Sort of like eating your vegetables. This book is packed with nutrition but goes down like the world's tastiest banana milkshake. It is almost impossible to put down. It is both hilarious and astounding. I read it in two sittings. Most important, Miller maskes a stunning political argument about the deep and severe problems of our times. G.W. Bush is not the cause of our problems. He is the result of them. And he looks to make our lives very much the worse as a result. By reading Miller's book, I learned a tremendous amount about our first unelected president, and the media and political system that produced him.
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Summary: Dubya is NOT Dumbya...He's just lazy
Review: Mark Crispin Miller proves in his new book what many of us have known for years--Dubya is NOT Dumbya. He's just lazy and butchers the English language with no remorse. He simply could care less. If his abuses were actual crimes, he would have been incarcerated with a life sentence under the "3-stikes-and-you're-out" law years ago. As the author of "FORTUNATE SON: George W. Bush and the Making of American President," it always bugged me during my research that he could identify by name all the pledges in his Yale fraternity (while no one else could), yet he couldn't name the leaders of some foreign countries during the Y2K campaign. Even during his first European trip as president in June 2001, he mispronounced the Spanish prime minister's name during a taped interview with state-run television. As Miller so adroitly points out, Bush is shameless. Simply stated, he could care less. But we as Americans shouldn't. It is an embarrassment having this man as the leader of the free world and uttering memorable lines like "We ought to make the pie higher" and "Our priorities is our faith." Too bad butchering the English language is not impeachable offense.
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Summary: WRITING IN A WHITE HEAT
Review: The British version of this book carries the teaser "Be afraid, be very afraid." And yes, after reading this book, we should be afraid--and not just because the captain at the helm of our ship of state has no business being there. As Miller ably demonstrates, George W. Bush--notwithstanding his powerful family and friends--would never have become President (we cannot say "elected") had it not been for the collusion/malfeasance/nonfeasance of our supposed "free press." Miller writes powerfully and passionately; the contrast between his words and those of Mr. Bush--so often mangled and incomprehensible--throws into clear relief the horror of our situation. Things are worse than we might have supposed: Mr. Bush isn't stupid, he's defiantly and dangerously ignorant. Everyone who cares about the future of our society should read this book.
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Summary: Brutal and eye-opening. highly recommended.
Review: The thought of reading a book about George W. Bush is about as appealing as eating chalk, but for this book I made an exception.... about half the words are Bush's own, and they are punctuated with Miller's searing insights. ..you come away with a whole new perspective of this scary, scary man.
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Summary: Dubya and Democracy
Review: Much more than just an anti-Bush screed, Mark Crispin Miller's new book is a must read for any American concerned about the path our democracy has taken in recent years. The Bush Dyslexicon is not an insider's political book or even a work of political science but instead a study of the various social, economic, and cultural forces responsible for Bush's "election". Miller focuses on Bush's use of language and brilliantly demonstrates that our first unelected president's oratory misadventures should not be treated as simply material for late night comics or cause anyone to write him off as a harmless and amiable dunce. Bush is a master at The Big Lie ("It's the people's money", "Compassionate Conservatism", etc.) and certainly knows how to use his "plain-spokeness" as an appeal to those Americans whose daily struggles he neither knows nor cares the slightest bit about. Just yesterday, while celebrating the passage of his tax cut for the wealthy, I heard Bush say that his plan was "principled" and "targeted no one out". I wonder if he could say that with a straight face to my aunt who breaks her back working as a waitress while supporting two children and a disabled husband. She gets no "tax relief" while the millionaires in his very own cabinet amass even more obscene wealth. The Bush Dyslexicon does a masterful job of explaining how our media age indulges such departures from reality. As a bonus, Miller's inclusion of most of Bush's verbal blunders lets you chuckle as you ponder the demise of our republic.
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Summary: By George, I Think Miller's Got It!
Review: Given our "Commander-in-Chief's" well-documented tendency to butcher the English language, it would have been easy for some humorist with professorial tendencies to write a book making fun of him. George W. Bush's egregious "sins of syntax" certainly seem deserving of such an embarrasing public penance. A book like that would probably be a good deal of fun to read, and everyone would be talking about it at cocktail parties for at least a week. Certainly it would be an easy book to write, a quick book to read, and instantly forgettable. Fortunately for the literate and poltically conscious among us, "The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder" is far more substantial than that. Author Mark Crispin Miller is no hack political satirist going for the quick buck and the cheap laugh; he is a politically conscious Professor from New York University, a concerned American citizen who just happens to have been blessed with a genuine talent for wry and insightful humor. It should be emphasized, for the benefit of Bush supporters who might bristle at the title, that this book is no smear job. True to the academic tradition, Miller's book is a thoroughly researched, and meticulously detailed work. Those familiar with his earlier work will of course recognize the rapier wit and keen analytical sensibilities that he brings to bear on all his subject matter. The uninitiated will be delighted to find the book accesible to a wide audience of readers; instead of stuffy "academese," the book is written in elegant, often witty prose. But for all its wit, the book does address some very serious issues concerning our "first unelected president." Aside from the more obvious "language issues," there are even more disturbing matters to consider. Among Miller's chief concerns are Bush's apparent ignorance of world history, American history, geography, foreign policy, and even the day-to-day operations of the American government! Miller's perspective on these matters is facinating and powerful. In several sections he drives home his points by invoking the words and spirits of previous presidents, a most effective literary tactic. Without revealing any juicy plot details, this reviewer would suggest that one of the over-arching lessons of Miller's book is that these are issues to be taken seriously; as such, it is in our best interests as Americans to take this president seriously. He is not quite the airhead he would like us to think he his. As Bush himself might put it, we "misunderestimate" him at our own peril. Those who read this book will surely be glad that they did; and when they are finished reading it they will no doubt want to thank Professor Miller for his fair warnings.
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Summary: Required Reading for Anyone Who Steps Into the Voting Booth
Review: The nuclear (or in the case of George W Bush "nu-kew-lar" )football that can launch an cataclysmic end of our planet is within a 3-second determination. Bush's lack of knowledge and his pride of former, should give pause to anyone who'd like to see their grandchildren in this lifetime. When you superimpose what the author so eloquently writes with what W is capble of doing, and has already done to the repution of the US, it is truly sobering.
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Summary: Happy are the morons!
Review: It took me longer to read this book than I had originally anticipated. This is because I found myself re-reading in complete disbelief so many of the inane ramblings of the functionally illiterate current occupant of the White House (does he really deserve the honor of the title, "President"?). It has been said that somewhere in Texas, a village (Crawford, perhaps?) is missing its idiot. I think if one were to look in Washington DC on Pennsylvania Avenue, one would be sure to find him.
In reading Miller's book, I believe that the laughter elicited by the many verbal gaffes of the current White House occupant arises from the fact that many people are just outright incredulous that one so inarticulate, illiterate, and ignorant could be elected for a second term to the highest political office in our land (although it is true that he was not elected to his first term as the chief occupant of the White House).
Many of Mr. Bush's malapropisms will elicit a chuckle or even a guffaw. Others will just leave you scratching you head -- what on Earth was he saying? And yet others belie the true intentions of the man (it is especially revealing to read "Bush on the Couch" by Dr Justin A. Frank along with this book).
The real meat of Miller's analysis comes toward the end of this book. Here he ascribes Mr. Bush's ascendancy to the office of President to the Media's bias, not to the left as is often stated, but to the extreme right. This should come as no surprise to anybody -- the major television broadcast corporations are, after all, a part of the plutocratic system that stands to benefit from the extreme pro-big business, anti-middle class neo-conservative policies of the Bush ideologues. Hence, the media that should have encouraged a sense of public outrage at the mockery made of the Constitution in the 2000 Presidential election, simply looked the other way and themselves became a party to the greatest affront to democracy in the history of our great nation. I suppose that we shouldn't allow pesky little details such as the United States Constitution to interfere with the Bush agenda. That very same media machine, by the way, was all too willing to hang Bill Clinton in effigy because of a bad real estate deal and a sexual faux pas that should have been treated as a matter of personal morality rather than national policy.
But why do so many in the American middle and working class buy this guy? This is truly paradoxical given that so many of the policies of this administration have worked so much to the disadvantage of America's middle class. I believe that the answer lies in the fact that the majority of Americans have simply become lazy -- too lazy to involve themselves in the political process in any meaningful way. It is far easier, after all, to listen to the ranting diatribes of religio-facist gas bags such as Limbaugh, Hannity, or Coulter who all spew the same toxic brand of pseudo-patriotic swill, than it is to devote the energy and effort required to think for oneself. So it seems that the American majority (51 per cent, at least) has, like the current White House occupant, followed the path of least resistance and allowed itself become functionally illiterate. What is even more alarming, however, is that so many Americans now seem to enthusiastically follow the lead of their esteemed Occupant in Chief in taking great pride in their ignorance. And Miller correctly warns us that if this trend continues, we stand to lose our democracy.
After reading Miller's book it should come as no surprise that the current occupant of the White House has under-funded so many of his promised education initiatives. After all, the most powerful enemy of any demagogue is a well educated electorate.
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Summary: No Laughing Matter, But It's Funny
Review: There's a whole corny-copia of bushisms to choose from, but my personal favorite has got to be "Is our children learning?" First runner up is W's wise assessment that most imports come from abroad. You can get most of these malapropisms on T-shirts and joke-a-day calendars, but Mark Crispin Miller picks them apart, explains their origins and dissects them as armchair anthropologist. One may be alarmed at the over-the-top arrogance of Bush, his extraordinary privileged son's viewpoints
and lack of knowledge or concern for ordinary working people.
But what is most startling, without requiring much help from Miller, is the rock-solid conclusion that Bush - as evidenced
by his ongoing losing battle with the English language - has read virtually nothing throughout his life, and that probably includes the Constitution of the United States. You know, the one he's supposed to protect and defend. Clearly, one can reasonably come to believe that the person who was elected or seclected president is not the person who is actually running the affairs of the nation, or more accurately, running them into the ground. How on earth did we wind up with such an empty kettle as front man for the ultra-ultra-flat-earth Far Right? There's enough blame to go around, but the media comes in for some well-deserved licks. It's a good, breezy read for all ages, funny as hell, but sad in the realization that it's non-fiction.
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